Monday, November 29, 2010

Paragliding is Positive!

I finished work today and, as always, my first thought was: “Is it flyable?” (Of course I'm always checking the conditions of the wind and what other pilots are doing while I’m working). It was three in the afternoon and Makapuu was flyable, so I quickly headed that way. I got there and I could see quite a few pilots up from a distance.

I hiked up to Juice with Reaper and was anticipating an awesome sunset flight. I was right. As I was about to launch I heard Fire Jack ask Droid on the radio if he was going to land soon. Droid replied that he wanted to fly with me for a while and I told him I should be launching in T-minus 4.5 minutes. Within that time frame, I was off. A perfect launch as I ran off the hill, Reaper right behind me.

The sun was beginning to set as it was about 5pm and a few pilots were still in the air. We flew around awhile and finally it was only Droid and I in the air. I told him before he landed he was my only victim left for my sunset paragliding shot, and ordered him not to land before flying next to me. Sure enough, he did. I got some great shots of him with the sun setting in the background. I (CAREFULLY) pulled out my phone to snap some photos on it. I had plans to send the sunset photos to Guy Hagi of KGMB News in case he might like to air it on the news tonight. (I have been planning this for quite some time, ever since someone said, “I wish we could get paragliding on the news as a positive sport.” BINGO! A light turned on and I had the perfect idea as to how we could make that happen.)

Droid landed shortly after the photo shoot and I followed him 20 minutes later. Upon landing, I wanted to enjoy a spiral dive because I hadn’t done one in a while. After my spiral, I started playing with my wing and pulled on the A’s for an Asymmetric Collapse. Reaper came on the radio and told me I should try to Horseshoe my wing by pulling the inside A’s, so I did. I tried filming the wing at the same time, and captured a little bit of it. Reaper chimed in on the radio and told me I had enough altitude and I should try it again. Apparently some spectators in the LZ did not see it. So I gave it another try. Mahalo to Tim and Little Red for their photography and filming. Also Mahalo to Tim for parapuppy-sitting.

I mainly wrote this for you coffee-drinker-readers, enjoy! :)

Guy aired the photo on the 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock news and I have included that video, as well as pictures, within this article.

5 comments:

Thom said...

Bonnie Great write up and thanks for the positive Press, we need that.

Thanks for the Shack text too.

Were all those pics and vids done on your phone?

Bon Bon said...

No problem. I mainly did the write-up because you asked me to. Glad you enjoyed it. I wanted to share the news video with everyone though, in case they missed it.

No, I only shot a few photos with my phone. I get so scared holding on to that thing for dear life. I had my Canon camera with me, too. I only shot a few shots with my phone so I could submit them to Guy while eating at the Shack (remember, I had this all planned out).

Let's go get some! Last day for a while.

Brazilian Ray said...

Right on, good job BonBon! let's do the other news channels ;)
aloha
Brazilian Ray

Duck said...

Sweet Pic BonBon! Nice to have the good press! Good thinking!

sandy said...

Hey girl, you're a STAR!

Just like Guy said -- Mahalo to Bonita for that shot!