Utah Windriders Association

Arrived friday afternoon to a 9 knot northerly, stayed steady till night fall. Not enough to rig. camped on the beach with the family and the intent to get the 12 yr old twins on the water.. Saturday New Zealand's own Louis Evaga showed up with 4 kids in tow and we shared a ride on yuba giving up some planers on a 9.0 and free formula, 1 or 2 reaches, on and off throughout the day. Again, northerly all day. Sunday was a more usual thermal for yuba but it did not come up until noon, from the shores of Fayette, but that was only a few knots, enought to get the kids out on the START and a tiny starter sail.. they had a great time and may be the beginnings of addiction for years to come.. think one of the twins is hooked, and talks of "we can ride together" caught my attention.
The local Paragliding troops were out in full on the North shore. I arrived on friday evening watching some of them catch the wind in their gliders on the beach thinking those are way to big for a kite, and thinking what are they doing on the beach... 7am saturday morning they were launching the paragliders off of the beach with a tow boat a 100 yrds out in the water pulling them with a running start into the air... I thought this cant be as dangerous as it looks, but they have a real snazy setup.. way more than a 1000+ feet of small nylon rope, connected to a motorized/hydraulic disk and pole on the boat that lets out line like a fishing pole with drag, pulling them with just enough force so they done do a faceplant into the beach on running takeoff.. then once they are a speck in the sky, real high up,, way high up, the glider hits a quick realease on the tow rope and it gently gets realed into the boat with a small parachute attached to almost the connection of the quick release rope.. amazing.. no rope in the water, no glider in the water, real neat to watch.. THey also have the same setup rigged to the back of a pick up truck, land starts.. cool stuff..
Water was freezing.. had to be low 50s?? water is higher than i had seen it a few years ago.... to the treeline of the trees on the southwest beach and northerly beach.. still room to fill though..
peace out

That paragliding scenario is called towing. It can be done with a boat or on land behind a truck. Usuallyl when out on a boat (That was Chris Santacroche, Wade, and some other firends of mine), They are doing a manouevers clinic. They go out over water, tow up and while flying over water unduce collapses, full stalls, and acro (areobatics). This way they can push the limits of the wing to find out how it reacts and if they or the wing fail they can throw their reserve chute and land in the water. They say that about 1 in 20 or so end up getting wet and rarely is anyone ever hurt.

Yeah, I saw them do this one year. That is way cool... Brilliant the way the small parachute reels in the rope... But I'm trying to remember if it got tangled once or the motor stopped reeling and the rope floated down to the water. That's a long rope in the water for other boats to run over... It looks like a ton of fun.

Brett, the twins! That's right... I forgot about that... Wow... The Yuba tribe needs to get down there with you the next time to help raise those kids! Let us know next time.