 Played football for 7 years, ran my first half marathon and climbed to the summit of Mont-Blanc when I was 14 years old. Sport has been a way of life for me for many years! My first flight was in august 1993, and for the last 4 years I’ve flown 300- 350 hours each year... because I think talent can come from
motivation and hard work!
During holidays with my parents in Morzine between 1990-1993, I discovered the Morzine-Avoriaz Open: an incredible competition to watch with so many coloured butterflies crossing the valley and flying over the tops of the mountains! It was an amazing show! One day, a guy landed close to our chalet, and from this day I started to learn to paraglide.
I began in Eole Morzinoise (Morzine) with Albert Baud, Ali Gali and Laurent Cochard. I’ve returned to this area each summer for more than 10 years now. One day, I flew for 6 hours over a 5 km long cliff! I think it is one of the best places in the Alps to become a strong pilot. For the rest of the year I flew in the west side of the Rhône Valley between Lyon and Valence, not an easy place with wind, and small thermals. I learned a lot and improved my feel for the air. My parents and my girlfriend helped me
a lot by driving retrieve!
At first I used paragliding to descend from a walk or climb in the mountains... then I discovered it was also possible
to climb without walking!
In 1995, I had the chance to attend the Junior Paragliding Sport School in Font-Romeu where Didier Exiga was one of my teachers: I flew my first strong thermals and flew my first distance flights. My best flight was 220 km, between Laragne (south Alps) and Mieussy (north Alps). I flew with Max Jeanpierre for most of the light and we landed together. It was a great experience crossing the Alps with a friend. I then joined the Junior Paragliding Team at the Grenoble University of Sport, close to Saint-Hilaire du Touvet and learned a lot from Yves Goueslain, Thomas Puthod, Fred Escriba, Denis Cortella and Patrick Berod...
all the top french pilots.
I’ve been flying World Cups and International Opens since 2000, a real opportunity to meet different pilots, different cultures, and different flying styles! 2005 was a big step forward in my paragliding career, when I flew with my first Gin Gliders, a Boomerang 4. The performance and the feeling of the glider certainly helped me during each competition, but the main thing for me was the team feeling between all the GIN pilots. A really cool atmosphere exists between Gin pilots which really
helps us all improve our performance.
This team spirit is very important for me, every day you learn a lot from each other.
Since I started flying in competition, I‘ve looked for sponsors (equipment, money, media); it’s not an easy job! Paragliding is more than a sport, it is a real show for everybody. One of my current aims is to present paragliding to the international media, to people living in flat areas who may never have heard about it. I’ve worked for 2 years (2004-2005) as Team Manager in the “R Team”, and I’ve learned to work really hard! It’s an interesting project with many partners working together in order to improve our paraglider materials but also to create more contact between the media and paragliding.
Paragliding has changed my life! I’ve discovered real freedom, flying with birds was a dream and now it is reality! "
Results:
Speed over a 50km FAI Triangle 2006
5th European Championship 2006
3rd KIWI Open 2006
6th Overall World Cup 6th 2005
2nd Desafio Isla de la Palma 2005
2nd World Cup Serbia 2005
6th European Cup 2005
1st World Cup Series La Reunion 2004
3rd French Championship 2003
1st French XC Cup 2000
Sponsors:
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