Is paragliding the same as parasailing, parachuting, or BASE-jumping?
The answer to these three questions are, “No Way”, “No How”, and “No”. Parasailing is what you do at a beach, in a modified parachute tied to a boat, it requires skills and these need to be achieved under supervision of Professionals. Parachutes are designed to be deployed during free-fall from an airplane and to then descend to the ground. BASE-jumping, another form of parachuting, is what I consider top shelf adrenalin. BASE-jumpers open their parachutes during free-fall after jumping from bridges, buildings, etc. By contrast, Paragliders launch from gentle hillsides with their gliders already opened for flight; if the glider isn’t flying properly, the launch can be aborted before leaving the ground. Since Paragliders do not have to withstand the stresses of free-fall deployment, they can be designed more aerodynamically to glide and are designed to go up rather than down. The sink rate of a free fall canopy is around 1000ft per min and a paraglider sinks around 300 ft per minute. Ov
No. Parasailing is being towed behind a boat under a kind of parachute. You are just being dragged around like a kite really, not controlling or piloting the aircraft as in paragliding. Parachutes are deployed during free-fall from an airplane and then descend to the ground. Paragliders can be launched from gentle hillsides pre-inflated for flight. Once in the air paragliders are designed to fly, not just descend like a parachute. BASE jumping is an extreme form of parachuting in which you jump from a building, aerial, bridge or cliff rather than from an airplane. With a paraglider you launch not leap, there’s no falling or high-speed descent.
