I’ve always been afraid of highs; I even used to avoid tall buildings, or any type of edification with more than three stories; One day, I decided it was time for me to face my fears in a very dramatic way by doing paragliding. It is a big step from being afraid of highs to do paragliding and it was not easy, it was a wonderful experience but I thought I was going to die.
I also didn’t do it the first times I went to the site where this activity takes place. I paid the tandem paraglide( paragliding as a passenger) three times but I backed out at the last minute; my friends thought I was a big cry baby but my fear consumed me, I was petrified. I went to the site so many times that the instructors had an ongoing bet about when or if I’ll ever gonna do it. But I sometimes I went there just to enjoy the view.
Los Estoraques is a really beautiful place to be, it has a little inn and restaurant all managed by a paragliding school called “ON AIR” that flies only on the weekends. The hill from where you do paragliding is located in front of a bast plain and the view is quite breathtaking. As I told you, the first times I went I did not do the fly I just took a few pictures of the place.
After some months, I decided to finally do it and it really helped me to watch all those people doing their own tandem glide. They were also scared but the joy in their faces after landing made me want to experience it. I had the option to video tape the fly but I didn’t want to tape my own death jejejeje, also I did not want any picture I actually confiscated my friends’ phones to avoid any type of recording.
My instructor and pilot buckled me into a harness. He gave me some instructions about what to expect; he was also a good pilot, with tones of experience, he had been on international championships and that fact made me feel safer. When we were ready he told me:
“We are going to run to the edge of the cliff and jump”
And I was “WTF….. I’m gonna died" and I told him “Aaron if I survive and my mom found out about this I am dead anyway”
Then, we ran….
The experience was amazing, I don’t remember the jump, one minute we were running and the other one we were up in the air. I just sat in my chair and it was as comfortable as a lounge chair. I was really high, but everything was so quite up there. When I was there I did not feel any type of fear, it was exhilarated and got why adrenaline junkies do what they do. Aaron’s control of the paraglider helped out to calm the last remaining of my nerves and he even made some figures and pirouettes with the glider
After 20 minutes of being paragliding, it was time to land and it was the part that actually scared me the most. We started to glide down and he said to me.
“When we get close to touch ground you have to stand up from the chair "
I COULDN’T DO IT!!!!!!!!!! We softly crashed to the ground, but we were fine and I just laughed and laughed I was so proud of myself; I finally conquered my fear of highs.
I hope you like my story and if you are like me try to face your fears in the most dramatic ways and I can assure you, you will never feel it again.
Thanks for your upvote, kisses