Great Reno Balloon Race

Strange and cool that in 2008, so far, work has gotten me up in the air twice in brand new ways...

Back in February or so I went SkyDiving for an article in RLife Magazine, and this week I was invited to the media preview for the Great Reno Balloon Race in Reno, NV.

Just a quick note: If you're planning to hit the last day of the Balloon Race tomorrow, try riding your bike up to Rancho San Rafel Park. My little sister Carrie will be there with other volunteers from the Nevada Bike Coalition parking and securing bikes for the event. This could save you a ton of time and grief by avoiding the perennial traffic jam getting into the event @ 5: 30 AM.

I rode up to the event in the dark and met Ryan Jerz and Bob Conrad by the donut and coffee Bar near the Pagoda @ the Rancho. We were assigned pilots and balloons, and I met Dan Austin, pilot of Little Miss Sunshine out of Sacramento California and the sponsor, Cathy Blair, owner of Vino100 in South Reno. Vino100 is a nice little wine shop @ South Meadows Parkway and Double R Boulevard right next to Kabloom (cause wine and flowers go together like balloons and traffic jams...) They specialize in wines under $25 per bottle. They have made some nice gift baskets / boxes for speakers and clients of ours and we've been really happy.

This was the first balloon flight for Cathy and me, and in the video you can tell that we were pretty stoked. On the surface it seems kinda boring, but it's a strange and sublime feeling floating in the air like that. I've been in gliders, airplanes, high dives, sky dives, rock pinnacles, but nothing was quite like the feeling of rising through the air inexplicably by the power of buoyancy. Very cool.

Dan was a great pilot and a fun guy to fly with. Watching him set up the balloon and envelope was pretty cool. The footage of the envelope collapsing after we landed is rad. It reluctantly slumped and billowed and floated down like a dying jellyfish.

2008 is the 27th annual Great Reno Balloon Race. There are over 100 balloons participating in the event with the pilots required to submit a resume detailing over 100 hours of flight experience. The landing zones and wind patterns here are fairly complicated so they have to be sharp.

The event is free and visitors can walk among the balloons and volunteers can check in to help crew @ 5:30. I encourage you to at least watch the Dawn Patrol and walk around the park as the balloons launch and land in the surrounding areas.

In Reno, we have a few events that celebrate speed, noise, consumption and excess, and while ballooning, I would imagine, is no cheap endeavor, the act of ballooning is peaceful, quite, and simple.

That said, ear plugs are going to become a scarce commodity as the Reno Air Races and Street Vibrators rumble into Northern Nevada in the coming weeks, so buy now!

-M