Bad Apples Paramotor Event, Georgia, USA, May 14 – 18, 2025…
The Bad Apples Paramotor event in Georgia, USA, has been growing exponentially over the years. It has become one of the largest stops and conventions for pilots, not only in the USA but worldwide. This year 2025, the figure of 425 registered pilots was reached, (plus family members and some more pilots who were present although they did not register).
Puerto Rico was present this time with the presence of pilots Luis Ruiz, Berto García, Edgardo Rivera, Wilkins “Chino” Morales, Darwin Hernández, Fio López, Jomar Crespo, Emilio Santini, Samuel Travis, Jonathan Torres, and Nixon Porrata. Each one of them was demonstrated a high level of flight, and great sharing among all those present at the activity. We also have the paraglider labeled with the Puerto Rican flag. Unique in the activity, and we will talk about this later.
There is a lot to tell, many experiences, experiences, funny, and unforgettable moments. We will try to cover most of these, day by day, and we will end with a Video of the activity. Depending on how it turns out, we will do it in one or two parts… Without further ado, we begin…
Wednesday, May 14, 2025…
One day before the official start of the Bad Apples activity, the Puerto Rican pilots began to arrive. Luis Ruiz, Berto García, Edgardo Rivera, Chino Morales, Fio López and Jomar Crespo arrived. Also, Jonathan Torres had been in the area from the weekend.
During the day, we were organizing our stay, and equipment. In addition we go around the area, sharing with old friends, and meeting new ones. Some of them, leaders of the Paramotor industry. Among them we can mention José Casaudomecq (Nvolo), Mateo Orazi (CEO Vittorazi), Tom Prideaux (Parajet), Dmitri Zyusin (Iris Paramotor), Carlos Lemos and Pablo Kloster (Liberty Paramotors), Luis “Guli” Veras, Papo Diaz and company, leaders of the Central Florida flight area, Jeff, Rachel and pilot friends from North Carolina, Nuno Rodríguez (HE Paramotors), Emilia Plak (Ozone), Miguel Simoes (Power2Fly), and many more, who we hope will appear in the video that we will prepare of the activity.
First Flights…
In the afternoon we went out to fly, this time Berto García with the paraglider with the Puerto Rican flag managed to fly, followed by Edgardo, Darwin and our friend Kenny Gerhman. Later Edgardo, also flew with the Puerto Rican Flag Paraglider.
In the evening, we went to dinner with the group of Luis “Guli” Veras, Papo Diaz and their respective wives Darlene and Maritza. They prepared a great dinner for everyone present and the Puerto Rican team was invited to the activity. Thank you very much for the detail, the food was delicious.
And how is the spirit of the day? Check it out at our visit to Walmart for some food…
Thursday, May 15, 2025…
The first official day of the Event, and more pilots continue to arrive. This time Emilio Santini and Samuel Travis along with his wife Michelle joined the list of Puerto Rican pilots.
During the day, we took the opportunity to take the pilot seminar on the regulations of the event, as well as pay the corresponding fee. Also, more friends continued to arrive such as Dan Bushman (Iowa), Danny Willianson (NJ), Jonathan Carr (Paramotor Orlando), Eric Dufour (Paratour, Florida) and many others. Luis Ruiz finally received beloved Sky Zorro paraglider fixed from Elisabeth! We also met two very special people, David López and Kenneth (Cuba) who follow us in social media, and they had some very impressive stories.
Flights of the Day…
In the afternoon, and with strong weather conditions, Jomar Crespo went out to fly. He had his own Paramotor in the area and that helped him fly as he pleased. This is also the case of Darwin Hernández, Kenny Gerhman and Samuel Travis.
The rest of Puerto Rican pilots had to wait the turn of fly with Jomar equipment. In the case of Luis Ruiz, some dealers and friends had told him to took their equipment when he wanted to fly… but nothing like have the personal equipment… We will correct this situation for the next event in 2026.
Luis Ruiz almost Crash…
After Jomar and Edgardo finished their fly, the the turn was for Luis Ruiz. The wind was light, so, a Front Launch Take Off was necessary. Luis Ruiz made it easily, BUT, once in the air, he discovered that he was flying with a Riser of the paraglider tangled with the bottom of the bar on the right side. That entanglement caused him to fly at sideways position and looking upward, lying flat over the entire flight field while flying!!!. It didn’t help that he was flying his fast Sky Zorro paraglider.
