Parasail-So,You Want To Fly

  Parasailing, also known as paracending is a recreational sport where a person (or two can fly at the same time) is strapped into a safety harness, which is attached to a parachute, and towed by a vehicle (usually a boat) which will put you into the sky at heights of sometimes 100-500 feet. Some commercial operations will take you to heights of up to 1200 feet. This is a great adventure, I once went up with my friend's young son and we had a fantastic time. The beauty of the world can be seen while parasailing that could never be seen while on the ground. Land based parasailing has become a competition sport in Northern Europe and especally in Findland where the parasail is towed by car or snowmobile. The speed and height is controlled by the towed vehicle and side to side is controlled by the person flying. Competition consists of throwing or dropping a streamer onto a target and accuracy landing. This fast growing sport was developed in Finland in the late 1990's and the first international competitions held in 2004.

  When I first had my parasail experience, we took off from a floating dock offshore. Now what is called a winch boat is widely used to launch you from the boat and a hydraulic winch is used to reel you out to desired height, and then reeled back in to land on the boat. Part of the adventure for me was to land on the dock when we were done.

  Although many resorts across the country offer commercial flights, more and more brightly colored parasails are seen being pulled behind personal watercraft. If you have your own boat with minimum 100 horsepower motor you can purchase your own parasail kit and adventure into the skies whenever you want to have a wonderful flight adventure. I would love to parasail in Hawaii, now that is beautiful country that I have only seen in pictures. Imagine what beauty one could behold from the sky. That would be a real adventure. With a standard 300 foot tow rope, heights of 200 feet can be expected. All take offs and landings must be into the wind. Once aloft, the flyer gets comfortable sitting in the harness rather than hanging from it. The average boat speed is 15-30 miles per hour to maintain desired height.

  Welcome to the wonderful world of parasailing, one of the fastest growing sports around, now let's go have some fun and see some beautiful country from our beautiful skies.