{"id":9564,"date":"2015-09-24T13:02:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T11:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bsrumybg.myraidbox.de\/en\/?p=9564"},"modified":"2022-06-27T14:48:14","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T12:48:14","slug":"wind-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibiza-style.com\/en\/wind-riders\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind Riders \u2013 Balloons and kites move at the mercy of the winds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seen from above, from a balloon, the island looks like a small fairytale country. With its mountains, valleys and villages\u2026it\u2019s a privileged perspective\u201d. That how is Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00f3n Mancebo, director of operations at Ibiza en Globo, describes the sensation he feels when viewing the island from high up: \u201cyou see everything in a different way, there\u2019s silence, peace and quiet and the balloon itself hardly moves. It\u2019s an experience that, for the time being, anyone who tries it, wants to do it again\u201d. A sense of beauty and peace on top of which you have got to add the surprise factor which is, as Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00f3n points out, \u201cthe fact that balloons aren\u2019t driven; they\u2019re carried by the wind. That is the element that determines each and every one of our routes; we know where we are going to set out from but not where we are going to finish our outing\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Ibiza en Globo has already been offering trips around the island for 15 years. All that experience has meant that Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00f3n knows the wind\u2014the element that controls every single balloon trip he goes on\u2014a little better. \u201cThe best conditions to fly tend to be at dawn or on those days when there is not much wind: five or six knots is ideal. We have got to know what the wind is doing as much as possible because we depend on it; the balloon does not guide itself, it is guided by the wind. We are at its mercy and that is why it is so important to anticipate what is going to happen; several minutes before setting off, we send up a helium balloon to get an idea of what direction our balloon is going to move in\u201d. From that point onwards, everything is expertise: high up, the wind may increase in speed, slow down or even stop. Guiding the balloon and controlling all the factors involved requires great professionalism: you\u2019ve got to have mastery of the technique and the climatic conditions. \u201cAs well as understand that the wind is very capricious\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pep\u00edn Vald\u00e9s, the man behind the popular kite festival \u2018Posa un Estel al Cel\u2019 goes along with this description of the wind as \u2018capricious\u201d: \u201cThat\u2019s how it is; changeable, and for those of us who like flying kites we have to adapt ourselves to its changes\u201d. Thanks to Pep\u00edn and all the rest of the team who collaborate in organising the kite competition every winter at the end of January, the sky above ses Variades in San Antonio has been a highly colourful sight for the last 24 years. \u201cIt\u2019s a creative, playful festival but it\u2019s also somewhere you can experiment because the wind varies a great deal and it always catches you out. We like to find out what the wind is capable of offering us, what is the best way we can get our kites to fly and how to improve them\u201d.\u00a0 The kites\u2014which come in a range of different shapes and sizes\u2014seem to dance over the skies of San Antonio. In order to ensure that everything works out well, Pep\u00edn gives us some tips: \u201cThe most important thing when it comes to kites is that the ratio between resistance and weight is balanced to match whatever wind there is. If the wind is strong we need more resistant kites; if there isn\u2019t much wind we are going to use lighter kites. And that\u2019s precisely the secret of kite flying: analysing the moment, what the wind is like and choosing the right one. I can try to fly a kite that is too heavy for the wind that day or the other way round: I have to adapt\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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