Contagious Behaviour
Things have been going quite well over the last few days - I just finished introducing some students to the wacky world of paragliding during a 5 day course and I've also been lucky enough to sneak in a couple tandems along the way - yay!
Teaching paragliding is something I've always hesitated getting into; watching instructors have to guide students in on radio or work on groundhandling on a beautiful xc day has always been something I never envied. Instructors sacrifice a lot of solo flying time to teach courses, and although commercial tandems are similar in that way, at least you get some flying in. I've always more or less approached getting my instructor rating as something I had to do because in Canada being an instructor is a requirement for the tandem I rating, and that is most definitely my ultimate goal.
I kind of surprised myself by enjoying teaching a lot of the course. Seeing somebody who has no idea about paragliding suddenly be able to take off safely, fly and then land is really cool....especially when they land and are so stoked about their first flights. There's a powerful energy in that and it's very contagious...it reminds me of what I was like on those very first flights and how "getting high" for the first time was an experience for me that I will never forget, but that also felt so right.
I've done a couple tandems as well, which is what I totally get stoked about these days. To date I've done 5, and I just love having company in the air. Laughing and joking while flying is so much fun, nevermind doing it while the sun is setting, flying over pretty landscape. I sure need to work on my launching skills though! And my landings need a bit of work too, but that will come with more practice.
Looks like I'll soon head out to Golden for a few days for the Willi XC Challenge, which will be great. If the weather's on my side, my goal is to set a new distance record for myself. C'mon 100 k's!
Teaching paragliding is something I've always hesitated getting into; watching instructors have to guide students in on radio or work on groundhandling on a beautiful xc day has always been something I never envied. Instructors sacrifice a lot of solo flying time to teach courses, and although commercial tandems are similar in that way, at least you get some flying in. I've always more or less approached getting my instructor rating as something I had to do because in Canada being an instructor is a requirement for the tandem I rating, and that is most definitely my ultimate goal.
I kind of surprised myself by enjoying teaching a lot of the course. Seeing somebody who has no idea about paragliding suddenly be able to take off safely, fly and then land is really cool....especially when they land and are so stoked about their first flights. There's a powerful energy in that and it's very contagious...it reminds me of what I was like on those very first flights and how "getting high" for the first time was an experience for me that I will never forget, but that also felt so right.
I've done a couple tandems as well, which is what I totally get stoked about these days. To date I've done 5, and I just love having company in the air. Laughing and joking while flying is so much fun, nevermind doing it while the sun is setting, flying over pretty landscape. I sure need to work on my launching skills though! And my landings need a bit of work too, but that will come with more practice.
Looks like I'll soon head out to Golden for a few days for the Willi XC Challenge, which will be great. If the weather's on my side, my goal is to set a new distance record for myself. C'mon 100 k's!
posted by Veronica at 1:12 PM
1 Comments:
Cool to read your comments on teaching... I've been thinking about doing it for a while and it seems like sharing your passion with someone like that would make the sacrifices well worth it. Still scared to have someone crash under my watch though... ugh. Highs and Lows.
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