Traditionally, paragliders spend an hour or so cruising near their launch sites. But a new crop is upping the stakes with long-distance flights that can carry pilots well over 100 miles and last upward of 7 hours. These intrepid fliers never know exactly where or how far they’ll go — or, more importantly, where they’ll land — until they get into the air and chase updrafts, like dandelion seeds carried on the wind.
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“Ideally, we land in Fresno at sunset,” 160 miles southeast, said []a pilot from Richmond.
“Or it could be a bust,” [he] said. “We might just end up at the bottom of the mountain.”
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An ethic of cross-country paragliding requires the first pilot down to find transportation — usually an Uber or Lyft back to their car — and begin scooping up the others, who may land miles away, hours later. Part of the fun is seeing where everyone ends up.
