Reverse Inflation into Forward Launch & Paragliding

Video transcription

My name is Patrick Eaves with Wingencvy Paragliding. In this clip, we're going to be talking about going from your reverse inflation to a forward launch and a forward kiting and what happens in the launch sequence. So you have the wing up over your head and you're in your reverse kiting. Once you're ready to turn around and launch, you're going to let go of your risers and have a little bit of contact on your break and turn and start moving into the wind. Once you start moving into the wind and you're ready to launch, you're going to put your hands behind you so you have no brake pressure on, lean forward and do what we call a torpedo position and just run as fast as you can until you're off in the air. The key to getting in the air is not giving extra brake pressure or jumping. It's just speed of running. So the faster you run, the quicker you're going to get into the air. Once you have that perfect wall built, go ahead and bring it over your head. Once it's all the way up over your head, release your risers, turn around. If there's good wind, you can stand there and kite there for a minute feeling where the wind is through your risers. As soon as you're ready to launch, lean forward into your torpedo position, breaks all the way off and run, run, run, run. The other thing you want to know in this section is forward kiting. Let's say you brought the wing up, you let go of the riser and you turned around, and you're not ready to launch yet. You're just going to stand there and forward kite it. You control the wing with your brakes. It's going too far to the right, you give a little bit of left brake. Whatever you can do to keep the wind over your head. Remember not to over control. Everything in paragliding, whether you're flying or on the ground, it's going to be slight brake controls no more than an inch at a time. Give the wing a few seconds to react because the wings won't react right away. Also, lean forward some into your harness so you can feel the risers and your harness against your chest. That's how you know which way the wind is going, which way the wing is flopping around. You'll be able to stand there and kite a little bit longer. We call that forward kiting. Again, as soon as you're ready to launch, lean forward into a torpedo position, put your hands up, and run as fast as you can into the direction of the wind.