ABOVE Brittany trying out our Ozone Buzz wing at Thomas Canyon in Winnemucca, NV.
We began paragliding in July of 2015. With much prompting from our friend and Ehren’s co-worker (who also skydives) we decided to go do an introductory lesson at Point of the Mountain flight park in Salt Lake City, Utah. From our first run down the hill we were hooked. It was something that we’ve both wanted to try and had an interest in and now we had a starting point.
After many hours of driving from Winnemucca to Salt Lake City and back over many months, Ehren received his P-2 rating in November 2015. Brittany received her P-2 rating April 2016. We continued to fly and explore as much as we could while in Nevada at our own local flying sites (sites that the four of us in Winnemucca who fly paragliders scoped out on our own).
One of our major goals while traveling is to take more time to learn about the sport of paragliding, the weather, flying techniques and of course our flying skill as well as scoping out suitable flying sites. Our paragliding will be our activity focus while off the bikes. As our skills and flights evolve we can stay in the air longer and not only get to see new sights from the ground, but how the birds view the scenery as well. You really can’t ask for a better view than from the harness of a paraglider.
We’re taking our learning curve on the road. We want to take away skills and knowledge from local pilots all over the world but also begin to give back to the paragliding community as much as we can in as many places as we can while being great ambassadors for the US group of paragliders and hang gliders and US citizens in general.
Currently we have three wings and each our own harnesses with reserves. Ehren is flying a large Ozone Buzz wing. The wing is an EN A/B rated wing meaning it is a beginner to intermediate wing. His harness is a used SOL harness, the only one we could find that fit the sasquatch! We found the wing on eBay in a pawn shop in Carson City, it looked really nice in the pictures and the price was right. After picking the wing up, we laid it out and did some test kiting (kiting is when you fly the wing but don’t leave the ground, just like when you fly a kite). The wing looked even better in person. The lines were super clean and so was the fabric on the wing. The only issue was that there was some sand in the wing which we eventually got out.
Brittany was flying a medium Tonic which was a nice wing, just a bit older design so it would inflate really slowly. Because of this it is a bit slow to respond while kiting, making launching just a little more difficult. The wing is otherwise a great wing and once flying is stable and smooth. We purchased the wing on eBay again from a person in Hawaii. Brittany’s new (to us) wing is a large Swing Arcus 6 EN A/B wing. Her harness is the original harness we received with the Ozone Buzz wing and is an Ozone harness. We purchased this wing from a person in Vermont. The wing seems to be in really great shape, although we have yet to fly or even kite the wing. Once we do we will update about the stability and launch ability of the wing.