paraglidin' with Jonothan...

[sussexupbeat]

I went paraglidin' last weekend with Jonothan paragliding.. no, Jonothan is not the owner.. It's a cool korean guy who read Jonothan Livingston's book... Anyway, it's a little sketchy to think that after only being introduced to it on saturday, I flew solo on sunday.. but it was amazing! You can take a 2 day course for 180 thou won, which is what I did.. you do ground work the first day, then get in some tandem flying on sunday.. if you're ready, you rock it solo. If it's in Pyeongchang, than there is no progression.. it's 4oo feet, or nothing.. If it's near Incheon, i think it's some sort of progression. You can also do a one day thing where you get in a tandem flight.. it's 80 thou i think.. but totally not the thing to do. You don't get the real experience until your doin' it solo - trust me! A bunch of koreans who don't speak much english say "run run run run..." and you sprint as fast as possible off of a cliff.. it's actually very calming though. Anyway, Jonothan have an english speakin korean who you can talk to. And they communicate with ya up in the air via walky talky. DO IT.
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[climbergrrl]

Hi there!

Do you know if you can go paragliding in the winter? Or is it sort of a warm weather pursuit? Just curious...

[sussexupbeat]

They told me that they go all year round..

[juls]

hey

if you have the guys contact info could you post it .....

cheers
julie

[Fainthearted Wack]

Hey, if you decide to go paragliding in Korea, make sure you check it out first and that the company you do it with is safe and professional.
I went paragliding last year with a bunch of friends, after I jumped, I found out that there was a hole in my parachute, my friends, chute buckle kept on unbuckling, and then in the early afternoon, a guy feel out of his chute, fell 200 ft. and died. All this the very same day, same company. JUst be careful, cause KOreans are not known to put safety first.

[RunRun]

DOUBLE CHECK everything yourself! I was on that trip as well and the guy did fall. The afternoon group could not paraglide, and was sent out to search for him. Tragic, not a fun weekend.

[Joanne]

Yikes!!!!! A couple of friends of mine wanna do a bungee jump in the spring.... anybody know anything about it in korea? Heard any similar stories??? Or know where the most reliable place might be? Has anybody done it?... Again with the whole safety thing in Korea... makes me wonder if this might be better done on an entirely different trip, (ie,to a different country).:eek8:

[ricardo]

The afternoon group could not paraglide, and was sent out to search for him. Tragic, not a fun weekend.

WTF?? I'm imagining something like... "Sorry, your paragliding is cancelled because our equipment failed and someone died. But your replacement activity is to go look for the body."
please tell me I'm wrong

[RunRun]

Yes, we were a big group that day- maybe 30? So 15 went in the morning, while the other 15 saw the set for some drama out in the wilderness (woohoo).

After our morning session jumped (er...ran off the mt.) I think most of us went home. While "Fainthearted Whack" and I were at Homeplus in Gumi we got a message that the afternoon group could not go paragliding because a Korean who was not in their group, but who had just jumped when they were at the top had.....fallen out of his harness.

So, not knowing if he was okay, missing, or gone supposedly many from our afternoon group went to look for him down the mountain.

Later that night someone said that they saw it reported on the news and that the man had indeed died. Sad.

AGAIN PEOPLE DOUBLE CHECK YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT! YOU NEVER KNOW....:eek8: :eek8: :eek8:

[skinsk]

I've seen paragliding in Korea and have considered it. . . this story gives me pause. . . (I know even at home it's a top cause of broken ankles. . . ouch). . . do you remember or can you find out the name of the company that had this string of problems? In retrospect, would it be possible to check for holes/bad buckles?

I tried bunjee jumping in the late 80s in Boulder. . . out of a balloon. I checked (and they showed us all points of connection. Cord to balloon, cord to harness, harness to me) everything to my satisfaction, and being a climber I may have had more inclination to do this. The balloon was teathered so the height could be measured. The company made it a point to stress safety.

This is Korea. Regulations are clearly not the same, bribery (and skipping town when a lot of people die) is rampant, and even the regular use of seatbelts/child-seats is a relatively new phenomenon. Things are improving rapidly! Gotta love the descending life lines (so you or your partner can escape a burning love motel!). . . anyway, go, look at the setup, ask friends etc if they've heard of any safety problems, post in appropriate places (like here!) . . . I like that KOTR is so safety focused, yet we do engage in climbing. . . we clip into some dodgy pro/anchors. . . use good judgement and common sense:)

That said, I will defintely look into paragliding accidents/reports/problems before I launch off a cliff here. I'd also be concerned because my Korean isn't that great, and something like diving (and presumably paragliding) might be better learned in English. . .

[Fainthearted Wack]

Hey sorry, I missed this thread back in winter when I stopped checking this site. Don't know the name of the group we went paragliding with, but they did seem like they didn't know much - don't know if they were training people at the time and thats why some guys didn't know what they were doing. At any rate, it wasn't safe, and I have heard some horror stories about bunjee jumping here too. I wouldn't do it in Korea. Well, I wouldn't do it EVER, but I especially wouldn't do it here.
On to scuba diving - I attempted to do my advanced scuba course here in Daegu - the instructors spoke English really well as they travel a lot to dive - but I have to say, they did not practice good safety (which is not good when you're to be teaching), they were not careful with the sealife, damaging the coral with their fins and touching everything. I was quite surprised that nobody got the BENZ on our 1st trip out. On that same trip, my instructor gropped me in the night while I was sleeping, and that was the end of my instruction and I never got my license.

[Hypoxic]

I just looked through this thread for the first time. I know that Korea isn't setting any records for safety - or any for even the consideration of safety - but Fainhearted Wack had some messed up experiences.

I've never been paragliding and I'm not overly interested. I really dig getting into high, wintry mountains and having to deal accordingly with the dangers of altitude and snow, but there's no way I'm jumping off of anything!