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Show Thursday, June 19, 2008 Page 12 OREM TIMES Hang gliding champion from Springville strives to break record Lsa Verzella stands quietly at the edge of the ridge at Point of the Mountain in Draper, her attention fixed on a windsock on the ridge in front of her. She watches patiently pa-tiently as the wind causes the tall grass below her to sway violently as if it were trying to escape its own roots in the steep hillside. I he wind calms slightly and with a few graceful grace-ful strides forward, she launches launch-es her hang glider smoothly, its wings cutting through the chilly evening wind. "I like to laun h from mountain moun-tain sites and try to fly 100 to 2W miles away." said Verzella. who came within one mile of breaking the state record hang glider flight of VM) miles by gliding from Wasatch Mountain Moun-tain State Park in lleber to South Pass, Wyo.. in about five and half hours. Three weeks later someone else broke the record by Hying 220 miles after starting from the same launch site. Verzella is one of the world's top cross-county hang glider pilots. She is one of three women on the U.S. Women's World Hang Gliding Team, and will be traveling to Italy to represent the United States in competition next month. She routinely flies her glider extreme distances to attempt at-tempt to break records or just to enjoy the open sky using only the power of the wind, all while maintaining altiludes as high as "cloud base" (11. (Hid to JK.IMKI feet). The harness that attaches her safely to the underside of her glider is something like a sleeping bag with pockets for fd and water. wa-ter. It zips around her legs and feet to provide insulation f rom the sub-zero temperatures she experiences at high altitudes She even carries a tank of supplemental oxygen to counteract coun-teract the thin air above 1100 feet. "You have to dress for skiing." ski-ing." Verzella said "You dress for snow, your Camelback hydration hy-dration pack freezing, everything every-thing at 1K.0O0 feet. You could sit on launch f or half an hour-sweating hour-sweating and sweltering, then end up in the landing field in 2 minutes because the wind is bad, or you could te up for K hours and f reezing up at cloud base. You just don't know." Verzella has a real under- ;5&3te: '..; .,.'". J.ifrv . , ' Photos by CRAIG DILGERDaily Herald Lisa Verzella launches her hung-glider from Point of the Mountain during a practice flight on June VI. standing of the weather, its fickleness, and its potential effects on her flight. She originally origi-nally went to school at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester. N.Y.. and still plays as lead trumpet for Ballet West. But her passion for flying persuaded her to extended her education to aid in her understanding of the wind. "1 had been making my own forecasts and living or dying by them for the last 18 years." Verzella said. "So 1 figured J would finally go to school for meteorology. They say that if you could paint the air you would never fly in it. but there are certain aspects of it lhal are predictable. I study the forecasts so that basically what 1 am doing is stacking the odds on rnv side." S' ABCO I Windows For" Glass Products Every Need! REPLACEMENT WIDOWS LIMITED TIME OFFER as low as $29oo00 10 Windows Installed tt I. ml im-ll-' Upgrade Options: Swing in for Easy Cleaning Hidden Screens. More Light Secure Muhi-poim Locks Easy to Operate Energy Efficient. Sae S One Year No Interest Utah toll free S88 2t)l "! 35 Shtwmxwn 505 N 1200 West, Oram "Slipped, Herniated, Or Bulging Disc Pain:" UTAH- A iww fre repurt has recently teen released that revealu bow break through nedli-ccal nedli-ccal tedhnologj' it 'ofiFering Burgerj' free mew bope for disc pain sufier-erk. sufier-erk. Researdb fcias prmtm Aat FDA aipprwel mcm- KarpcaJ sipiiia!! deooiDpreKWOB lias success rai:e Ifor ipreatmg Se-Mttarmg Se-Mttarmg h&A pain indodting sciatica am J trmltk horra-atel horra-atel disc. It Jodks like this tTealaJKrougli 4n tnedicall 1,1 liigli tecbnolog' has lead to the most promising mon-uirgi-cal disc treaTmemt today. For yvwir free report -ntitled, "New Breakthrough in 5edicaI Tecb-tp5ogj" Tecb-tp5ogj" caffl 1 -J-9J.7644 amd listen! ico tfee icoU4iree 24 hr recorded res-fcage res-fcage for if the detaiHt or o to www.90 fl!badkpaMinfjcMa. These free repwts are araJ-Me araJ-Me for a Ttmited time. Maplt :Kitipt Spmn! fam Center IDnv.il Conk.! JC It was a career in music-working music-working for Ballet West that originally brought Verzella to Springville from upstate New York. The availability of hang gliding launches was jusl a perk. But that is not the case with many of the flyers in the State. Utah is considered to have some of the best flying in the country if not the world. The suburban neighborhood surrounding the launch site at Point of the Mountain is a tight -knit community with many of the houses belonging belong-ing to active hang gliders and paragliders. "People come from all over the world to fly at Point of the Mountain because it is very consistent and there is very good instruction here." Verzella Ver-zella said. Getting started in the sport requires professional instruction instruc-tion as well as a significant investment in equipment. It would take about two weeks of instruction in good weather to earn your "hang-2" certification certifi-cation from the United States Hang gliding and Para-gliding Association, which will allow you to practice on your own at sites like Point of the Mountain. Moun-tain. It takes many years of flying several times a week to get to Verzella's level and even then each flight can be . - "V-- Tit -Ji. . ' " - Lisa Verzella prepares her hong-glider for a practice flight at Point of the Mountain on June 12. dangerous and unpredictable. Even with 19 years of experience ex-perience flying gliders under her belt, Verzella admits that she gets nervous before each launch. "Then once you are in the air. especially at beautiful sites Uke the mountains here at Lone Peak or over Twin Peaks, it is breathtaking, yet lis r iw j 1 feiwv you almost forget how incredible incred-ible it is until after you land and you are thinking about the flight and you are like 'dang 1 was way up there!' " Over this past weekend Verzella traveled to Hurricane north of St. George in search of just the right wind conditions condi-tions to make another attempt to claim the state record. She was hopeful on Friday before leaving but her flight attempt Saturday was short lived, Af- wysJ1 " '"kWstj! Custom, Quality 1 IfiiififtiAiif r r -. Large Sdectitw of Colors & Styles 725 South HKI East Prow. Itah 374-0580 meesley Monuments jfli ; U 'li ' 1! r- ter take-off she couldn't catch the updrafts and "bottomed out early." forcing an early landing after a short flight. Yet Verzella is not discouraged. discour-aged. Her passion is dependent depen-dent on the turbulence of nature na-ture and her dedication to the sport demands a respect for the winds and a willingness to accept her lack of power over nature. Hang gliding is about harnessing the power of nature, na-ture, not trying to fight it. Townhomes In Salem Starting At $184,000 Come in for a quote from one of our preferred I lome 8c Auto Carriers TRAVELERS fcf lit iJftai Hartford YoLanda Moer Charles Wnom 372-7355 372-3481 D E ill XJVI W T A L Dr.TickGraiiemADID 801-756-5136 1S6 Iknti 1100 Em imeqcii Fcrk, CT S40C3 a cm -V, liat..-t 'J NO Payments (or 6 Months Lrwtd Tbtv OfTr! Ho Money Down loans Ars&abteJ 400 South 2250 Wtjt Spritvgirfflc 801-687-2876 3 |