Chris-Ottawa 0 #1 January 6, 2011 Just curious how people got involved in the different sports and which one drew you to the other. Watching this made me think...chicken or the egg? http://vimeo.com/18191997 I grew up wanting to get into paragliding, just never had the opportunity where I lived. After moving, I ended up going to do a tandem in 2005 with a group of friends and was instantly hooked. Started PFF (AFF) and didn't look back. Since then, I've been eager to get more canopy time and was drawn in by he enjoyment of hiking and low cost of paragliding. Last year I took my intro paraglider course, quickly progressed through the first 2 licenses and have been flying since. Share your story."When once you have tasted flight..." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonstark 8 #2 January 6, 2011 I was living in Dublin Ireland and the weather then stunk for skydiving. I took my 7 cell Django Firelite out to Sugarloaf Mountain and started to foot launch. I could get 5-7 launches a day. There were a few parapente guys there that I scared so bad they offered to loan me their gear. What a great difference! The biggest problem was the very narrow wind window for parapente. Winds have to be more than a little but less than too much. It was a pain finding or waiting for the right conditions so I took up rock climbing instead. I also found that hang gliding has a broader wind envelope and there were more good days for that than for parapente. jon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trig78 0 #3 January 6, 2011 I wanted to skydive since I was a kid but when i was growing up there was virtualy no skydiving in my country. I started paragliding in 2000 and first time I went out of my country in 2001 i started skydiving. Today i love both and i have both sets of gear so when I'm not working I'm either on a DZ or on some of the local hills. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pchapman 262 #4 January 6, 2011 Hey Chris. Skydiving first. At the time, paragliding as a sport had barely started even in Europe. Here in flat Ontario it's easy to find a DZ, but over the years one has had to be more dedicated to find some little PG school. Why paraglide? I like learning to fly different aerial vehicles. Already had my private pilot's licence, already had flown aerobatics, so skydiving and paragliding came next. A few years later one local hang gliding school started offering paragliding so I took a few lessons shortly before a trip to Europe where I took a week's formal course. The few lessons and a signed note from my local instructor (even with no rating) were valuable, because that way they let me sign up for the Intermediate course in Austria instead of the Basic one. It would have sucked to have travelled that far and then only used the bottom 100 ft of THE ALPS, on the bunny slope so to speak. By the end of the week, even a sled ride flight from our highest launch was a 4 km flight into the valley. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piisfish 135 #5 January 6, 2011 I started paragliding in 1988, jumping in 2002.scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FrancoR 0 #6 January 6, 2011 Very nice Video. I started Sykdiving in 1999. 2 and a half year ago my friends and i got stuck on a boogie with bad weather, so 3 of us started to surf the internet. We found out with a skydiving licence it is a lot easier to get the paragliding licence in germany. We also found out that with a paragliding licence it is only a week of training for the paramotoring licence. :-) We all live within an hour drive to the alps so we picked a school and started that same year and a couple months later we also did the paramotoring licence. None of us ever went to the mountains to paraglide, but we do paramotor ocasionally, for example to look for freebags and reserves in corn fields. :-) I should do more paragliding.If it does not cost anything you are the product. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chris-Ottawa 0 #7 January 6, 2011 Quote but we do paramotor ocasionally, for example to look for freebags and reserves in corn fields. That's a great idea...and a good excuse to do some para-motoring. I have yet to try para-motoring, but it does interest me. We typically don't have many chops in Canadian DZ's to justify having a para-motor, but it would be really handy anyways."When once you have tasted flight..." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GreenLight 5 #8 January 8, 2011 Hang Gliding first. Two years later Skydiving. Had friends who did both so one thing led to another. Never bothered with Paragliding.Green Light "Harry, why did you land all the way out there? Nobody else landed out there." "Your statement answered your question." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
