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Hey everybody, this is a new chapter, I haven't opened one in a while.

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It's about hang gliding.

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I went hang gliding.

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This is one thing that I thought to myself that I would never do, simply because I have

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actually no statistical basis for that decision other than I guess growing up in Brazil and

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this is just my guess.

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I used to hear in the late 70s and 80s, I used to hear a lot of accidents, especially

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in Rio, when you hang glide in Rio de Janeiro, what you do is you just jump off this cliff

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called Pedra da Gavia.

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Right off Rio de Janeiro, it's a beautiful view, of course, but it's a cliff and it's

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quite high.

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So I think if things go wrong and if you're a beginner, I can see, you know, fail accidents

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happening.

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There's no way you can recover probably.

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And I think maybe that's what I had in my mind.

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I also had this idea that the wings, right, the hang glider would kind of just fall apart

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and there's nothing can be done really.

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So I always stayed away from it until I had the chance and it was completely by coincidence.

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I was actually on vacation with a family in Outer Banks, North Carolina, in the U.S. to

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surf, actually was a surfing vacation.

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But as a matter of fact, they have a school there that offers hang gliding.

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And I was wondering where they were going to do the hang gliding because it's on the

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beach and if you're anything familiar, when you're familiar with Outer Banks, it's almost

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like a tiny, tiny, thin island that is flat.

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That's where the Wright brothers did the first flight.

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So it's flat.

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There are no mountains.

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There are no cliffs.

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There are no rocks.

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So I was wondering, okay, and I saw the outdoors about, you know, learn to hang glide here.

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I'm like, how?

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Where?

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Right?

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It's a beach.

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So I checked it out.

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As it turns out that they have dunes and those dunes are not very obviously, they are not

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super high, but they are high enough to allow you to do a very short flight and to learn

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safely.

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And the best thing is, in my mind at least, and I believe that to be true, is, well, if

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I crash, if I fall, you know, the altitude is not going to be an issue because I'm going

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to go like, you know, 20 feet.

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That's I think the highest I did.

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Speeds are very much under control.

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And the best part is it's sand.

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It's a dune.

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It's a very soft sand.

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So again, I'm not saying you wouldn't hurt.

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You would.

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But it's slightly better than jumping off a cliff in Rio de Janeiro, right?

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So that's what kind of, you know, inspired me to give it a try finally.

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So again, my recommendation for those, and this is the whole purpose of my little podcast

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here, is to give you recommendations.

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If you ever want to try that, well, find a school and find a school where you have some

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sort of a smooth, low altitude, very low altitude ramps or dunes where you can actually

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do this safely.

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It is a blast.

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Once you take off and it's not very difficult, I'll tell you.

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It is, you know, relatively, it's a lot easier than I thought.

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It is, it's such a nice feeling, right?

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You're flying.

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I think paragliding is my personal opinion is more interesting.

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There is a podcast I recorded about paragliding in the in the Alps, in the Swiss Alps, which

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was somewhat of an experience, of course.

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Big different rides, super high altitude, much longer flight.

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This one, it was just my first level instruction on hang gliding, so much lower attitudes,

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shorter flights, a lot of instruction and support from the instructors.

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But again, what a nice feeling.

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So again, quick recommendation.

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If you want to hang glide, there are places and this is completely new to me.

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I did not know about this, so I'm happy to share it for those interested that offer

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that lower altitude, you know, smooth ramp for you to take off and land safely, comfortably,

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and for the instructors to provide you feedback while you are flying.

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This is a key thing that I absolutely did not expect, right?

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I thought it was going to have somebody behind me on a tandem flight.

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So no, actually what happens is because it's such a low altitude and the dunes will allow

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you, right?

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The ramp, they're not very steep and allows them to run side by side.

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So the way that they ran the class, the first level sort of instruction, is I had two of

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them, two instructors on one on each side, they will help you take off and they will

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help you even steer to some extent, right?

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The hang glider with some ropes on both sides.

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So that gives you extra confidence and, you know, and control.

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But again, more importantly, they will provide you real feedback, right?

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You need to push it in because you're going to increase your speed or you need to flare,

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right?

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And push it out to the glider to actually reduce your speed.

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So you're going to hear them talking to you real time as they see it.

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And you're not that high, so you can totally listen to them and actually act.

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So that was very, very helpful in terms of learning, in terms of feeling good and enjoying

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that moment.

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Now that I, it's one of those things like learning a new word and you never heard before

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and then you start seeing everywhere, same thing for hang gliding.

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I never thought this was something possible to have such schools in low altitude, very

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mild environments to start learning.

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But they're everywhere, right?

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The same school that is in Outer Banks, North Carolina is also in New Hampshire.

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I'm like, where in New Hampshire?

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Because there are some mountains in New Hampshire, Mount Washington.

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My other podcasts about it is in New Hampshire and they have some pretty high peaks there.

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No, they have the same setup, right?

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They have some higher mounts that you can jump off and take off and you have the ramps.

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So it's amazing how now I'm finding those places that maybe I didn't know to look for

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before I actually saw that outdoor and decided to do some research.

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But that would be my advice.

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It's sort of a hidden jam for me in it open a whole different new sport that I thought

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it was not going to be reachable because of my early age, you know, scare of hang gliding.

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That's totally gone now.

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I'm having fun looking for places now if they offer this or maybe I'll just drive up to

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New Hampshire and go for my second lesson.

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And I think it's about in five days worth of lessons you can achieve what they call

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hang one.

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And hang one just allows you to pretty much rent a glider and go have fun by yourself.

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So that's another goal.

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Not very difficult to achieve.

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You just have to find five days and be close to one of those schools.

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So that's my tip for hang gliding.

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Again, it was I'm super happy.

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It was something that I thought was completely, you know, like now I'm not going to do it.

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But no, I was wrong.

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There are safe, comfortable options for you to learn how to do it.

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And then of course, go a little higher.

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Why not?

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Hope you guys enjoyed this one.

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See you later.

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Bye.