p.s. Captions with each photo tell the story.
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!
Yesterday I had one of my favourite solo flights of the year. It wasn't the furthest I went and it wasn't the longest I've stayed in the air. But after a summer of teaching and tandems and having set plans (must land in 20 minutes to meet next passenger…must drive chase vehicle for student learning XC instead of launching...) I threw all "musts" away and just…flew. I took chances of gliding on to areas that may not have lift, but that also forced me away from my usual landing spot. It was glorious and fun and just what I needed to remind me that my favourite thing to do when flying alone is to go explore. And that I did. p.s. Captions with each photo tell the story.
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Every year, Skywalk holds a video competition asking pilots to show what they love about their wings. I had started a video to answer the question "How did you get into this? How do people learn?" and decided to enter my movie into the competition. Here's the finished product…enjoy! After tagging the low hill in this picture and failing to get high enough to fly over the ridge to go back to the club landing zone at Mt Woodside, I picked out a bare field and set up a landing approach. As I got closer to the ground I saw the "poop truck" spreading manure over the crop fields…including the spot I was aiming for! Luckily the furthest corner was still…clean…so I spiralled down to land, packed up super quick, ran off the field and left before getting sprayed. That always makes for a good day, and still makes me smile when I see this image.
My friend Joe came into town recently to introduce Mt Woodside to a friend of his. He took the SupAir Delight pod listed on our Used Gear Page for a demo, and appreciated the warmth as he got high over launch. He left the pod behind for now, so you can still drop me a line if you're interested in this lightweight pod, or any of the other gear listed. A picture snapped at the perfect moment (thanks George!). We are running hard, straight into the wind and our tandem paragliding wing is lifting us into the sky. A few more steps and we were flying! After playing in the sky, all pilots have to put their toys away. Luckily as a tandem pilot I can make my passengers do the work! Rudy helped fold up my paraglider after our flight this afternoon. He originally came paragliding with me years ago during the BFAR fundraisers we used to have, and decided just this morning to come out for another one. Thanks to big lift we got over the landing zone high, then did a steep spiral that left us both full of adrenaline! He finished his flight by hopping back on his motorcycle and heading back home over the Coquihalla. A full day of excitement for sure! I donated a tandem paragliding flight as a prize for a friend's dry Grad last season, and when Grant came to redeem his prize he brought along his brother for some airtime too. We had a blast, with both of them taking the controls and learning how to turn in thermals. Mom and Dad came along to watch and take photos, and I'm pretty sure they'll be back to soar the skies themselves! We don't "jump" off the mountain - we run until the wing picks us up. I often tell my passengers that we are like Wile E Coyote from the old Road Runner cartoons, where he runs off the cliff and keeps running in mid-air until he realizes he has no ground under his feet. Instead of pulling out a miniature umbrella like in the cartoon, our wing has already started supporting us. Chantal did a wicked job of running as you can se in this photo. You can see her feet still underneath our harnesses as we take to the air. Moments later she was sitting comfortably in front of me as we soared over the tree tops. We have a great community of instructors and tandem pilots who - instead of competing with each other - hire each other and work together helping our students. Last week Andrei hired me to help him fly this great couple. I took Sandy who had tons of skydiving jumps so was cool as a cucumber the whole flight. I managed to get a giggle out of her though at the end of the flight when we did a quick spiral before landing... Who knows what girls will get up to when left unattended? Chantal and I shared a big laugh after coming out of our spiral while on a tandem paragliding flight on Tuesday. Not telling what was so funny though! |
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