Wow!

I don't fly a sailplane because I'm an old geezer with a tube up my
nose. I started when I was much younger, you know, back in the day when
you'd do something because it interested you, not because it was "cool"
and on youtube? Who needs the shallow, unaware, "cool kids" who need to
be spoon fed an activity before they'll try it? You certainly can't
converse with them. I'm waiting for the selfie video of the guy plowing
into the side of the cliff. I'm sure his equally "cool" friends will
pull it from his body and post it before his body even gets "cool"... I
mean cold.

Just another "Old Geezer". BTW - I tried sky diving a couple of years
ago. It was terrifying (and fun!) and I did it for training, not
because it was "cool". Most of the others there were "cool" young
people complete with tattoos, piercings, spiky hair, Go Pros, and a poor
grasp of English. But, Oh, Man... Were they ever "cool"!

(Flame suit on)

On 3/6/2015 9:09 PM, gotovkotzepkoi wrote:
Paul, I agree with you completely. Take "Cloudstreet" for instance. It's
full of geezers with tubes up their noses who look like they are in
intensive care. It will appeal to the already initiated (sort of) but it
will do nothing to attract young blood. In the US no one is producing
any good soaring promotional film. A pity. "The Gliding Soul 2014" is
the exact opposite.

Paul Villinski;898261 Wrote:
I wasn't thinking about the relative safety of paragliders versus
sailplanes -- but about how effectively a beautiful, extremely
well-produced video like this promotes the sport to younger people.
There's not much comparable to JB Chandelier's films in our world of
sailplanes -- this is about the closest I've found;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egBWcpthuMw or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rCtnTXo3SE
On the whole, we seem to have a talent for presenting our amazing sport
in a very bland way, and largely devoid of younger people.

Interestingly, as of 2010, the vast majority of PG pilots were in their
40's and 50's, with more pilots in their 60's than in their 20's. In
terms of fatalities, a quick glance shows more fatalities in sailplanes
most years than in paragliders and hang gliders combined, with an
average of 6 per year in sailplanes since the 1990's according to the
SSF. The size of pilot populations in SSA and USHPA are roughly the
same.

I keep trying to bring my paragliding buddies, now in their late forties
and early fifties, into our gliding club, but I haven't succeeded yet. I
think part of this has to do with the way our sport is perceived...and
my love of soaring and sailplanes always makes me wish it were
otherwise. Soaring is so damn cool -- why do we fail to communicate
that?




--
Dan Marotta