Hi, Welcome to my fundraising pages. Hope you can help me go fly for Australia ... feet first..

Who: Dave (Snowy) Snowden. Competition Paragliding Pilot. Bright ,Australia.

What: Requesting financial assistance to help travel costs to compete at the forthcoming 17th FAI Paragliding World Championships.

Where: Tucumen Argentina

When: October / November 2021

How: After the cancellation by previous host nation France, considerable deliberation on the feasibilities of the FAI Paragliding World Championships 2021 actually going ahead,.... , At quite short notice, Argentina have come to the party to host the event in Tucumen central Argentina. Many of our top Australian pilots who qualify for the event have, for understandable reasons, withdrawn from competing this time around.

As one of the few very experienced & fully qualified world class Australian pilots, I have recognised this opportunity, stepped up to the mark and taken the bold step to travel to Argentina and Fly for Australia. With the encouragement of family and friends, I have jumped through the necessary hoops to organise a full Travel Exemption for competing at World Champs level. With endorsements from our FAI governing body Air Sport Australia Commission plus various other authoritative bodies allowing my international travel in these uncertain times. I thank them all. It will be an honour to represent Australia at this prestigious event.

The Championships are held over 14 day period where pilots will race tasks over 3-4 hours daily, flying some 45-90 km daily around courses of predetermined turnpoints. Pilots accumulate scores based on position and speed through the courses. We anticipate 130+ competitors from most FAI nations. Pilots from The European Alpine nations tend to dominate at the Worlds, however the terrain and weather conditions in this flight arena is more akin to flying summers in the Australian Alps. We are confident of being very competitive.. it promises to be ... interesting... we shall see !..

The event can be followed both through video feeds and live tracking. Supporters will be able to follow each pilots' progress on the scoring on a daily basis. I shall be reporting personally on the event to my supporters through short vid feeds and blog pages.

Financing the trip...

This event would have otherwise been a fully self funded exercise, however due to the pandemic related rises in costs of travel, it is viable only with outside financial support. I am also seeking sports grants and sponsorships, however again due to economic uncertainty opportunities are few and far away.

In these times of pandemic turmoil flights out of and back to Australia are limited and very expensive (quoted $9,500 ++) . In committing to the event i have anticipated several weeks away & have to include mandatory Q-time on return. This obviously impacts on potential earnings and considerable add-on away from home costs.

My overall costs are likely to exceed $15k.

< ( any funds raised above needs, will be donated to Australian Paragliding Squad for future teams)>

So, I am seeking to raise funds to help cover the costs of travel, accommodation and event fees.

I would be humbly grateful for any support and give back by way of doing my very best to put on a good performance for Australia.

I thank all supporters in assisting my going to compete at the 17th FAI Paragliding World Championships,

One day soon we will all be out of lockdowns , meanwhile I will take this opportunity to go and fly for all of you. :-)