I've been watching videos of people paragliding recently, and I thought that just looks so
awesome.
I'm going to try to do that.
I went on Yelp, found a place with pretty good reviews that teaches paragliding, and
I gave them a call and just asked, how do I get started on this?
And they said, if you want, you can come in an hour, and we'll get you started on your
lessons.
So here I am on my way to learn how to paraglide.
It's not parasailing, it's paragliding, I think.
I don't know anything about paragliding, by the way.
Yesterday was awesome.
As soon as I got there, he laid out a canopy, and he basically showed me how it works.
And it's actually pretty simple once you learn where everything goes.
And I spent a little bit of time learning how to fly the canopy, just kiting is what
they call it, and you get it up in the air and just learn how to control it and prevent
it from collapsing.
And then after a little while, he was like, do you want to jump off this little hill?
It was an epic 10 seconds.
I was laying out the canopy, and then I heard like a rip, and then everyone looked over
thinking I ripped the parachute.
But luckily, it was only my pants.
So today I was hoping to jump off the big mountain, but I got there, did a few jumps
off the bunny hill, and I sucked.
So instead, I just did a bunch more practice jumps off the small hill.
Still fun.
Anyways, now after I got it down a little bit more, he said come back tomorrow, and
I can jump off the big mountain.
Over here, it always seems like there's an epic sunset.
I'm terrified.
Yeah, this is a lot scarier than I thought it would be.
Oh my god.
This is terrifying.
Once you're up here, it's actually really easy.
All you do is like pull on one side, a turn.
When I turn left, I turn that.
It's awesome.
Look at that.
So how much does it cost to learn how to paraglide?
The reason why I did that was because this specific school gives you unlimited lessons.
It includes all the basics, but it also includes all the advanced licenses, like if I wanted
to be an instructor later down the line.
It also comes with all the equipment rentals you need for the first three months.
So after the three months, if you like it enough, you can invest in your own equipment
and continue taking classes with your own gear.
At first, I was looking at the hang gliding, but then I saw how much was set up and breakdown
time there was and how much equipment you have to carry around.
And paragliding is pretty similar, but just with very little equipment.
When I was first going into it, I assumed that you launch off the top of the mountain
and then you just fly down and then land at the bottom.
But really, it turns out that you can really fly for as long as you want.
A lot of times when the wind hits the mountain, it causes the wind to go upwards and you can
kind of catch that and ride that up.
And another option is to catch a thermal, which is a pocket of hot air.
And once you find it, you can just ride it all the way up.
A lot of people actually even land at the same place they took off from, which I thought
was awesome.
If you're thinking about learning how to paraglide, I would highly recommend it.
It's awesome.
It's actually not an extreme sport like I originally thought.
It's not like skydiving.
First time I went paragliding, there were two guys that were over 80 that were doing it.
And although there is a lot of initial investment up front, once you have your equipment and
license, there's almost no cost really to flying afterwards.
So I think it's the least expensive form of flying you can do next to tying a bunch of
balloons to your back, which also sounds fun.
I might try that next.
