Paragliding in Korea

I have now been in Korea for about five weeks. Each weekend that I have spent here gets more and more exciting. This past weekend has by far been one of the best times that I have had, not only in Korea, but in my life. I was given an amazing opportunity.  Myself and a few friends all traveled to a place near Yong-In on Saturday. Around lunch time we all left Yeokguk station and rode the subway for about one and a half hours. Then we rode a bus for almost two hours. It has been the farthest I have been while here in Korea. Once we finally arrived at our final destination there was an amazing view. We could see many mountains and the air was much fresher than in Bucheon. We were picked up and brought to a school that teaches paragliding. Within the next hour I would get to fly! I have never been paragliding before but I was beyond excited. We were going to be strapped to a professional paraglider and would get to fly for about ten minutes. I was so excited to just get up there and have my turn but I was one of the last people to go. While I anticipated my turn I watched all of my friends land on the ground with huge smiles on their faces. They told me about how exciting it was for them and that just made me more excited to go. When it was finally my turn we rode a truck up to the top of the mountain. I’m pretty sure it should only fit like five people but we had about thirteen people all crammed into the inside of the truck. It was pretty uncomfortable but I didn’t care because soon I would get to fly. Once I got on the top of the mountain, the instructor picked me and started suiting me up. I was wearing a harness, gloves and a helmet. I wasn’t even on top of the mountain for ten minutes. It was so fast that I couldn’t believe that I had to wait so long for my turn. 

Once we were prepared for take-off my instructor told me to just run and don’t stop until he told me too. It felt like I was just running in place because we weren’t moving for the first couple of seconds. It was probably really funny to watch. Once I was in the air I felt so refreshed. It was such an awesome feeling. We took some pictures which felt really awkward because I looked like an idiot with that helmet on. Once we started taking the video it was really exciting. We took really sharp turns, which were extremely fun. My instructor compared the feeling to a roller coaster but I thought it was way better. I mean how many times you get to paraglide in your life.

I would say it’s much rarer than going to an amusement park. Once we landed I was told I should land on my butt, but one of my friends ripped her pants, so I didn’t do that. My instructor told me that I did a good job and that my flight was his favorite of the day. That made me really happy because it was awesome for me too. Once we all finished we went home and grabbed some dinner. Everyone talked about how awesome it was and we all wanted to go back again soon. It was the coolest thing I’ve done in Korea so far! Hopefully the upcoming weekends just get better.

-Sarah DeSpain