History of Selle-ette ...
Sandrine contacted us in the fall of 2022 to do some repairs on her Kruyer III that she has been using for 2 years now for her "0 carbon" world tour. In search of support to help with her project, we meet and agree on a partnership. The story between the Kruyer(I, II and III) and "0 carbon" world tours is already long (*), and it is not ready to stop.
The rest, we'll let Sandrine tell you about it ...
(*) For the record, the Kruyer I was developed in collaboration with Olivier PEYRE during his world tour which started in 2008.
For the first time, Olivier Peyre and I were together in November to discuss aerobatics, sea and cyclo-travel.
When two around-the-world traveler pilots meet, there is no chance, there is a story of selle-ette.
It all started long before my world tour, after a superb flight over the cliffs of Saint-Hilaire, when I was chatting with Didier, who was running the Lumbin landing store at the time. My routine was to stroll to the free flight bookshop since Didier had re-equipped me on the cheap, when I came back (rather broke) from my three years as an expat in New Zealand.
My gaze stopped on a totally bonkers image of the Salar of Uyuni, with a bearded man on a bicycle saddle pulled by a well inflated wing. It was the story of the world tour "En Route Avec Aile", byOlivier Peyre. I said to myself, in a flash of lucidity, that he had understood everything, the bugger! I was devouring his pages while trimming my doctorate between Chambéry and Ushuaïa, dreaming for a long time of a round-the-world trip by bike and sailboat-stop. On the other hand, lugging my twelve kilos of aerial gear on my bike didn't excite me much.
And yet, it's been already two years that I live on the roads with a monosurface wing and an ultra-light harness, the Kortel Kruyer III, in my bicycle bag, for about 35 000 km, that is to say half of the circumferance of the Earth. In 2022, the unexpected happened in Australia, and I have to go to France to accompany my father in his health problems. I take the opportunity to repair my harness.
The Kortel team tells me that my ultralight epic has a bigger story, originating in the very conception of the Kruyer III (in its first version) thanks to a certain Olivier Peyre!
With Kortel Design acting as a go-between, here I am in front of this bearded man (still) exchanging our most salty anecdotes of boat-hitchhiking, of those we would have gladly thrown overboard, of the acrobatic decos in the four corners of the world, of the magical places where we would have liked to stay, while running our fingers over our trajectories and our dreams on the maps of Australia and Nepal. I listen with great attention to his tons of advice, especially about his attempts to kite-bike. From his look, I know that he perfectly understands the beauties and the difficulties inherent to such a long journey. He's done it for 7 years and I have been on the road for 2 years. It would have taken us weeks to complete the conversations overflowing with enthusiasm started with Olivier. Stimulated by this transfer of experience, now back in Australia, I keep in mind his mantra: "Never lose sight of the goal and move forward". I can't wait to leave for Darwin!
For the latest news about my paragliding, biking and sailboat-stop trip, called "Wing Tour" in English, I am currently preparing the crossing of the outback in Australia. You can follow me on my website awingtour.com. You will find there the stories, videos, photos and watercolors of a half world tour that took me to the sky of the Mexican desert, to the vicinity of the Del Fuego eruption in Guatemala, to the island thermals of Bora Bora. Although discreet on the networks, being more "connected" to the present moment, you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook until the major step of my project: the Himalayas by the Langtang.
Find all the adventure of Sandrine on her website awingtour.com
One day, going about my retired cyclist's business (i.e. everything that is as far away from cycling as possible - including carefully preparing an expedition to Morocco by paragliding and hitchhiking or trying to figure out how to properly pack a rescue into a Kolibri...), Guillaume calls me: "You have to meet someone" he says.
I was far from believing at that time that one more person in this world could have had the crazy idea of associating long-distance cycling, sailboat-hitchhiking and paragliding. However, Sandrine showed up the next day telling me about her personal story. Of course she had the good idea to make her bike comfortable by taking a recumbent bike, a single surface wing combined with a Kruyer III but otherwise it was basically the same story again and again!
In the maelstrom of exchanges that followed - we had so much to exchange - she awakened in me all the glitter that seemed to be asleep at the back of my head, where we store what we have built without being too conscious of their existence. She told me about her setbacks on the sailboats, the long tenacity necessary for the infinite straight lines, this stubborn passion also that it is necessary to preserve without failing in order to steal a few flights from the fatigue of pedaling. Her wonders cast a harsh light on the old dreams. I was longing for something new!
The project En Route avec Aile has inspired others, the epic breath passes from disciple to disciple, the spirit Kruyer we could say at Kortel! So good luck, and never give up!