HGFA Skysailor Magazine

22 SKY SAILOR May | June 2018 Bali Where to start? I’ve been flying paragliders for three years, but for the last two years, 99% of my flying hours were in South Africa and only 1% in Western Australia. by Jaco and Stephmarie Snyman Where Paragliding Dreams Come True… L ying in bed, watching paragliding videos on YouTube, I came across a ground handling video by Cloudbase Paragliding. It was very informative and well put together. I’m not sure if I saw the Cloudbase Bali video first and then spoke to my wife about going to fly there, or clicked on a link and ended up looking at the Cloudbase website, but it’s all semantics. I turned to my wife, Steph, and said, “I want to go fly in Bali.” Steph was born with a terrible predisposition, called the ‘Travel Bug’, so before I could say ‘thermal’, the trip was booked via Cloudbase, and the entire booking experience with Mark was absolutely hassle free. Getting There The big day arrived and we were on our flight to Bali. Excited, nervous, new people, experienced pilots, crazy pilots…What to expect? I expected a bunch of young dudes (not that I am that old) on a boys trip, with a little bit of flying incorporated. Steph had prepared herself for a trip where she would have to entertain herself. How wrong we both were! Our driver picked us up from the airport and took us to Nusa Dua after midnight on my birthday. As we pulled into the hotel, a massive lit up banner greeted us ‘Welcome Cloudbase Paragliding’. We checked in at reception, again hassle free, and were treated like flying royalty. We went to sleep, too tired to even eat the special birthday cake the hotel left in our room. After breakfast the next day, we noticed people with shirts sporting Cloudbase and AirDesign logos. Steph and I introduced ourselves to Steve (or Commando Steve, as Steph christened him) to get an idea on what to do and expect. Next thing, we were surrounded by Steve, Chris, Mark and Geoff. They were all very welcoming and I felt like we had just walked into a family reunion or found long-lost friends. Steph and Jaco My idea of a flying paradise