Kristina & I go paragliding with our buddy John
Kristina, my wife at the time, and I planned to join my old friend John to do what we see someone else like this paraglider doing here. From Poo Poo Point on West Tiger Mountain. Monday 20 August 2009.
John Kraske was an old buddy of mine from our long ago whitewater river running days. He’d helped me recover my lost and stolen kayak, a red Perception Dancer, popular at the time. We also studied licensed massage therapy in Seattle and eventually became master bodyworkers. We were close despite he was a bit older than me as we shared mutual interests in outdoor adventure, spirituality, and preventative health. At the same time we didn’t see each other all that much especially as we both tended to roam around and had very different schedules. Neither one of us were good at sitting still. I asked him to participate in my wedding ceremony to Kristina back in July, and he did so with quiet glee. John served as one of my groomsmen, or male attendants that Saturday the 11th of July. As a wedding present, he offered to take both Kristina and me paragliding.
John had his own small business based on the Oregon Coast at that time teaching students how to paraglide. He also took paying customers out in his tandem paraglider. He called his little company Ravens Dance Paragliding at the time. It is an expensive sport initially, as many such activities often are. Not only is the equipment costly and bulky, but the sport regulatory and safety licensing and certification process is expensive. He gifted us the experience for free. Kristina and I had never done anything up in the air like this, so we gladly accepted. We felt much gratitude and greatly appreciated his gift as it required much time, energy, and cost from him. After all, he had to drive back up into Washington from Oregon. John had a lot of fun, tho, with us. Having fun is a big value for him. So off we went.
What follows are a series of fotos taken by both Kristina and I that show some of the many steps it takes to prepare to launch a tandem paraglider. As this is written 15 years after the event, it’s also a snapshot in time, a slice of Americana, illustrating people having a good time even in the midst of the Great Recession. At that time, all three of us friends had endured unimaginable losses, as did so many other people we knew. Life goes on, tho, and we chose to fly.
John, picture left, my old whitewater kayaking buddy from the 1980s and 90s, instructing me what to do…and what not to do. At this time in our lives, my friend’s an active 65 years along, and I’m 50, merely halfway to 100. Feels somewhat strange to write these words and clean up old pictures salvaged from the fire some 15 years later.
First, however, we had to hike up to the top of Poo Poo Point on the short, steep Chirico Trail. It’s about 3.8 miles RT with some 1,760 feet of elevation gain. The first push up off from the flats is steep and well-designed. Here Kristina, only 41 years along in time, heads on up the trail.