So a week of great racing in Porterville with 6 tasks flown of which 5 were valid.
Its been a week of ups and downs for me as I took to thermic skies for the first time since February ...

The first problem I encountered is that physically I can't turn right ... the mess of my ribs is causing real sharp pain when I try to weight shift and the inflexibility that has set in since the accident is preventing me from reacting intuitively. A new technique is required but trying to develop this in the BIG Porterville skies wasn't an option ;)

Given the general trend to set tasks to the south which involved turning right, away from the ridge meant that my task flying potential was reduced from the outset in spite of feeling motivated and up for it. The intense pain the instant broken bits touched the harness was enough to completely clear any rational thought apart from that I wanted to 'get out now' .. so all the well thought out goals written on my flight deck disappeared as my brain shut down to everything except being out from the harness.

That aside, just being in big strong air & turning in circles ( left ones ;) ) for the first time in 11 months was a big step and a few 1+ hour flights left me starting to feel the pilot lurking deep inside coming back again :)
I had the amazing sense of achievemnt and fun for flying that I remember from first cross country flights years ago and landed after my own small xc adventures giggling & smiley that I actually could link together a few climbs & glides to go somewhere.
Day by day even the short flights in active air to land were giving me the sense of glider control and intuitive reaction that has been missing over the summer and even though in many ways it was a real baptism of fire I had much more fun than I expected.

I have to say that I was so happy to be on the EN C VOLT since it gave me the option not to have to consider the glider and space to deal with the other issues such as actually putting myself inside a thermal and staying with it to the top.
One advantage of jumping back into the fire in Porterville is that once you are in a climb of monsterous proportions its really not an option to wimp out and run away :D The most comfortable and least wobbly route is to dig the wingtip into the core and stay there!
The right wingtip did give me a friendly wave in front of my face ;) as I hit the convergence at start over town during 1 flight but the glider response and recovery was such a non-event that my confidence in the bouncy conditions reached an unexpected level. :)

So in terms of flying a competition it was a non-event, but had I not been flying the comp I probably wouldn't have even launched most days in the strong thermic cycles. The comp gave me focus, the big air made me dig deep to find the motivation and recover that buried muscle memory for reacting actively and actually flying the wing instead of it flying me and the result is that tired, aching and happy I feel ready to jump back into 'real' flying again.

Next stop Colombia ... work for me,  but I am sooooo looking forward to a few girly-wafts around the sky in the soft-warm-rolda Wonderland when I can escape from the mayhem!