Thanks to Bart for this panorama shot during one of our many Q&A times. The modified one-day course went smoothly (and I think Jeannette even got all of her erasable highlighters back, ha ha).  Wonderful to see that each year another group of pilots take to the skies with more awareness and higher levels of safety.  Getting to meet fellow air junkies from around the province is a great bonus!

Paragliding skills are not static.  One day you're launching like a pro, the next day it takes you 6 tries to get airborne.  This is especially true when you're learning.  Rob had been having good launches all summer but yesterday he met with the latter half of the phrase "two steps forward…one step back".  So along with Claudia (who has been doing Novice coaching with me), we went back to the training hill to review some basics and find out where the bad habits had snuck in.  By the end of the day, both students had a few "aha!" moments and were back in their wing-handling groove.  

Jason hadn't flown in a couple of years and asked if I'd re-initiate him into the air with a tandem.  Of course!  Some thermals were blowing through as we set up so I made sure to remind him to keep on his feet while launching, and as you can see from the picture he stayed strong and we flew smoothly into the sky.  A few bumpy thermals in the air took us high enough to fly over to Harvest Market for the bird's-eye farmer's field tour…thanks Mark for offering to drive.

Toni shows perfect form running off Mount Woodside

Learning to paraglide on the "bunny hill" in MIssion, BC on a sunny day in May this year.