Help us get an Adaptive Paragliding Trike in the Kootenays!
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This GoFundMe campaign is to raise 7,300CAD to purchase an Adaptive Trike and make paragliding a more accessible activity FOR EVERYONE in the Kootenays.
- Paragliding typically requires taking off, and landing on foot. A trike mitigates the take off and landing portions for passengers with disability, with added safety and comfort.
- The Kootenays are an incredibly beautiful and rugged mountainous region, where outdoors access can feel remote and intimidating. With proper training, an adaptive trike extends the range of outdoor activities accessible by those with physical limitations or disabilities.
- Beyond extending the range of possible passengers able to experience the joys of free-flying, adaptive trikes can also be used as a teaching tool for athletes with disabilities wanting to pick up paragliding as a potential mountain sport, thus offering the possibility of a reclaimed sense of autonomy and freedom.
Hi, my name is Aurelien Sudan and I am a paragliding instructor & tandem pilot located in Nelson BC, currently raising funds for an adaptive trike harness for the West Kootenays.
As part of my recreational flying career, I have gotten the privilege to fly in high and remote places across the continents including off-the-grid mountain ranges in Canada, taking off from the Mont Blanc glacier in Italy, flying through the fjords in Norway, or my original hometown mountain ranges in Switzerland.
Free flying is an immense human privilege. Soaring over mountain ranges, sometimes alongside magnificent birds of prey is an indescribable feeling, only made better by the constant yearly improvement of technology, flying gear and teaching methods.
It has now been 9 years since I started flying solo and 4 years since I took the plunge to become an instructor and tandem pilot, making the sacred vow to share my passion for the sky safely with others via educational tandems or in-person lessons, rather than keeping that pleasure to myself.
As part of my recent training with master pilot David Stanek through his non-for-profit Adaptive Airtime in Chiliwack BC, I have gotten the opportunity to learn how to carefully take passengers with physical disability on custom made trikes designed to fly.
For a snapshot of the offered experience, head over to my website homepage and scroll down until the trike video: https://www.paraglidingjourneys.com/
We all face various challenges and adversity throughout our lifetime. I have found that those with physical limitations find a newfound sense of Freedom in the Air.
This feeling, this desire to keep redefining who we are, to keep exploring and adventuring in the World and connect with others is as important as the air we all breathe.
While paragliding may not solve any real existential problems such as World hunger or climate change, free flying, in its humble way offers new horizons of freedom and perspective to those on the search for feelings of expansive freedom, self confidence, and regained independence.
My goal here is to raise enough funds for one adaptive trike, so that tandem paragliding becomes a more inclusive and accessible practice here in the West Kootenays, and opens the door to motivated adaptive athletes living or travelling in the interior of BC to learn how to fly solo with the support of our talented team of local instructors and tandem pilots.
Few manufacturers provide viable trike solutions, but they exist! A reliable adaptive trike solution costs 7,300CAD (see this option:). Any funds raised above this goal will be put towards FREE EDUCATIONAL TANDEM FLIGHTS for adaptive passengers with limited funds, as well as routine vehicle and gear maintenance to keep this practice sustainable in our beautiful, rugged corner of the World.
Thank you kindly for your time and support.
Aurelien
Organizer
Aurelien Sudan
Organizer
Nelson, BC