Ground Effect

After my journey through the unfamiliar, it was cool to be back at my home site, Woodside, where every thermal is an old friend.

My buddy Tyler came out for the first time since his shoulder surgery. He was sore afterwards but had a big smile!

It was a really light day so I'd climb as high as possible, then spin down to a height that I could just climb back up from. I was trying out a new profile so it took a while to get dialed in again. A couple of times it was a little tense finding lift to climb back up.

When we had outlasted the last wave of paragliders, we landed at FlyBC's beautiful field. No wind and glassy smooth air makes for fun landings!

You'd think 4 hours of thermalling would've been enough but I rushed back up to fly my paraglider. Too late for lift and it was already blowing down so I had to double-speed run off the mountain. I held on to my risers and pulled myself upright to look down to the farmers' fields passing by... suddenly I felt like I was sitting on a swing, a flying swing. I had one of those -how did I end up here- moments and then smiled, thinking of how life will always surprise you if you just allow it.

The air was so quiet, I could only hear the air past my lines and birds chirping as I floated over the trees in the LZ.

To me intense is fun, but I enjoy the calms between.