Learn paragliding

Found a great forum on paragliding:
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/index.php

Everyone is great and nice to me dispite my newbieness.

But it’s as I feared. There is really not very much paragliding in or around NYC.

There is a place up in Ellenville….which is close to where I grew up…but I think I will have to wait a while, save up some money, and take a nice long vacation next year, out west or some other country to learn to fly.

My father mentioned that if I like flying to much that I consider actually learning to fly a plane, and make some money off the hobby…..I’ll stew on it.

One week of tutelage was not nearly enough!!
I’ve tasted blood and want more.

In the end I had 8 flights. 1 tandem and 7 solo!!!

It’s incredible and difficult to describe. It’s a good feeling to say the least.

I look up at the sky now and want to be connected with it again. To fly again.

Now I am looking to find out how I can continue my flying in NY, preferably some thing close to NYC where I live. There seems to be a school in Elenvill NY, just off Route 17…. but the conditions do not seem as beginner friendly as they were here at St.Hillier!

But it’s my understanding that people come from all over the world to come paragliding here! It’s pretty special.

does anyone know of any clubs or groups near NYC?

Today was my first day of Paragliding class here in Grenoble!

I wanted to do this for sooo long and now I’m actually doing it! Insane.

Anyhoo. Turns out I really suck. I’m coughing a little of that up to the language barrier. The class was 75% in French. So I only caught the gist of what was really going on.
There are three people in the class, and I’m worse than the old fat guy. amazing.

BUT!! I was relentless in my attempts. I kept trying. I would drop the wing, and I would have to pick it up and go again. and again and again till finally at the end of the day I got one good run in. I managed to get the wing inflated, then transfer the weight to my “belly”, then proper acceleration, and made it all the way down the hill and did the 90 degree turn, and kept going and an almost alright stop.

I must have had one or two perfect stops and some great accelerations and stability, but in general they were completely outweighed by how many times I screwed up!!

It’s important to keep going though. Get back on the horse so to speak. And when it’s fun, that is a million times easier to do.

But it’s still to early in the year I believe to begin paragliding. Which is a good thing as it will give me some time to read/discover the sport which I currently know nothing about, except my desire to try it!!

Going to Grenoble the land of paragliding…but it will be winter…and I do not know if it is a sport that one can do in the winter. We will see what happens when I get there!

Learn paragliding offers you a new perspective on nature.
If you decide to start your initiation, have a look on the following DVD before or just after your first lessons.

Paragliding DVD for beginners

I tried it one day in the Erzgebige near Dresden: its the best! If I have the money to buy the equipement I will definitely learn it!

You love your freedom and in your dreams you’re flying over your garden and your house and town? Then there`s nothing better for you than paragliding… ;o)

Did my first lesson. Fell down a lot learning to launch. Wasn’t too bad except that I didn’t feel that anything my instructor was telling me to do was helping me improve my technique. Kiting practice went OK. Did two actual flights from the top of the training hill to the bottom—so far not the “glorious” experience it has been purported to be, but I think I will enjoy it much more in the next few attempts.

Has anyone out there trained in the Santa Barabara area? Anyone have advice or recommendations about choosing an instructor?