BS& - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 24, 1997 DAVE TAYLOR TERRACE STANDARD 638.7283 ailing» the skies By DAVID TAYLOR “RUN LIKE HELL! Run, run!”’ I run. Suddenly feet are no longer on solid ground. World drops away in a sicken- ing display of vertigo. Wind whistles. Terror. ''Dave?’’ A voice, “*Dave?”’ It’s God. God is speaking to me. He probably wants to know why I just jumped off a cliff. ‘You can stop running now.”’ WHAT A VIEW. Steve Brushey enjoys a ride down from Copper Mountain on a paraglid- ing flight last week. His takeoff was a little odd, but the flight down was smooth sailing. atte 3 I look down at my feet. They’re still ———— - pumping furiously in mid air. some law of nature has been broken, Rath- Wait. That voice isn’t God. It’s Brian ¢; it feels strangely right, natural. Not sur- Fell, the paragliding lawyer. He made Fal, but supra-real. pee me sign a waiver. God doesn’t make nes pn why people do this. This is why you sign a waiver. Although come to they drive all, the way to the top of a : . mountain, hike to a cliff, wait, sometimes think of it, these days He probably does. hours, for the wind to be right and then leap Then it hits me — I’m flying. off. Spread out above is the huge white wing of our paraglider. Tucked in neatly behind Flying’s the thing. And from 3,000 feet it all makes sense. me, Fell gently guides the wing, preventing —' This js freedom, this is... us from plummeting to a messy death — I hope. And below, below the world has opened up into a glorious display of light and colour. Lakelse Lake sparkles and shines. . The Skeena slithers through the valley, ‘ twisting and sparkling like a diamond neck- ““‘Dave?’’ That voice again. “Are you getting any good pictures?”” “Hunh?’’ “Pictures, you know your camera? It’s what you said you wanted to do,’’ “Jeez. I forgot,’” -. [ate afternoon sky. © CUTTING SMOOTHLY through the air, that's Steve Brushey paragliding over Copper Mountain, well, flying. Tough trucks battle it out for speedway title Drivers tackle mud bog and punishing obstacle course MUD. And lots of it. Organizers at the Terrace Speedway needn’t bave worried about having enough of the stuff for their annual Tough Truck and Mud Bog. But the rain, cold and muck didn’t stop hundreds of monster truck fans from making it out to the specdway to pay hommage to the great metal beasts. Last year the goo was so thick that not one truck made it all the way through the bog. Of course, then again it was 30 de- grees and sunny at last year’s event. Maybe all the rain over the weekend loosened up the glorp because several of though he sure tock his time). Bren Thomas, #237, was second and #181 Bob McClucky third. In the 41-44” D class, #237 Gus Fourier was first at 201 ft, followed by #108 Steve Flanigan and #03 Alvin Eichhorst, Wilf Rondeau twice tackled the bog and won in the E class, making it through the full 224 ft. Monique Lam- bert also made it through. The dune buggies weren’t quite so lucky, They bogged down early, but Steve Therrien made it 55 ft, Steve Devost was second and Richard Devost third, The rain, cold and muck didn’t stop hundreds of monster truck fans from making it out to the speedway to pay hommage to their favourite great metal beasts. But for all its radiant beauty, the view isn’t the amazing part about flying. What is truly incredible about fying is, It almost feels like it shouldn’t be happen- .. ing. But not like something’s wrong, like “of flying becomes even more acute. We’re the super-modified E class trucks made It through, as did many of the ATVs and those unstoppable snowmobiles. In the mud bog’s AA stock class, #15 Darcy McKeown blasted 107 feet through the ooze, Kyle King, #04, was second at 102 feet and #102 Eric Gustav- sen was third. The A class, using 0-33” tires went to #180 Lane “Give’r’’ at 112 ft. Second was #180 Richard Devost and third went to KTS Johnny. Moving up to the B class, using 34- 36°" tires, it was #001 Rodney Sidlic tak- ing first at 194 ft, with #08 Brian Gag- nom second and #80 Andy ~ Brouseau third. . Bigger, still was the C class, with 37- 40" tires. There, #108 Steve Flanigan broke the 200 it barrier by a foot (al- The ATVs showed some muscle, slow- ly plowing through the mud. Steve Devost made it al] the way through for first place. He was followed by Al Cameron who made it twice. The snowmobiles made it look easy. Mike Haugland crossed the stew in, get this, 4.03 seconds. Ken Hutchinson was right behind him and Leon Lefebvre was third, The Tuff Truck competition was some- thing else. People entered everything but the kitchen sink in this year’s event, in- cluding Hyundais and Hondas. The course was once again a kidney- ctuncher, with lots of bone-jarring jumps and = whoop-de-doos, Rumour has it competitors had practiced manoeveuring through the challenging obstacles by driving the streets of Terrace in the salp te FPA :, lice. Jagged peaks thrust proudly into\the ”,”’ “Pell laughs, It’s easy to do up here, he. ‘says. You tend to forget everything. We ride, some weak thermals for nearly a. half-hour before we start to lose altitude and head for a big patch of bright green that Fell tells me is the golf course. Away from Copper Mountain the feeling ‘ground, ‘‘Runl’? playing in a three-dimensional world normally reserved for birds and bats and in- sects who must look down and laugh at our flat, puny earth. That earth is rapidly approaching. Fell lets me take the controls for a while. Pull on the right cord, he says, and we tum right. Pull on the left, we turn left, It’s easy, And itis. He takes the cords again as we circle to land. Tiny, individual figures are now clear- ly visible — little white dots moving across a great green earth. Fell shouts down to friends on the ground. They cheer back with guttural sounds of en- couragement. We close in on our target swiftly and touch down with surprising accuracy. ‘‘Run!’? Fell shouts as our feet hit the 4 ares a run kk kkk ANYONE SERIOUSLY interested in getting involved in this high flying sport can pive Brian Fell or Steve Brushey a call. Brushey can be teached at 638-1840 and Fell can be found at 635-4944, indi A HYUNDAI? A Hyundai? Man, people are crazier and the Civic along with lots of trucks, ATVs and dune than | thougrit Someone did, in fact, enter a little buggies. Meanwhile, above, trucks of all sorts tackled Hyundai pony in the Tuff Truck competition, see below. the 240 foot mud bog. A few even made it through. People also entered such burly vehicles as the Chevette spring. Tn the A class, short box, it was Lane *'Give’r’”’ taking both first and second, with Keith Taylor third. Darcy McKeown took the medium box and Jules LaFrance the long, with Dan Thickett second. Lane '‘Give’r’ also took the two wheel drive event. Second was #17 Randy and third was #01 Doug Brewer. Richard Devost had the fastest lime through the course in his dune buggy at 28.11 seconds. He was followed by Steve Therrien and Steve Devost, Second fastest time for the course, and first in the ATY class was #7 “Bouncin’” Blake Bedford at 28.26 sec- onds. Brutus McCarron was second and Mike Porche third, Finally, in the motorcycle class, it was #97 Jeff Bamett with the win. Jerrod Mitchell was second and Gerald Fell third,