Simons Personal Account of Paragliding
Paragliding has to be the most exhilarating and uplifting experience you can ever undertake. We waited for suitable flying conditions, when they arrived, we set off to the launch site, it wasn’t until we reached the top of the hill (a big one) by car, that my nervousness started. I remained calm but still apprehensive. Next it was time to get ready, so I had a parachute strapped on me, the paraglider was already laid out on the ground behind me. I stood up being supported from both sides, whilst the paraglider got attached on to me. Next the pilot attached himself to me so he would be directly behind me as we flew. Now we were ready for take off. I was still holding on to the guy on my right side’s arm, we took three maybe four steps forward and we were up and off. I let go of the guys arm, as we took off I felt very calm and not in the slightest bit stressed. We got a little bit of lift and flew over the top of a dry stone wall.
It was at this point that we really did start to get some height, my whole body had tensed up and I was holding on with all my possible grip in my right hand onto one of the ropes that was carrying us below the wing. I told myself to relax, which I managed to do (slow deep breaths). I remained calm like this until we picked up some speed, and I stupidly glanced down (fatal) my heart began to beat very fast and each beat was a lot harder. So much so that I thought it might want to jump out of my chest, so I tried to calm myself down again. I decided to admire the view, instead of how far below me the ground was. All the while the pilot talked to me in a very calming and positive voice, which helped to keep me relaxed, we flew around for approx. 10-15 minutes.
As we slowly started to descended towards the landing spot, the pilot explained to me what I had to do as we came into land. Which was simply to lift both of my feet up towards my bum and keep them there. Mark (the pilot) said that he would take the impact of the landing and I would land on the tops of my feet shins and eventually my knees. When we came into land it all happened so fast, I remember the ground getting close didn’t tense up, then we touched down. Mark ended up on top of me, he sorted the wing and ropes out. After making sure that I was OK (which I was) and once the wing was sorted out Mark took off my parachute. I stood up still buzzing with excitement, my heart had slowed down one heck of a lot from what it was, though it was still going ten to the dozen. It took a further 24hrs until it settled back into a normal rhythm, but WOW what a rush. If you get the chance to try it don’t hesitate to go for it! I loved it and I would do it again.