Since my arrival to Switzerland in July 2006, I was really keen on trying Paragliding and Hang gliding, do tandem flights with an instructor (mentioned here and here). However, I was kept busy upon my arrival here, I did not manage to do that. So, on 31.03.2007 Duncan got me a paragliding lesson for my birthday! This is definitely one of the cool gifts I've ever received on my birthday, thoughtful and what I had on my mind for some time, and it's really appreciated. Cheers Duncan for the perfect gift!
By the way people, if you want your gift to be added to the list of cool birthday gifts for me (^_^) , I recommend you start saving for my dream electronic drum kit, the Roland TD-20 for the low price of 8000 Swiss Francs :) (watch this YouTube video for a demo) Don't be shocked by that big number, the exchange rate should sort things out ;)
So, Duncan and I took our flying lesson on Saturday 19.05.2007, we were lucky with the weather. The weather was perfect (as shown here) after a week of randomness. So, we headed to the school in Emmetten, after watching a video in German (at that point I appreciated my German lessons), we headed to the field to start the fun part (except walking up the hill with the paragliding gear, but the experience is definitely worth it).
Photos from our first lesson are here. Below are the videos viewable in this page.
This was my last jump for the day, this was from the highest point we went that day (I have no idea what that scream is at 0:15).