The World Cup first ventured to Roldanillo in 2011, with pilots from 28 countries competing. It was such a great success that two Super Finals were then held there, in 2013 and 2018. We’re returning in 2022 with pilots from 33 different countries, and the highest pilot quality we’ve ever seen.

Since those early days Roldanillo has become one of the best competition venues in the World thanks to its reliability, easy logistics, thermal quality, textbook flying conditions and most importantly the people.

The people of Colombia have been welcoming pilots with open arms for over a decade and it’s not uncommon to see pilots flooding into Roldanillo on the back of motorcycles, tractors or even a donkey from time to time!! 

The Paragliding World Cup starts in a weeks’ time and many top pilots are already landing here to train for this event.

Roldanillo is a traditional Colombian town sitting in the valley of Valle Del Cauca at 925 m. The launch, Augua Panela, is 869 metres above the town with beautiful views and trees for shade. Pilots can expect to find thermals as strong as 5-6 metres a second, with cloud base reaching 3000 plus metres. All of Valle Del Cauca works wonderfully giving very interesting tasks with lots of different routes for pilots to choose from, taking the valley, which side of the valley, or flying the mountains. The landing zones are huge and everywhere, which makes it possible for pilots to get lower than ever imagined low saves.

Roldanillo has become home from home for many of the top pilots on the World Cup circuit, basing themselves here to run courses, adding glitter to our star-studded selection list. All that needs to be said about the pilot quality: ‘CF’ wasn’t enough to get a place!

Honorin Hamard will definitely be one to watch, stretching his wings flying the first production model of the Ozone Zeno 2! Keep up with all the fun and frolics on the World Cup website, pwca.org and on the PWCA Live App at https://live.pwca.org

Text courtesy of Ruth Jessop
Photos by Ulric Jessop