Hang Gliding In Rio

The last goal I had on my 2009 dreamline was to hang glide off a mountain in Rio. This was one of those goals that I kind of didn't really know what I was getting myself into until the day it happened. My ride to the mountain shows up on time at 11 am. With a little chit chat in the car about some pre-flight jitters and some conversation with the owners about how we were going to shoot the opening of our Rio video - more on that later - off we go.



In 15 short minutes from our hotel in Ipanema (the Fasano) we arrive at our mountain. The drive (circling from mountain base to mountain top) takes another 15 minutes to reach what I'm going to call the launching pad. When we arrived at the top, it honestly just looked like a big dirt patch with a bunch of overgrown paper airplanes queued up in one direction. It was so foggy (cloudy) that you could barely see anything.



My pilot introduced himself and informed me that I would be his co-pilot for the flight (more like the schmuck strapped to him like a terrorist straps a pack of dynamite to themselves). He said beacuse of the clouds we would have to sit on the top of the mountain and wait for the clouds to clear before we could go. I thought ok, no problem, just let me know when to yell Geronomo.



Apparently there is a team of guys on a lower level of the mountain that radio up to the pilots and let them know when they see the clouds clearing and to get ready. As I'm making my rounds interviewing the adrenaline junkies around me, I hear (what seemed like) 20 walkie talkies going off at once in Portuguese. Everyone scrambed for their hang gliders - it was like an air raid siren had gone off in Pearl Harbor.



My pilot screams in near perfect English "Let's go, Robert, it's time!" "Ok, but isn't there a lesson we have to do first?" "No. Well, yeah, when I say run - run as fast as you possible can". He then strapped me to him and then again to the hang glider and put us in line behind 10 other fellow nut balls.



As we are inching our way to the launch pad (which honestly is a 20 foot wooden deck angled to the ground) my pilot is picking up our toy plane like a fat lady would pick up her dress so it didn't drag on the floor. I asked him again for any last minutes tips (as my heart started moving into a new rhythm of taccacardia that I haven't experienced before - remember, I'm a cocktail guy, not adrenaline guy). He said "Well, right before we jump, don't look down. It will probably freak you out". I said "Ok. Probably good advice, but I can't see anything from up here, it's so foggy". He said "look now"!



Holy S**t!!!! Words can NOT ever describe the rush of looking down from the top of that mountain all the way down to the beach! "Ok, Robert, here we go...1-2-3 RUN!!!". The second after launch you feel like a paper airplane gone bad, then in a nano second a wind catches you and takes you where it wants to go. Surreal, is the only over used word I can think of to capture the moment. You truly feel like a bird flying through the air and you never want it to end. This is one of those moments in life that you will NEVER forget.



Remember, filling the void is about not just doing things - it's about doing exciting and interesting things- and Hang Gliding defiantly qualifies!