As you pace around the shopping mall, looking for that perfect something you haven’t thought of yet—because, in actuality, it doesn’t exist—think about this: a rustling canopy stretched out overhead, a grassy hillside below, and legs stretched out in mid-air, gliding above the earth like a bird. Epic.
Sounds pretty sweet.
Peaceful even.
It’s that view we all wish we could have whenever we see an eagle—or, more commonly, a turkey vulture—catch a draft, drifting higher and higher into the sky above us. It’s possible to give someone the gift of those soaring wings with Eagle Paragliding out of Santa Barbara. And you don’t even have to step foot inside a mall.
Owner Rob Sporrer said students as young as 11 could be up in the air, solo, on their first day out, or fly tandem with an instructor. He highly recommends the first option—which is a one-day lesson for $200.
“They come down and they have this look on their face,” Sporrer said of first-time solo fliers. “We’re basically saying you’re empowered to be pilot; it’s kind of fun.”
The piloting he’s referring to doesn’t mean the first-timer will be sailing off a 10,000-foot tall peak into the wooded abyss. But he or she would be catching air from the crest of a hill in Elings Park that tops out around 240 feet, nicknamed the “playbox,” and Sporrer said it’s the perfect training hill. The terrain is smooth without giant boulders, trees, or cactus to dodge, at a low elevation with thicker air, and the hill is famous for its perfect paraglide training conditions. Sporrer said people travel from all over the world to train on the hill. Eagle Paragliding shares access to the hill with Fly Above Paragliding, also based in Santa Barbara.
It sounds a little intimidating, but Sporrer said it’s not like other air sports people associate with human flight, such as base jumping or sky-diving. He said it’s not as “extreme,” but more low key and easy going.
“There’s so many extreme air sports,” he said. “And paragliding is so much more mellow and slowed down compared to the speed of those other sports.”
The one-day lessons work like this: After a couple of hours training with an instructor, students are driven by van up to the hilltop, equipment in hand. They’re also given a radio, into which the instructor speaks after a student is up in the air—but only if they need it.
“They shouldn’t really need us to talk them through, but sometimes it’s nice, especially on the first flight,” Sporrer said, adding that seeing a student come down after their first time in the air is one of his favorite parts of teaching. That look on their face: It’s the look of someone whose mind has just been blown.
Chris Clontz had his first one-day lesson with Eagle Paragliding in 2009. He hasn’t stopped gliding, and has since become an instructor with the company. When Clontz was a kid, he used to believe that if he could run fast enough and spread his arms out like a bird, he could catch just the right combination to lift off into the air. That fantasy became a reality the second he drifted into the air from the top of the training hill 4 1/2 years ago.
“Being in the air like that is a feeling you will never forget, and it’ll make you want more, I can almost guarantee it,” Clontz said.
He made the transition to instructor about two years ago, and said it was the way he was taught that made him want to become the teacher. Eagle’s instructors are “cool and concise,” Clontz said, and they catered his instruction to him.
“They worked really hard to teach me what I wanted to learn,” he said. “I was amazed by that. I was so amazed that I wanted to emulate them.”
That first lesson changed his life, and now Clontz is working to try to pay Eagle through his teaching.
Sporrer said many of his instructors took their first paragliding lesson from Eagle, just like he did from his previous instructor. Sporrer learned to glide from a local legend, Tom Truax, in 1995 and eventually apprenticed under Truax to become a paragliding instructor.
Now, paragliding has become Sporrer’s life, and he said he’s “fully committed:” He coaches the U.S. paragliding team and his wife’s a paraglider as well. One of his favorite things to do is launch off a peak and catch those wafting drafts of air that push him up higher than where he started from. He said it’s easy to be up in the air for hours, as long as you can stay in those drafts.
“You can actually soar,” he said. “It’s the feeling I have when I’m up there. I mean, the world basically disappears.”
The soaring present
Book a paragliding lesson with Eagle Paragliding by calling 968-0980. A one-day lesson will run you $200, and includes instruction on the ground and the chance to fly solo. The company also offers tandem paraglides, $100 for two flights, and where they’ll take you depends on the weather. Owner Rob Sporrer said he offers a 10 percent discount for one-day lessons for five or more people. More info: eagleparagliding.com.
Managing Editor Camillia Lanham plans to buy herself a paragliding lesson for Christmas. Contact her at clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 11-18, 2014.