Para-Gliding Takes Off as Risky and Expensive New Sport in O.C. : To Touch the Sky

On a warm summer day, Robert Pelletier drove to Lake Elsinore, ran off a high cliff and didn’t come down until he reached Palm Springs.

When real estate agent Bob Ryan goes flying for the day--without benefit of airplane--he takes a cellular phone and makes deals several thousand feet above the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point.

Para-gliding is a relatively new sport in the United States and only a few hundred people in Orange County are licensed to para-glide. But those who participate seem almost addicted to Jonathon Livingston Seagull fantasies of flight.

“I’ve had that built-in dream to fly all my life,” said Pelletier, a Newport Beach resident who teaches para-gliding. “You glide over canyons and ridges, hawks soar in the wind next to you. It’s like you’re a part of the sky.”

In truth, there isn’t much of anything between a para-glider and the endless blue heavens above--or the ground below.

To the uninitiated, of all the summertime recreational pursuits, this is arguably the riskiest. The para-sail resembles a small, rectangular parachute, weighing little more than a large cat. After strapping into a harness, riders get a running start to let the wind fill their para-sail and lift them into the sky.

Unlike hang gliding, there’s no metal frame giving a modicum of protection. Just a few pounds of fabric to catch the wind.

Experienced para-gliders can sky ride for hours, soaring to heights of 18,000 feet, the maximum allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“I’ve flown so high that Big Bear Lake looked about the size of my fist,” said Laguna Niguel resident Ryan, a Screen Actors Guild cardholder who has flown for the cameras on “Baywatch” and MTV. “You literally have to watch out for jetliners.”

It’s that freedom that makes people take risks and empty their wallets to enjoy para-gliding--although experts say the sport is more expensive than dangerous.

Buying into the sport runs $3,000 to $5,000 for entry-level equipment--the sail, harness and helmet--and lessons. Serious para-gliders commonly put out $10,000 and up for advanced equipment.

Then be prepared to drive a distance for the best places to glide.

While some Orange County residents actually fly in the county, most serious para-gliders travel to San Bernardino or Lake Elsinore for the tall hills and wide, empty stretches of land. The more advanced para-gliders use the shorter hills at places such as Gliders Point in Yorba Linda.

“The people I’ve taught, they don’t care about the money, they don’t care about the time,” said Ryan, a certified instructor who flies about four days a week. “Once they’ve gone up and flown the sky and been with the eagles and hawks, it’s all over.

“They come back down with their eyes wide and face flushed and want to go back up again immediately.”

Of course, there is risk involved. But para-gliding experts insist that the daredevils are few and the dangers of unassisted flight are minimal.

“The public perception is that we’re mainly a bunch of thrill seekers,” said Pelletier, who has taught para-gliding for six years. “We’re very calculated risk takers and the more you know the better you can manage your risk.”

Out of “thousands and thousands of flights last year, there was only one death,” said Bob Hannah, para-gliding safety director for the U.S. Hanggliding Assn., the sport’s sanctioning authority. “You are definitely in more danger crossing a busy street.”

Reducing risk means becoming knowledgeable about wind--a colorless, odorless, natural fuel for para-gliders. Sky riders must learn about wind shadows, thermal drafts and many other concepts involving air movement.

“This is the closest people can get to being a bird,” said Hanna. “Unfortunately, unlike birds, people don’t have wings.”

What they do have is a growing cadre of instructors who are becoming more proficient.

“We can teach someone to paraglide in one day, but that doesn’t mean they’re good,” said Pelletier. “The hardest thing to teach is judgment.”

Good judgment starts by assessing wind conditions before take-off. Too little wind is as bad as too much.

“Air currents are much more volatile than the ocean,” said Pelletier. “Imagine learning how to boogie board without being able to see the waves.”

Learning to launch is three-quarters of the battle for a rank beginner, say para-gliding instructors. But once out in the great empty depths of the sky, caution and understanding of wind is the difference between a good time and a brutal accident with the ground.

“Once they learn to get airborne, people have this incredible euphoria and confidence that is sadly misplaced,” said Pelletier.

Lessons are generally held on the weekends and basic certification takes about one or two months to complete, depending on instructor. Many students move on to advanced classes on how to ride thermals and other para-gliding courses.

Para-gliding is in its infancy in the United States, where it was brought from Europe about six years ago. European para-gliders number in the hundreds of thousands, according to Hanna.

However, California and the rest of the southwestern United States are considered a Mecca for paragliding because of desert heat that creates thermals--a vertical draft caused by a build-up of hot air near the ground.

Thermals are like an elevator to para-gliders, shooting them to heights where they can touch the clouds barehanded.

Soaring for hours creates a sense of peace and tranquillity that paragliders say is the reason they fly.

“A lot of people have had these dreams of flight like a bird,” said Hanna. “You just hang up there, looking down at the trees, flying through the clouds.”

“You don’t think of that nasty divorce you just went through or the problems of every day,” he said. “It’s very much a mind cleansing sport.”