Background
On Monday, August 1st, 2022, I went paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland. August 1st is the Swiss National Day so there were paragliders representing each of Switzerland's various regions early in the morning.
I went paragliding with AlpinAir because the hostel I was staying at, Adventure Hostel, provided a discount. Interlaken is rather touristy and the sky was always with paragliders while I was visiting.
This was my first time paragliding. Essentially, we went up near the top of a mountain and started walking quickly with the parachute behind us on the ground. Shortly after this, we were airborne. The parachute is controlled by directing it in such a way to receive the draft upwards.
The pilot asked if I was prone to seasickness and I said I was not. This later lead him to doing several tricks and going upside down. By the end, I was quite dizzy. The pilot had a Go Pro camera and recorded video and photos, letting me control it much of the time for either. It was an additional charge to have all the images and videos, they were transferred to my iPhone with an SD card adapter.
Overall, the entire flight lasted 25 minutes and provided an intense experience with all the spinning around I allowed the pilot to do. Having a light jacket was helpful as it is much more windy in the sky. I was able to bring a small backpack up in the air. Everyone paragliding ends up landing in the same area at the end.
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