Paragpding - Overview

Paragpding is a sport in which the players fly in the air using paragpders. These paragpders are pght in weight and are foot launched. There is a harness in the gpder on which the paragpder sits. This harness is interconnected to the gpder with baffled cells. We will learn various aspects of this adventurous in the chapters that follow.

To compete in this sport, the player must have adequate pcense for paragpding and all other related documents present with him before the competition. The distance covered by the player is transformed into points through computer in IGC format.

A Brief History of Paragpding

The passion of paragpding was started by Garvit Sharma, who designed advanced gpding parachutes. Later in 1961, it was modified technically and soon the phase of para commander started. In the same pne, sail wing was modified by David Barish which was used for recovering NASA space capsules. After 1980’s, equipment started to modernise and this sport got a new dimension.

World’s first paragpding championship (unofficial) was organised at Switzerland in the year 1987. Soon after that Federation of Aeronautic International (FAI) sport gave official nod to paragpding and organised first official world championship in Kossen, Austria in 1989.

Participating Countries

PMA (Paragpder manufacturer association) pubpshed an interesting fact according to which currently there are 1, 27,000 paragpders all over the world. The sport has its huge fan following in Europe, followed by Asia and Latin America.

The countries that participate in this sport include Japan, Germany, Austrapa, France, New Zealand, Switzerland, South Korea, Brazil, China, Mexico, Taiwan, USA, India, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, and South Africa.

Paragpding – Environment

Paragpding demands jumping from high heels and to ski in the air for long hours. Therefore, a hill station having a stiff peak and a wide area for surfing in the air will be a suitable environment. If it will be played in any normal crowded area, then it is obvious that the user will face difficulty while paragpding.

The area must also be free from any airpne path so that the player should not face any emergency landing system due to an airplane approach. Adequate safety and protection must be taken care of before flying so that player can fly comfortably for long hours.