Paragliding

Fall 1991

My kid brother had purchased a booklet of extreme activities coupons. You know, 25% off scuba diving lessons and $50 off parachuting! I thought it interesting that he would buy such a thing. I asked him ‘What gives?’

Some guy had been selling the coupon books, my brother bought, and he was redeeming a bunch of them. Paragliding was next on the slate, he advised, and he offered to split the discount. With that, I was on board. Our older brother also joined in.

Saturday morning. We set off for our discount rate paragliding lessons. Paragliding has you attached to the sail by means of a harness. You stand upright and relax into a sitting position once you are aloft.

A one hour drive delivered us to the meeting spot. The trainer was a world class paraglider, we came to understand. How degrading this must have been for him to have to spend half a day horsing around with the likes of us shlubs. Yet, here we were.

The first stop was a practice location. We took numerous runs off a 50-foot hill to familiarize ourselves with the controls and getting used to the feel of the lift of the wind in our sails.

After an elegant lunch at a fast food taco franchise we went to the next location. A 1,100 foot plateau! The 50-foot hill was a sloping terrain. If you wipe out you’re not actually gonna fall 50 feet straight down. An accident on the practice hill might drop you 15-20 feet to the gently sloping ground and then you’d simply roll down the hill like a buffoon. Embarrassing, to be sure, but there was minimal risk of absorbing major bodily damage. But the plateau meant business.

Timing is important when jumping off a plateau and you are trusting wind in a sail to prevent you plummeting to the ground. You want to feel some resistance in the sails before you jump. Funny thing, you’d think apprehension would prevail at the thought of leaping off a mountaintop and looking down at the possibility of death. Not so, or at least I didn’t experience any. There was actually an eager anticipation.

I made three jumps that afternoon off the plateau. While sitting up high in the sky pulling at my control handles, one in each hand, the thought of falling to the ground brought no fear due to the sense of control I felt that I had. The flying contraption was easy to maneuver.

Upon returning to our parents’ house there was an abundance of diminutive sandwiches at our disposal. Mom Klem had guests to the house earlier in the day and had it catered with sandwiches. Tiny delicate sandwiches, they were, and could be best described as delicious and numerous. Tired, dirty, and hungry we decimated these leftovers.

A fine day.
-klem