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Hadn't been able to fly much for various reasons, and Wednesday was my last opportunity for awhile. The day looked promising so Diablo and Edward collected me at 8:30. On launch about 9:10, and airborne about 10 minutes later with help from Edward. We had full sun leaving Carp, but an advancing cloud deck blocked out the energy about 10 minutes before we got to launch. The lapse rate was real good, but the cloud deck shut it down cold so it was a sleder to Parma. Landed on Rockwood to avoid the wet grass. Brendan was there with Kristy & Konner to gave me a boost back up. Plenty of pilots showed for a mid week day, maybe a dozen or more including the HGs. Diablo launched when it started to thin, and did an impressive job of hanging on in the weak buoyant air, but finally fizzled down and to the beach. I waited till we had 5 minutes of full sun. Took the second cycle and went to 47. The route west was blocked by clouds up high, and it looked like the sun hole was going to slide eastward, so I went east. Drift at altitude was from the NNW. Montecito had just come into the sun, but Ramero was still in full shade. Took my time at Montecito, waiting for the sun hole to shift east, and climbed to 53, stepping up the NE east side of a cloud. Repeated the process at Ramero. Castle Ridge was just starting to get sun, and there were small scraps starting form down lower, but nothing very developed yet. From my vantage, it looked like the day might OD. There was good sun and a cloud out front by the Polo Fields, so I took the drift and went for Polo Ridge. On the way, Castle Ridge started getting more sun and working better, so I was second guessing my choice to leave the mountains. Didn't climb under the dissipating cloud behind Polo Ridge, so I angle back in for Castle Mesa. Found a weak thermal and got back into the mid 2s but lost some and went on glide for Snowball. Snowball had sun and a good cloud. Got there below the top and was able to wiggle up in back of the west facing bowl. No real ridge lift, but a little core was feeding something going off the top. Finally connected, but the cloud was dissipating so I only got into the mid 2s. East bound again, against a little SE. Dribbled along and worked a some here and there. Wanted to step out to Shepard's Mesa, but didn't have the altitude. Gobernador was in full sun for awhile, but was shading in by the time I got there. Arrived down low, 1,100', only a few hundred over the valley floor, but was able to climb up in a weak core drifting from the SE. Got to 15 and searched along the ridge looking SE, but it seemed to be shutting down. Went off the end eastbound with 14. Edward asked about my intentions and suggested I land because they were in a hurry. I indicated I still had 14 hundred so my current priority was to try and stay in the game so I hadn't' started looking for an LZ yet. Down to 11, I started looking, but it didn't look good. Running up Hwy 150, thinking I could find a spot in the road, or bail to the hill side. Some small birds were marking a little lift. I got in a turn or two, but with only a couple hundred over the road, I couldn't center up. All the power lines were a bit intimidating also. Was running out of options. I was far enough east to that there were now only power lines on the north side of the road. Spotted a small gap in the oak trees by a drivway and thought I might be able to approach into the gap from the lower creek. I was going to be short on final, so I pealed left and took what I could, which was a decent clearing in the avocados. The clearing would have worked if it had been my primary, but I was high and was going to overshoot, so I got as deep as I thought I could. The wing started to stall and spin when I was about 5 to 10 feet up. Caught my leg on a tree branch and tripped to the ground going backwards. Lost my helmet and glasses on impact. Found the helmet ok, but searched later for an hour with a metal detector for the glasses and couldn't find them. Edward and Diablo were right there, but they had a lunch date in Ojai. Shad was there also and gave me a lift home.
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