On Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 10:58:25 PM UTC-7, Paul Villinski wrote:
Paragliding is the only soaring sport that's actually growing, and this pretty much explains it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjxkXNC31Z4
Or, any other vid by Jean-Baptiste Chandelier.

Cool Kids?

Having been a free flyer myself for nearly 30 years, I would say most free flyers are the farthest from (socially) cool that one can get. It requires passion and real dedication to become really good. I will group hang gliding and paragliding together because they are more similar than they are different. Paragliding has a little more convenience and it is easier to get started but in the end it is equally hard to get to the advanced level.

Like Auto Lilienthal said "Sacrifices must be made". Nobody has ever become wealthy from the sport. Most have had to alter their lives in order to pursue the dream. Living location, personal relationships, employment, and everything else has to take a back seat to flying.

These folks have the flying gene. Only a small percentage of humans have it.. They NEED to fly.

There has been some crossover of free flyers into Soaring over the years. The ones that make the transition make exceptional soaring pilots. I would say roughly half of the competition and record setting soaring pilots in the USA come from Free Flying roots.

Here is a new video that illustrates very well what it is like.

https://freeflyers.pivotshare.com/me...e-flyers/20496

Enjoy.

R5