My first time at Channing East. I'm told it was a very unusual day, switchy and going from 0-12 mph. I learned how to side hill kite by trial and error - the ground comes up fast!
Who can believe this was a Saturday! There was hardly anyone there. And it was purrfect. Just strong enough, no risk of blowback, tons of beach... In the distance, you can even see the Golden Gate Bridge!
Elings is such a cool training hill! Kind of better than Ed...
I'm lucky to have a dad who loves paragliding and is excited to film my launches and give me advice. This was a great Saturday, starting at Ed and ending at (blown out) Sand City.
Thanks, Pierre, for getting me off the couch and into the green fields of Shoreline! There may not have been much wind, but there were butterflies, exercise, and good company. :) Video credit: Ziv
I don't know what heroin feels like, but there's no way it feels better than a flight off the top after a month without air. I literally thought something was wrong because I felt so weightless. :D
Iquique was the most amazing trip I've ever taken (tied with my first trip to Israel). I'm so grateful to so many people, especially Jesse, for making it possible. Also, thanks for the video, Pierre!
I daylight as a data scientist, so I had to plot my flight times (left) and how positively I described them.
If I saw someone else try to launch like this, I would see what was wrong, but somehow I spent all day doing aborted launches off the top. I clearly need to practice forward launches! Takeaways: torpedo like you mean it, and run under the wing, braking smoothly. Thanks for the video, Ziv!
After a month of bad weather, finally some proper flights! By the third flight I was really enjoying it again, having a minute or two to enjoy the view, the calm, and the fresh air. This photo is after landing, when I kited over to Tim.
More kiting, looking out at the ocean at Mussel Rock. :) I'm finding that the more I kite, the more fun it is.
Jesse gave a bunch of us a long site intro, and then when the wind picked up and the tide ebbed, we were off! I went from terrified to amazed - such beautiful views, so much airtime! Here are the Doarama and a Google Earth photo.
My first flight from the 1750 was crazy! The turbulence and amount of pressure I had to keep on the brakes were scary, but it was also really fun to be up so high and to keep flying over the 300 and 600. This was my first non-sled ride, and my first flight over 10 minutes! And my first 360s.
Here's the same flight as a Google Earth track using code from glomium's repository.
Jesse gave us so many tips, and in a few hours I already noticed myself getting better. That said, I still handle my wing like a one-year-old learning to walk. ;)
Things to improve: launch from higher up so I have more room, brake a bit with my right hand, brake a bit with both hands before turning to inspect wall.
I managed to kite from landing to the road, dodging a few people and gliders. :)
I launched from the 600, got a BUNCH of lift, and yelled at Jesse til he heard me. And then he took my photo! :D
Here's another day on the 600, my second flight recorded with XCSoar. A huge thank you to everyone who developed XCSoar and Doarama!
This is the first time I tried to use the speed bar. Good thing Harry politely reminded me to check the LZ, aka to notice that I'm about to fly into the trees! Clearly, I need to work on multitasking and always considering my flight pattern priority #1.
This was probably my most awesome day flying so far. When Jesse took a left up to the 600, I held my breath thinking he forgot I wasn't ready... But of course Jesse knows 100% what's up, and he was treating me to a day of "long" flights and lots of advice. Jesse, you'll never know how much I needed that day!
Going from the 50 to the 300 is like going from grape juice to wine - there's a difference! I'm sure that the 300 will soon seem small to me (1.5 minutes air time is never enough!). But for now, 1.5 minutes of air time for each of 6? 7? 8? flights is totally worth waking up early on the weekend!
This video is from one of my first paragliding lessons on the 50' hill in Milpitas. It may not look like much, but these "flights" will always be enormous in my memory. With just a little jogging (and a lot of oversight and preparation by Harry), I tasted freedom from the ground. And for someone who dislikes hiking, I sure ran around a lot.
The summer I spent at Wallaby Ranch was one of the happiest times of my life. I got to live with an amazing group of people and occassionally take tandem flights. Thanks, Malcolm, for the unforgettable summer!
My dad took me to Kitty Hawk when we were passing by on a road trip (he "passes by" a lot of places :). I had fun at the time but didn't realize how important this memory would become to me later. I think this visit nudged me a bit towards the sky, even if it took a while.