"Getting to the bottom as fast as possible again"

On September 6 Wendelin Ortner will be competing in Red Bull Dolomitenmann for the 21st time. In an interview the flying instructor from Austria talks about his chances of winning, unforgettable moments, and the beginning of his career in the toughest extreme sport contest in the world.

Up to now you’ve taken part in all Red Bull Dolomitenmann contests. What makes it so fascinating for you?

What I love about Red Bull Dolomitenmann is that it’s a team contest made up of exciting individual contests. What’s also particularly appealing are the trophies created by Jos Pirkner. After I saw them I knew I had to have one at all costs. In the meantime I’ve won a few, exchanged some with winners of individual events, and now I’ve got one from every discipline at home.

What has been the best experience you’ve ever had at Red Bull Dolomitenmann?

Of course the debut victory is something I haven’t forgotten, but also the memory of taking part in it for the very first time. At that time I came fifth in paragliding, and our team was well-positioned in the middle field. And that happened although I didn’t have the best material and my brother competed with a ladies’ city bike with a rack on it. Doing something like that today is unthinkable!

And the worst experience?

The low point was definitely 1999 when my mother got rammed by a paraglider. She was rushed to hospital with a bad concussion, and her arm was operated on several times. She took it really well, though, and visited the pilot who was in the next room because she felt so sorry for him.

How it’s possible to paddle, bike or run faster is not hard for laypeople to imagine. But how does a paraglider influence the success of their team?

When the competition’s gear is as good as yours, you can hardly gain time in the air and have to wait for others to make mistakes. But there are two running parts of the race when we can make up for lost time. After the interim landing a lot can still happen. You have to pack the shute up fast and well so that you don’t lose any unnecessary time at the second start with knots in the ropes.

What are the differences between a ‘normal’ flight and a ‘contest’ flight?

In a normal flight you just try and enjoy the flight, use the thermal lift and try to stay in the air as long as possible. In a contest flight you have to make sure that you get down to the bottom as quickly as possible – because the tenth-of-a-second points count. When training in the Dolomites it’s often a shame when you can’t use the ideal conditions for an ample flight.

Last year your team had a lot of bad luck. Markus Kröll competed with a double torn ligament in his ankle; kayaker Harald Hudetz had a ligament injury; mountain biker Roland Stauder competed with a fever. You were the only fit one, but the paragliding contest was cancelled due to foehn weather. So this year, it can only get better – but how much better in order to compensate for the frustration of last year?

The year 2007 was really jinxed. You train for the contest for almost a year and then so many things like that can happen that you have no control over. That we were still able to get fourth placing with this ‘invalid team’ was a huge achievement. This year I’d be very happy with second place. Last year’s winning team has strengthened themselves on the running court this year, using Jonathan Wyatt, and will only be very tough to beat. In the last few years, however, the field of participants has become more and more balanced. So you can actually really be happy with being amongst the top five.

Your main profession is as flying instructor. Which three prerequisites do your flying students have to have to start learning paragliding from you?

Patience, humor and respect for nature’s forces. Paragliding is an open-air sport and often it’s about waiting a long time for the right conditions to come up. To wile away the hours in between, it doesn’t hurt to have a good sense of humor. But the most important thing is that you’re good at assessing the weather and also capable of judging your own capabilities so as to avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Let’s say that we start training this afternoon. Which Red Bull Dolomitenmann will I then be able to compete in, 2010, 2011?

You could already compete next year, but it wouldn’t be enough to win. Usually our flying students accomplish their first solo flights with radio contact after three days.