If you’ve realized that summer’s marching on, but still want to learn to paraglide, remember the Paraventures are the only paragliding school in the Queenstown / Wanaka area that operate through the winter. We’re planning an intake of students for mid-August. Get in touch now to secure a place with New Zealand’s best paragliding team.

Here’s what UP have to say…

Introducing the new Summit XC4 – great performance in a package YOU can handle!

We’ve heard it time and again; “it isn’t about the glider, it is the pilot hanging underneath that makes the difference” – and while there is certainly some truth in that statement, we also all know that it is a simplistic analysis at best, and sometimes just plain wrong.

At UP we believe that your precious flying time should be milked to the last drop, so that when you return to work on Monday morning, after a weekend pursuing lofty Airborne Adventures, you can look back on your flights with the satisfaction of knowing that IF a flight was ever cut short before you had expected it to, then it was down to your own judgement and not because the glider let you down. The latest Summit incarnation, the new XC4, will not let you down!

One of the ways we have accomplished this is by designing the new wing around a completely new C-control riser set, where the C-risers are linked to the B-risers so that you may rear-riser control the canopy. With practise this, in combination with the suprememly collapse-resistant New Generation Aerofoil, makes it possible to coach the glider through active air much more efficiently than when you need to come off the speed bar every time you meet a little bump. The new wing may be preordered already. We plan to begin shipping the S/M and M sizes in late December/early January, with L and S sizes close behind.

For a long time, people have been asking when i’ll open a school. For just as long, i’ve avoided the answer!

Learn to Paraglide Now!

From the 6th August Paraventures will be offering learn to paraglide courses; Intro Days, PG1 and PG2 courses. Our primary training site will be Cardrona Ski Field amd we will operate year round. If you know someone thinking of learning to paraglide, send them our way. Please pass on our contact details.

For those of you keen on our XC and SIV courses, don’t worry. They’re still on offer and we have a schedule of courses throughout the summer.

If you’re thinking of free flying at Cardrona, that’s great. Cardrona and the local farmers have a few requests so please don’t be afraid to check in with us to find out the rules. Our contact details are here.

I’ll be updating the website over the next few weeks to reflect the new courses being offered.

Paraventures are proud to announce they’re now the distributors for Skyman. Many pilots will know of the Ultra Cross reserve, weighing in at 975g! …but maybe not so many know they have gliders and harnesses to match! We’re proud to distribute Skyman and feel it will complement the supply of our other favourites, UP, very nicely. It’s looking like an exciting summer… Hike and fly anyone???

The new benchmark in the EN C class

Building the replacement for a very popular wing is, in some respects, a thankless endeavour. On the one hand you can be fairly certain that it will be a success, on the other hand there’s a good chance that finding things to actually improve is going to be really hard. This was very much the case during the development process of the Trango XC3.

The outcome couldn’t have been better. Already its performance is being compared with popular EN D class gliders!

And it’s light too… 4.7kg for the SM size!

Time for an upgrade???

UP Trango XC3