The IHPA are proud to sponsor a team of five pilots and a team manager from Ireland to compete in the 2008 Pre-Worlds and the 2009 World Hang Gliding Championships, which will be held at Laragne Monteglin in the French Haute Alpes de Provence. It has been many years since Ireland last fielded a team of its top pilots to compete in such a high level competition and the IHPA wishes these intrepid pilots every success in these two gruelling competitions.

Go Team Langer!

Geoff McMahon - International man of mystery and top comp-hound Geoff, who lives in Ennis but commutes to work in Paris, recently broke the long standing Irish Hang Gliding Cross Country record, last set by Eddie Redmond back in 1988, by flying from Arra Mt. in Co. Tipperary to Blessington reservoir in Co. Wicklow, a distance of over 80 miles! He was also the winner of the 2004 HG XC Championship and represented Ireland at the Red Bull Giants of Rio where he managed to fly dispite having his glider impounded in Dublin!

Fran Denny - Spud magnate and all-round Sky God, Fran has been flying and growing potatoes competitively for many years and was also the XC distance record holder in 1991 with a flight from Devil's Bit in Co. Tipperary to Bagenalstown in Co. Carlow, a distance of over 41 miles. A demon guitar player, Fran is well qualified to lift the team's morale in the event that things go pear shaped and we don't place in the top five world rankings.

Daryn Clements - Deported from the antipodean penal colony of Oz, Daryn (a.k.a. Top Gum) washed up on these shores and has been living and flying in Ireland for over ten years. If Immigration Control don't catch up with him before 2009 then he represents one of our better hopes of avoiding total humiliation at the World Championships! Daryn will be co-piloted by his wife Kelly and their (soon to be) newly hatched sprog (gender unknown as yet... if ever!) who will be going hog-wild with his credit card while he toughs it out with monster thermals in the rarefied atmosphere of the world's top pilots. Shine on you crazy diamond!

Richard Hudson - Vegetarian and burned out hippy, Rich will be generating his own thermals from an inexhaustible on-board supply of bio-gas and blasting a swathe through the less experienced and considerably younger field of rival pilots competing for the top places at the 2009 Worlds. Rich, who doesn't remember the 60s (or the 70s, 80s or much of the 90s) took up hang gliding as an alternative means of getting high after his doctor told him to "ditch the weed and take up hang gliding - you'll live longer!" Rich has demonstrated remarkable consistency over the past four years while flying in the Belgian Open at Laragne (destroying his glider only twice) and knows the lay of the land intimately.

Shaun O'Neill - Ex-pat. member of the IHPA, Shaun has managed to achieve what many of us dream of - a life of indolence and leisure in rural France, growing grapes and making beer (he's Irish... you can tell!) His grandfather had a farm near Ferns in Co. Wexford, but left it to earn some money in the UK, while Shaun left his job in the UK to earn some money on a farm in France - (there's a picture forming, here!) While still at Uni, back in 1989, he fell off a mountain but luckily was saved by the hang glider he was attached to. Since then he has flown in many comps and despite eating rocks at takeoff occasionally, he is still alive at the ripe old age of 39... (which speaks volumes) and is often to be found working in or around Laragne, or in the landing field sipping his own, most excellent O'Neill's beer. He lives and works about an hour and a half's drive from Laragne and fills his time (when he's not flying) growing grapes, malting barley and brewing beer. What better qualification do you need for a place on the Irish team!

...And if you think that lot look scary, you should see the team manager!