Joel Hemmings

Joel has always enjoyed the spectacle that hot air ballooning brings to the audience. As a young boy he would go to Bristol Balloon Fiesta and watch the special shapes as they took to the air. 20 years later in 2016 Joel was once again found himself at Bristol Balloon Fiesta but this time he was in the arena as crew for Stephanie Bareford.

In 2014 Joel was first introduced to ballooning but it wasn’t until February of 2015 where he accompanied Stephanie on his very first flight. Its fair to say from this point on Joel was hooked and has since had the opportunity to travel the world and crew for Stephanie in a number of high profile competitions including the British Nationals, Europeans and most recently the 2016 World Championships in Saga.

As a key member of Stephanie’s crew Joel has operated in a wide variety of roles including navigator, driver and most recently crew chief and he may one day seek his own pilots licence.