Over the last week, the Paramotoring community have expressed their grief and offered their tributes following the loss of this talented young man. I have tried to write my own message on more occasions than I can count, but have struggled to write how I felt.

 

When I first saw the messages of condolence on that noble tome of wisdom, the Lemmings Forum, I felt lost and saddened in ways that I found I could not express. Over the past week I have searched for a reason why the loss of Julius has been affected me so deeply, despite the fact that I had only met him on a couple of occasions.

 

While driving to work, as usual paying no attention to what I was doing or where I was going, I had an epiphany (don’t worry, I’ve got tablets for it now) . I realized that everyone I had spoken to about Paramotoring (which is everyone I know, a lot of people I don’t know and the nice lady at directory enquiries) had been told about Julius. I’d told them about the stunning way he flies, how everyone stops and looks up when he performs and how much guts it takes to fly that way.

 

Julius had become an important part of my Paramotoring world. When I daydreamed about spins and wingovers, instead of watching at the Audi driver about to cut me up, it was Julius that had inspired those dreams.

 

I think the other reason is that Julius was so young, a mere 24 of your earth years old. But this got me thinking, is this just a problem with the way we measure age? If you counted age by how much life had been lived, rather than the number of times a lump of rock went around a ball of hot gas, Julius would have received a letter from Her Majesty a long time ago while I would still be in nappies.

 

Anyone who’s life experiences include chatting up complete strangers in a foreign country without a single shared word of the same language, while wearing a pair of pink fluffy washing up gloves, has lived a life the rest of us can only envy.

 

I shall always remember Julius for the inspiration he gave me and for how he lived his life, an example for us all.