2013-08-01: Happy August! Paragliding in St. Johann

Hello all!

Sorry to say, not as many pictures from today, but the breakdown is that we booked 3 tickets to go tandem paragliding off of the Kitzbueheler for this morning. 

I love me some flax seed, yo.  If this is my last breakfast, I want to do it right :)

It's already hot (and the gondola in the sun isn't helping) - but on the way up, the three of them are joking with us about whether the blue strings or the red strings go in front, Hermann seems truly surprised that there are even yellow strings at all, etc.  Pretty funny stuff!

The Fearless Four - our main instructor/pilot Wolfgang, and the rest of us.

Hermann, the puppet master.  Says "he is surprised there are so many different strings!"  Claims to be color-blind and mentions to Wolfgang that he's thankful he picked him up at the bus station the other day and offered him money to jump off a cliff with strangers.  Says "you can learn how to do ANYTHING on YouTube!"  :)

Trust, beautiful trust.

Amy's perspective while filming her little birds. 

One of the cool things about this (besides the ENTIRE THING) was that one of the cliffs that we had spent so much time at looking over saying "wow, that's a long way down" was the same cliff we jumped off of.  At the middle station, while the pilots were prepping the sails, a small crowd gathered to watch - I checked with the girls periodically whether or not they were a little nervous yet - to my surprise they were both totally cool!  Well, not really my surprise - I know they're cool.  But you know what I mean.

So how this works is that we waited for the thermals to rise - it was a good day with light winds (*snicker*) and we'd wait until we saw the grasses about 50 feet down the hill start to move and then start running.  I'd like to say it was similar to the trust in skydiving, but it was much less abrupt.  It's not like you are falling and THEN have to trust your equipment.  You are literally swept (gently) into the air - you already have confirmed your trust in your equipment from the first second you use it.  When you are only 2 feet off of the ground, you know it's working! 

All 3 of us were up at the same time, such a great way to see the town and surrounding areas.  Funnily enough, the straps on my harness were in such a place that I *almost* lost the keys to our apartment.  From about 200 meters.  Never to be found again...

There were times when the 3 of us were quite close - I could see the faces of Ella and Maya, so it was that close.  These were also the times that made Amy the most nervous on the ground :)

When we got closer, they asked "Hey Rick - do you like rollercoasters?"  "YEAH!"  And then came the reassurances.  "OK, just so you know, it will feel like things are out of control, but everything is fine - I am in total control" (which always makes you feel more confident :)

And then the spins started - I don't think I actually went upside-down, but it was pretty close.

It (and the rest of the ride) was awesome.

75% of the family in the air!

TOUCHDOWN!

She's a natural.

She's also a natural!

Here's me (with my big diaper butt) helping Maya finish up.

WE'RE ALIVE!  :)

Obligatory church post.  This is the beautiful inside of the church in St. Johann.  It just doesn't seem right to have a post without a picture of one of the churches :)

I believe the rest of the day was spent walking around St. Johann, swimming at the big public outdoor swimming complex (we had to defeat the Harpy guarding the gates first - she took a special disliking to non-native Austrians).  Victorious, we swam and swam and swam. 

Will be so sad to leave here tomorrow...