Those who took in the pro golf and spectacular weather at Torrey Pines today also saw a number of paragliders in the background. It reminded me of our reader Murph checking out the bluff-front houses:
Here’s how he described his close calls:
During my “formative” flying days (about 3 years ago) I had quite a reputation at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Some of my hair-raising moments included……..
**I was losing lift and trying to make it back to the gliderport, but could not make it so I had to land at Black’s beach. This is rather routine as you just aim for a dry section of sand. Well, as I was rounding a bend and setting up for a final *flare* to land I realized that it was high tide and that particular section of beach did not exist anymore! I landed in 4 feet of water and began a mad panic to unclip my gear before the waves sucked me and my wing back out to sea.
Never have I been so happy to see a middle aged nude guy, as he raced into the surf and held onto my paraglider so I could extricate myself!
**Once while flying over the Torrey Pines Reserve area the wind got too strong and I landed traveling BACKWARDS on the north side of Torrey Pines Rd with my wing draped over a tree. The lifeguards showed up and left when I told them I was uninjured. 15 minutes later I started hearing lots of sirens. They started getting louder and before I knew it there were 4 emergency vehicles there. I told them I was okay so they all left….including a hook and ladder truck that COULD HAVE helped me get my wing out of the tree, but hey…I was alive AND unhurt so no worries here!
** My alternative landing stories also include one where I was trying to fly with the big-boys above Scripps aquarium. In my attempt to make it back to the lift-band along the cliffs I sunk-out and had to land right on La Jolla Shores Dr. Fortunately for me a construction truck not only yielded, but even gave me a ride back to the gliderport!
Luckily I have never hurt myself or anyone else. Torrey Pines is actually a very safe paragliding site……as long as you stay within your comfort zone and fly smart. The more I fly the more conservative I get. My library of noteworthy “stories” has not expanded in the last couple years.
In the video, “A view of La Jolla Farms homes that only a handful of people get to see”, that first house with the infinity edge pool and basketball court is Steve Altman’s, former president of Qualcomm.
Yes, a nice one – all 20,872sf of it.
Next door is Burkle’s, which is 26,674sf. Bill Lerach, the atty who took down Enron, is a few doors down.
He would prefer that people see in him a classic American success story. Ronald Wayne Burkle, 54, the California-born son of a grocery store manager, worked for his dad as a box boy, dropped out of college and put in 15 years at his dad’s store and the company that owned it. In 1981 he mounted a botched buyout attempt of the chain and was fired. And then he got very serious about investing, parlaying a few lucky bets on regional grocery chains into a controlling stake in giant Pathmark, management of four private equity funds with $4 billion from investors, stakes in some 35 companies and a personal fortune that FORBES pegs at $2.5 billion.
Along the way he cultivated a do-gooder image for making peace with recalcitrant unions and investing in low-income urban territories where bigger players fear to tread. He made pals of young stars, pumping $50 million into the apparel company of rap producer Sean (Diddy) Combs and rehabbing a New York City apartment as a crash pad with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is 22 years his junior. Above all Burkle made some political connections. He raised millions for the Democratic Party and befriended–and now employs–Bill Clinton as his irrepressible and irresistible rainmaker.
Connections matter in private equity. A piker in a game dominated by $10 billion funds, Burkle built his fortune buying where no one else cared to go–junky companies with tense union relations, tortured finances and tattered physical surroundings. He invested lavishly in the Democrats when the Republicans controlled Congress. In recent years he has raised $50 million for the Democratic Party; Greenacres, his 50,000-square-foot mansion on eight acres in Beverly Hills, hosts up to 40 political fundraisers in a year. Now all that hobnobbing looks smart.
Great vids! On the topic of paragliding, it reminds me of this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGzzSIZvA40
Any guesses on Burkle’s home value today? North of $80m?
Highest sale in SD County history is $48,150,000 in 2007 for two parcels with 120 feet of oceanfront in Del Mar.
It is such a trophy property though that I’d take the listing at $89,000,000!