Sky Calls: 2011

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Through the Lens

Grindelwald, Switzerland - Flying the Eiger

Theres something about this photograph that captivates me. The clouds? The majesty that is the mountain in the background? or the fact that I still have a hard time believing that it's me in the photo?

The experience, extremely exciting and fun, seems to have been amplified due to the awesomeness of the photos taken by Mandy. A total stranger, Mandy, who we met on the side of the mountain sent me these photographs upon her return from vacation. Viewing Mandy's experience through her lens is so different than my experience flying through the air. She captures the beauty that is paragliding, the majesty of the Swiss Alps and the sharing of good times among the group of friends living life and sharing experiences only those who participate within can appreciate.

Experiencing the Swiss Alps for the first time is breath-taking. Flying them & watching your friends BASE jump them within 24 hours of that first experience is mind-numbing. The world of high action sports like paragliding, hanggliding, skydiving and BASE jumping is small. The mixture of people who participate in two or more is smaller & it's much smaller among those who cross-over to all of the sports. Many people who participate in one of the sports would love to cross over to the others but there are many reasons for not following through. Money, life's obligations, proximity & training availability are just a few. We in the San Francisco Bay Area are extremely fortunate to have all of those reasons obliterated. We have some of the best paragliding & hang gliding sites within a 20 minute drive of the city. There are three major dropzones located within a 1-2 hour drive and the Bay Area has one of the largest BASE communities in the world. There are an abundant of schools to learn any of the sports & the community of cross-over pilots is rampantly exploding. The explosive growth makes it easy for anyone who commits themselves to learn any and/or all of these sports from some of the best pilots in the world.

Friends from within the Bay Area free flight community share these experiences with anyone who expresses a sincere interest in any form of free flight & we ask for only one thing in return - that you pass on the experience when you become the big pimp. It's this sense of community and sharing the experience of life among friends who share a common interest that took me to Switzerland and led to these photographs.