Social Life...: Hang Gliding 101..

I got to spend the morning on the North Shore learning how to Hang Glide!! What an experience.. I had never done anything in the sky like that other than rack up a million frequent flier miles... I wasn't even sure what Hang Gliding was until I showed up and got a pre-flight lesson from the instructors at Paradise Air. When I woke up that morning I had no idea what I was going to be looking down upon a few hours later.. Those pesky helicopter rides and cessna Hawaii tours had NOTHING on hang gliding.. being able to literally see the North Shore the way birds do was breathtaking.. I had a seatbelt strapping me into my seat and that was about it.. The hang gliders are meant for two people, and both people have the ability to "fly" using foot pedals and the handles to steer. I took the opportunity to take the pilot seat and fly for a bit.. until my arms started hurting from holding them up (Note to self: work on my arm muscles in the gym) and the fact that it was like 50 degrees at about the 4,000 feet mark (my hands were freezing!). Hang gliders is a mixture of hand gliding but with a motorcycle motor on steroids.. I took comfort in the fact that IF the engine stopped, we could still technically "glide" down like a normal hand glider would.. Something surreal about staring down at the different shades of blue the ocean produces with the sunlight and coral that lay beneath the surface. We saw a group of dolphins sleeping at Waimea Beach (one of my all time favorite beaches) and so many honu (turtles) swimming around.. one of the prettiest sites I've ever seen in such a short time period and from an angle that was unbelievable. We flew from Dillingham Airfield to Waimea Beach, to Kaena Point, then back to Dillingham for landing.. talk about awesome.. AND I logged one hour of official flight time to go towards 20 hours to get my pilot license.. WHATTTTTTT??? Did I just make a new goal??

We conveniently have cameras around to document the event.. ok, maybe it was planned for Hawaii HI-Lights.. ok, yes it was.. Our flight suits were pret-ty sexy..