After some tense seconds in the air, Luis found the problem and tried to correct it in the air. But the force of removing the tangle riser was too much. Luis, with low altitude, need to act quickly. Juggled to be able to land further ahead without arrive to the heavy bushes and without breaking the equipment or having an accident… He managed to get the best of the brakes, and move in straight position the best he could with motor off to land, and fortunately everything runs fine at the moment. This could be a serious accident with injuries, beside loosing the Paramotor of Jomar for the activity…
After checking that everything was OK, Luis, at once, walk with the Paramotor on his back the entire route again to the Take Off area. He prepared everything and this time goes flying with any issue, and even perform a flight over the pond where he foot drag the water as many other pilots at the moment.
The Resume of the First two days of activities!!!
Friday, May 16, 2025…
Edgardo Rivera make sure to awake everyone just at sunrise with a horn, OMG… It is time for flying. Although some people prefer to kept sleeping…
The weather was turbulent (as usual in these days). But it was possible to fly. This time, with Jomar‘s SkyMax Paramotor, were ready to fly, Fio López, Chino Morales and Edgardo Rivera. In addition Darwin, Kenny and Samuel gets ready and fly on their own paramotors.
At noon, the Puerto Rican Team share with friend Dan Bushman at a house that he had reserved for the event. The house was located at Montezuma City, about 20 minutes from the event. Once there, we enjoyed the pool and prepared some meals before returning to the flight area for the war kiting competition.
War Kiting Competition…
In the afternoon, 4 PM, there’s a war kiting competition where everyone could compete. The rules are clear. Everything counts as legal, but If your paraglider touch the grass you’re out. The gusty winds at the moment create a very difficult task for competitors. From the Puerto Rico Team, we had the representation of Jomar Crespo (in a Mustache Paraglider), and Edgardo Rivera in the Puerto Rican Paraglider Flag. It was very fun. You could see here some videos of the competition.
Flight time and Congested Air Space…
The best weather for fly in the weekend. In the afternoon, Luis Ruiz was flying (three times) with Liberty Paramotors, which Luis Ruiz represents in Puerto Rico. The Paramotor that Luis used, was, top of the line with a Vittorazi engine, best in the industry.
On his 3rd flight of the evening, Luis managed to fly with the paraglider labeled with the flag of Puerto Rico. Other pilots that were flying in the afternoon were Edgardo, Samuel, Darwin and Kenny.
It is notable to mention that at some points were hundreds of pilots in the air. Being able to land safely in the area was a complete challenge, even for the most skilled pilots. In the case of Edgardo and Luis, both had to abort several landing attempts due to the proximity of pilots in the air or on the ground looking to Take Off.
Saturday, May 17, 2025…
We had the pleasant surprise of the visit of the Puerto Rican pilot Nixon Porrata, who had traveled from Alabama, USA to share with us. He tells us that he plans to move to Puerto Rico to live by the end of August of this year. Stay Tuned…
Flight scenario and a broken part…
Once again, Jomar Crespo had lent his Paramotor. This time to Fio López who arrived prepared to take some aerial videos, but it couldn’t be… He failed a few attempts and decided to take a break. Then Emilio Santini took off and was flying for a few minutes. By the time Fio was going to attempt his flight again, the manual starter on Jomar‘s Paramotor gets stuck and damaged. Therefore, Fio would not be able to fly…
Edgardo and Chino managed to get a new manual starter during the day, and installed it at Jomar‘s Paramotor. They did so, thanks to the help of pilot Matt Minyard who had it as spare.
In the meantime, Today was the day of the Official photo of pilots of the activity. Amazing!!!
Some bad weather expected, but finally gets good again…
In the afternoon, the weather began to deteriorate, and some pilots began their return to their respective homes. It seemed that the weather would be bad for the rest of the activity until Sunday. However, in the afternoon, the weather cleared up and Jomar, Edgardo and some other pilots flew as they pleased. Even Jomar was doing some foot drag in the pond with other pilots.
Sunday, May 18, 2025…
The day started with the majority of pilots collected their equipment. But there were always some flights before closing the activity. Each and every one of the pilots, from Puerto Rico and from other places, had pleasant and unforgettable moments. Soon we will make a VIDEO where we go into detail about our experiences at the event. STAY TUNED…
Extra Video(s)…
Photos…
