Different Updrafts For DifferentFolks

While waiting for the wind to arrive yesterday, I happened to notice two strange birds in the sky. This was no regular case of ordinary oiseaux, this was a rare sighting. Only once before in les Îles had I seen such a sight and that was a few years ago. This time it was a nesting (?) pair of paragliders. Actually, it was two guys, I think.

Paragliders are basically parachute-like air foils that are capable of steering and gaining altitude. They look to have a wingspan of about 25 feet (just a guess) and they support one pilot in a sling-style seat. With a continuous updraft supplied by our local 'mountain', they looked like they could have stayed aloft all day. Their only source of power is the wind.

I first spotted them from our rental maison which inspired three of us to don our goat boots and have a closer look. I could have happily watched them for hours from the top of the hill known as 'les Desmoiselles', but the wind was building enough that a windsurf was starting to look like a possibility, so we said 'screw you, paragliders' and off to the lagoon we went.

I did manage to squeak out a windsurf at the lagoon, but there's no question that the paragliders put on a more entertaining visual spectacle than I did. There's a real beauty to riding the wind, whether your airfoil is vertical or horizontal. The paragliders, without any doubt, got the better view.

I love flying so now I'm wondering if I would like paragliding or if it would freak me out. I'll likely never know (cue the chicken music).