Bob Drury meets Gábor Kézi and Pál Takáts to talk about life, acro and their new film Adrenaline and Turbulence
If you haven’t come across the names Gábor Kézi (27) and Pál Takáts (23) then you clearly haven’t been reading the acro news of this magazine or any other. From humble beginnings the duo have gone from the hillsides of eastern Europe to international podiums in paragliding acrobatics in both syncro and solo. Together they took silver at the recent World Air Games in syncro.Arriving through non-Latin channels – itself almost an anomaly in this day and age – acro’s two young pretenders grew up in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, where they both discovered paragliding around eight years ago.
Pál was still a schoolboy, stumbling through an education that was equally struggling to accommodate him. With his striking bush of dark wiry hair, gangly physique and wild, excitable eyes, Pál could nothing to win the schoolteachers’ affection. “I was exactly the type of kid, who had a pretty good brain, but hated sitting still. Teachers didn’t know how to handle me and gave me a hard time, even when I did nothing wrong!”
The signs of a champion were already there though, had the teachers only been able to see them. “I was actually talented in everything I tried. I was national fencing champion. I was doing it pretty seriously but stopped for some reason. I even had a couple of years playing a computer game quite seriously. I won the national championship and got out to the ‘Olympics’ of PC games, the World Cyber Games in South Korea, where of course I was beaten really badly.”
With a love for adventure sports Pál was already rock climbing, hiking and caving regularly in Hungary when he discovered paragliding. “I saw these little points flying above this mountain. I didn’t know anything about paragliding, but I knew I had to do it” he says, admitting that, like many of us, it was love at first sight with paragliding.
He sought out those dots and was soon flying with them, escaping the trappings of the more normal life his parents would have preferred him to have. “When I was sixteen and had completed my paragliding beginner course, the [education] situation got worse. My gymnasium was right on the top of a hill in Budapest and I had a perfect view of the closest flying site from my classroom.” Unsurprisingly, Pál, was soon skipping classes to pursue his real education in the sky.
“After the gymnasium I tried to get into university to study geography, but the level was pretty high and I was turned down twice. I realise now that had I gone, I’d just be finishing university now and would never have had the experiences and adventures I’ve had over the last five years. Those years have taught me much more about life than any school could have.”
Gábor and Pál
Gábor, four years Pál’s senior, also found himself struggling through the halls of Hungary’s education system. “I started my economics studies at university at the same time that I started flying” he tells us. “I soon realised that most of my time and thoughts were spent on flying and not on my exams.”
Out flying as much as he could Gábor soon realised where his true flying tastes lay. “I always loved playing with my glider. When I flew cross country I was always sad to be losing time that I could have used to practice wingovers in front of the mountain.” It was a hard decision, but I quit [school] and started acro competitions instead”.
Gábor’s background was in ballroom dancing, “rhythm and body control were always very important for me” and choreographing complex sequences came naturally to him. Soon the pair were practising together, studying every manoeuvre in the Rodriguez’s videos to learn how to do them. In Hungary there was little information on acro and no one to teach the pair. So, with school out the way for both of them, the obvious next move was a road trip west in search of their heroes. The Budapest boys hit the road and headed to the legendary Organya in Spain, the secret home training site of the Kings of Acro, the Rodriguez brothers and their SAT team. Gábor and Pál’s easy going approach too life and undeniable raw talent meant they were soon accepted and learning from the masters themselves.
It’s every young pilots’ dream, travelling the world in search of adventure, living out the back of a car, tumbling from adventure to adventure in pursuit of your dream of becoming a professional paragliding acro pilot. You want to be a brilliant acro pilot yourself? Just “quit your job, leave your girlfriend, take a beginner courses in acro and a couple in SIV, get an acro harness with double reserves, a good freestlyle wing, learn Spanish and move to a very small town deep in the Pyrenees to train for four or five complete summers.” is Pál’s advice. Gábor agrees. “It takes a lot of motivation, a good instructor, and you have to practice as much as you can.”
Photo: Markus Zimmermann
By 2005 the pair were ready for their first competition and entered the Red Bull Vertigo in Switzerland, which gave them the result and impetus to really focus on their dream – to become professional acro pilots.
Over those summers in Organya, the pair formed the most intense of bonds, one that was to stand them in good stead when it came to the syncro sequences they were to become so good at. Inevitably, the students started to challenge the masters themselves and in 2006 they placed fourth in the Red Bull Vertigo’s syncro comp, with Pál also taking a respectable seventh in the solo.
Keen to pass on all they had learnt and to add further momentum to the already growing acro scene, Pál started justacro.com, the first internet based news and information portal for the sport. With the swell in masses of what had previously been a relatively underground acro scene, Justacro.com soon became a hit. Still edited by Pál himself, the website carries not only the news of events and comps from around the world, but has all the information you need to learn just about every acro manoeuvre, in ten languages! Video and an active forum round off what is now the largest acro website in the world with over 3,000 registered users.
Around this time the boys met Andras Kollman, a pilot and film producer from Budapest who had a dream of making a paragliding film, but one with a difference. He wasn’t looking to produce another Pepsi Max fuelled film of tumbling paragliders set to loud rock music, instead Andras wanted to portray a more human story, one that spoke of perseverance and belief in dreams, in Gábor and Pál he found two perfect subjects. Over a two year period Andras followed the pair as they toured the European acro scene.
By 2007 Pál and Gábor were widely recognised as the new force to be reckoned with and even the Rodriguez brothers were getting worried, and they had good cause. At the FAI Paragliding Acrobatic World Championships that year Pál stunned the judges with such an amazing solo display that they had no choice but to award him the gold medal. Together with Gábor, the Justacro.com team took the silver just behind the Rodriguez brothers. Pál was also crowned Hungarian ‘pilot of the year’ by his fellow countrymen.
The Justacro.com team were now established as two of the best acro pilots in the world and were now living the dream life as professional acro pilots travelling from comp to comp and performing for awestruck audiences around the world.
To Gábor, who states his ambition in life is just “to make people happy” display flying comes naturally. “When you’re burning altitude during an acro show, it’s an amazing feeling when you suddenly hear the sound of the crowd below” he explains. “Sometimes if you make a really nice stunt it’s even stronger. You know that in this moment all those people are clapping and shouting only for you and you’re happy that they like the show.”
For Pál, there’s an up side and a down. “Just being free, flying all year long with friends, travelling, meeting tons of great people all around the world and getting to know so many diverse countries, cultures and languages. Basically it’s most people’s dream.” But there’s no money in it. “We’re not able to save any money, but just ‘float’. Unfortunately, right now, there is no opportunity to build a future, but we are working hard at…”
With the advent of the Infinite Tumble some cynics are suggesting that the sport now has nowhere to go. “Good question!” thinks Pál, “I think it’s definitely sure that there are still some undiscovered connections/combinations, but not individual tricks. To create a brand new figure we maybe have to wait for the gliders to develop. I also have an idea, but till now I don’t have the balls to try it out.”
Gábor is in agreement but adds, “First of all acro needs more media attention. With a stronger supporter base pilots could continue working and developing new ideas in respect of wings, manoeuvres and choreographed connections.”
One step they both hope will help is Andras’ film about them, Adrenaline and Turbulence. After two years hard work it is finally on sale. “It’s a unique film, which looks deep into the acro scene, presenting and interviewing many of the world’s top pilots as they have never seen before” is Pál’s take on it. “It’s also the story of two young, motivated pilots from a flat country, who decide to give up their lives and make their dreams come true.”
The film won the highly acclaimed gold cup at France’s Coupe Icare, St Hilaire, this year, and is available to buy on www.xcshop.com and at all good retailers.
