Tyler showing great launch form as he loads his wing and charges off into the sky!
Paragliding:
a visual journey
Follow along with us as adventurers take to the skies for the first time on a tandem, learn valuable paragliding skills or even catch a glimpse of pilots just goofing around!
Another competition…this time it was a few pilots wondering who'd make the photo log page from Saturday! With all the great photos the winner just had to be the one who was the most charming ;) Tyler showing great launch form as he loads his wing and charges off into the sky!
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Saturday was a super fun day, with my favourite repeat customers out for a paragliding tandem at Mount Woodside. I did get to kick back & relax, arms crossed behind my head as I let David fly the wing (see last photo). Always grateful for my drivers, so after our tandems I had a chance to thank Martin by driving him (and others) up Bridal Falls where pilots had wonderful late afternoon flights. Pictures from Bridal coming tomorrow... Snapped this shot as Lee was braking his Skywalk Chili 3 when landing at Bridal Falls the other day. I just love how the movement in the wing comes through on the picture, nothing else to say really (besides how great the colours look!).
The wind was howling..no flying to be had. "Come fishing!" they said, which I interpreted as sit back, read a paragliding magazine and watch the clouds race by... A throwback Thursday video from 2006 (?) at Black Mountain, just across the Sumas border crossing on the way to Mt Baker in Washington State. The Can-Ams used to be a friendly competition between the Canadian & American pilots (BC vs WA) and would be hosted at Bridal Falls one year & Black Mt the next. The "competition" has changed throughout the years, and has been held in the US each year due in part to the big campground in the landing zone. Information on this year's event is posted here on the WCSC forum if you want to check it out for yourself this summer! We will be doing a few hike & fly trips up Mt Cheam this summer, and so some pictures from trips past will be making appearances! Here's the view looking back to Spoon Lake (trail head/parking is off to the right, you can see the road zig-zagging up), still lots of hiking to get up to launch from this point but it's a nice spot to look around and catch your breath. A little over 4 years ago (June 1, 2010 according to iPhoto), Alan came flying with me on my sign-off flight to be a tandem pilot. He was my 20th signed-off pilot passenger, and after that flight I was able to start taking people who had never come paragliding before…and the adventure began.
Skywalk Paragliders host a yearly competition called Night Fever with the tag line, "Last one out turns off the light". The prize goes to the pilot who's the last one to land. Since it is usually held in Austria which is a bit far, we decided to hold our own version here in BC. Although it looks like the middle of the day in this shot, the shade shut down the lift at Bridal Falls within a half hour of George's landing. Lee held out the longest on his Skywalk Chili 3, with Joseph (Ozone) 2nd and Monica (Gin) 3rd. Monica won the endurance record for staying up for over 5 hours and took home 2 prizes! It was a busy day at Bridal Falls - a sunny, stable Saturday that had over a dozen paraglider pilots soaring the ridge in front of launch. As the lift gave out, a surprisingly ordered landing pattern developed. Surprising because not everyone chose to follow right-of-way or ridge rules on the mountain. But we'll focus on the positive and show off this short clip of the choreographed approach and landings - starring George, Mark C, Martin N then me, and a quick glance over my shoulder showed Monica coming along next with the rest of the pilots slowly slipping off the hill to join us. It's a question we hear a lot as paraglider pilots, and people are especially curious about tandem take-offs. Here is a video of a tandem launch from last week - as a passenger your job is simply to RUN! |
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