After a year off because of Covid, the 30th Stubai Cup 2022 took place over the weekend of 11-13 March 2022 in the beautiful Stubai Valley, south of Innsbruck, Austria.
Some 700 pilots had signed up ahead of the event, and while a forecast of foehn kept some of those pilots away, those who came enjoyed good thermic flying weather in the morning and blue skies and sunshine.
Strong foehn wind did arrive in the afternoons, which kept everyone on the ground, but it also gave us the chance to tour the manufacturers’ tents and find out what’s new and what they’ve been working on for the new season and year ahead.
Here’s a rundown of what we found, with videos recorded ‘live’ throughout the three-day festival. Interviews by Ed Ewing, camera by Marcus King.
777 / TRIPLE SEVEN
Matjaz Klemencic revealed news about the Knight 2 and the new K-Light 2 (both EN B). Plus, he had an update on the next generation of Triple Seven’s Queen (EN C) – the new Queen 3 will be a three-line glider and “will be another benchmark in the C class,” promised Matjaz.
ADVANCE
The Weightless is the new lightweight paragliding harness from Advance and is based on the harness flown by Advance pilots in the Red Bull X-Alps 2021, including seven-time winner Chrigel Maurer. We took a tour.
AIRDESIGN
One new wing lots of people were talking about – and we were keen to try – was AirDesign’s new Volt 4, the first two-line EN-C paraglider on the market. AirDesign designer Stephan Stiegler told us more about the new wing.
GIN GLIDERS
Gin Gliders’ Alexander Lang gave us a tour of their new lightweight reversible harness – the Switch. The harness comes in one size but is adjustable to suit all sizes of pilot: “which makes it perfect for schools.”
ICARO PARAGLIDERS
We caught up with the Icaro Paragliders team to find out what’s new from them. They introduced the EN-A Pica 2 and the Nikita Ecstasy, a beginner acro wing, as well as their new team members: Calin Popa and Yen Linn.
MAC PARA
Back to the field and we talked to Mac Para owner and designer Petr Reček about their new mountain paraglider, the Aravis. Released earlier this winter it is now available in six sizes.
NIVIUK
Christin Kirst from Niviuk Paragliders showed us the new Niviuk Kode P. This new lightweight mountain wing is for hike-and-fly fun and comes in sizes 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26 – larger sizes are certified EN A.
NOVA
Théo de Blic gave us a tour of Nova’s new Mentor 7 Light (a hybrid two/three-liner EN B) while he was groundhandling. Unusually, Nova have announced they will release the light version ahead of the standard version – Théo told us why.
OZONE
Konny Konrad from Ozone Paragliders showed us the new BV1 lightweight pod harness, which had literally just arrived. He told us all about that and the new Zeno 2 (EN D), which has pilots clamouring for it.
PHI
The original Symphonia was released four years ago and was the first of the ‘Super As’ that combined EN B performance with EN A passive safety. Phi have now released an updated version, the Symphonia 2, and we spoke to designer Hannes Papesh to find out all about it – while Mike Küng demonstrated the wing in the strong Föhn conditions.
SKY PARAGLIDERS
Artoosh Bayrak from Sky Paragliders showed us their new Twin 2 tandem pilot harness with removable seat plate. He then gave us a tour of their new EN A wing the Aya – a wing for pilots out of school looking to develop their skills.
SKYWALK
We took a tour of the new Cruise harness from Skywalk Paragliders with Arne Wehrlin and Gerhard Holzner. It’s a seatboard harness that includes Skywalk’s unique Permair inflatable back-protection system. They also announced the X-Alps 5 – their Red Bull X-Alps paraglider – will be released very soon.
SUPAIR
Pierre-Yves Alloix is the head designer at Supair – he showed us around the new Eiko 2 lightweight mountain paraglider that the company have just released. Aimed at all levels of pilots from beginners up, and available in five sizes from the EN-C 16m2 to EN-A 26m2. Surprise at 0:47!
SWING
We talked to Swing’s Karl-Michael Hüglin about the new Serac hike-and-fly glider and designer Alessio Casolla about the Nyos 2 (EN B) and their two-line EN-D, the Sphera.
UP PARAGLIDERS
UP Paragliders are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Yes, 50! We spoke to international sales manager Daniel Buimoosbruger to find out what’s new from the team based in Garmisch. PLUS: He showed us UP’s new riser set, which can be retro-fitted to existing gliders and models for better performance and handling.
Thanks to Monika Eller and all the team and volunteers at ParaFly Austria for again hosting a great event in the “perfect microclimate” of the Stubai Valley, Austria.
