[JoeF]

The video we studied as a kind of stark "first" for us in early org. Early 1970s.
The film showed a definite vertical luffing dive for a very long vertical distance.
Soooo, if the film was not of Ed Gardia, then the it was of someone else.

[Frank Colver]

A John Lake "Sail Feather" would have saved the guy's (whoever he was) life. Positive dive recovery for "standard" Rogollos.

After I did tests with a scale 10' model standard Rogollo I never flew my Eipper without one.

After seeing it on my Eipper FlexiFloater, Paul MacCready said he considered it the most important safety improvement in Rogollo type gliders.

Frank

[Rick Masters]

I think it was John Lake, in the early days, who was kind of astounded to see hang glider pilots 360 into the hill for lift.
He had some sailplane experience, I think, and they NEVER did that.
They'd do figure-8s. Never straight in.
So HG was breaking new ground, right off the bat.
Literally and figuratively speaking.
Me, I never thought anything of it.
A 360 was just a bunch of 90-degree turns linked together.
I couldn't care less what sailplanes did.
They were always saying we were crazy but they were killing themselves, too.
Learned about John saying that after I'd accumulated around 3000 GSD XC miles.

[Frank Colver]

I came within a hair's breadth of hitting the mountain below Soboba doing that. Had to crank the 360 extremely tight in the back half to avoid.

Hmm....it feels good to be 82 all of a sudden!

Frank

[JoeF]

Confirmation of name spelling arrived in my email this morning, June 17, 2020, from Elisa Tartaglia: (emphasis bold and size added)"

Hello,
I saw your article on your web page, US Hawks. My brother is Ed Gardia. He was the first to have died in 1972 while hang gliding. I wanted to clear up the name for you, Gardia. He would take all of us hang gliding whenever he got the chance. He truly was a wonderful human being.
Elisa Gardia Tartaglia