A friend of mine, Jared, organized a day trip for a bunch of us to go on this past weekend. I’d seen people do it before and had wanted to try it. Jared, the consummate wheeler-dealer and chief herder put this little paragliding trip together. I hope you enjoy the video.

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We went from Ulsan to Miryang, not very far as the crow flies, but a couple of mountain ranges west of us. We spent just under 2 hours driving to get there and  then another 4 hours prepping for and taking our turns. There were 15 of us foreigners and 5 pilots. So we went in groups of five.  There were a lot of other people there, too. This spot was one of only dozens of paragliding places in Korea. Lots of god wind and mountains.

It was awesome to watch the take-offs, which I thought would be much more hair-raising, but were actually quite gentle.  Mine was uneventful, but I didn’t fit my big ass in the seat too well.  I bet its a lot better going alone than going tandem with a pilot behind.

SaTang had a great time. I considered leaving her at home, but she’d have been locked up for almost 10 hours. Besides, she’s a lovable dog and almost everyone was happy with her there. Lots of the foreigners left their pets behind in their home countries so welcomed a friendly dog around. She barked everytime someone took off or flew overhead but otherwise stayed out of the way. When it was my turn to fly, she got a little concerned and didn’t want to be left behind. I had to have Nina, one of our group, hold her for my takeoff.

Of the group that went,  the nationalities represented was truly global. There were Canadians, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, a South African, Koreans, an adopted Korean who was raised as an American and me.