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!
With such an incredible sky on Tuesday evening, I got so many incredible photos. Here's one of George launching as he tested out the new Skywalk Range Air harness.
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If you don't believe in magic then you haven't been paragliding. Sharing the sky with bald eagles as you fly between the misty clouds is an experience you just can't describe with words... Fall flying can mean air that's less turbulent but still bubbly enough to stay up. On Friday Kevin and I were paragliding close to the tree tops and to each other to catch small thermals and enjoy the autumn views.
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. Fall flying is here, and that means some beautiful soaring days mixed in with smooth stable days where we can run up and down the hill racking up the flights. Soon it will be time to bring out the skywalk spot landing circle and have fun contests at Riverside again. Maybe even today...
I'm not gonna lie…one of the coolest things about being a team pilot is the free swag! Three rad new t-shirts arrived yesterday, just in time for this upcoming weekend of flying. They are made from some kind of magic material that is soft yet stretchy, meaning they'll be very comfortable to wear in the air and won't get all wrinkly at the end of the day. This is an important feature to help you avoid that ragamuffin look when you go for dinner after a day of flying so they don't kick you out of the restaurant (well…as soon as we figure out how to battle helmet hair of course). Thank you Skywalk! ps. If you want one of your own, contact George or Lee at Thermal Addict Airsports, our Western Canada Skywalk importers This picture just makes me laugh…a friend commented on Facebook that it looks like I'm saying "I own you now!" In the summer it's sure nice to wear shorts when paragliding. But when you fly tandem, sometimes passengers accidentally kick you in the shins as they sprint off the mountain. Knee socks do the trick - pull them off before take-off & squish them down in the hot & sunny landing field. Cupcake socks found at my friend's flower & gift shop in Chilliwack - visit QuikPik for a pair of your own! Coming in to land yesterday at Riverside I lined myself up with the train tracks…in warmer weather the tracks can give off lift to extend your flight, but on this smooth fall day it was just a fun game to fly along and pretend you're Superman flying through the air (faster than a speeding train!).
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