Speed Riding - A safe extreme winter sport

3rd October 2008

A bizarre fusion of skiing and flying comes with an incredible get-out-of-jail-free card that has given it a safety record that’s hard to beat.

Speed Riding - A safe extreme winter sport

If there is a rock, tree or something else you can't avoid, all you have to do is yank on a cord and the paragliding canopy above your head will hoist you straight up and out of the danger zone.

"Speed riding is something that you can learn, slowly. It’s not something you have to throw yourself off the top of a mountain to try out.” says 35-year-old François Bon.

The sport started in the Alps three winters ago. Since then hundreds of people have been certified as bona fide speed-riders by the French Paragliding Federation. The sport has found friends in America, Japan, Scandinavia and New Zealand, although Bon insists its home is on the slopes of Les Arcs in the French Alps, where it was first conceived.

“When we started many skydivers and paragliders wanted to try it,” he says, “but now it’s mostly skiers. They’re not used to flying or using canopies, but that’s no problem because it’s better to be a good skier than a good flier. The rest you can learn.”

Kit consists of a pair of skis, helmet, goggles and a specially-designed canopy that is closely related to the traditional paragliding rig.

Speed riding for beginners

  • A background in skiing with a working knowledge of paragliding useful.

  • Learn through a school such as the Speed Riding School in Les Arcs (www.speedriding-school.com), where a two-day course costs about €190.
  • Start by re-learning that obstacles are no longer to be gone around but gone over.
  • Next comes a paraglide off a big hill and finally everything comes together on a designated speed-riding slope.
  • Get good and there’s no limit to the height you can start from: François Bon is in the Himalayas this week, where he plans to launch from 8,500m.

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