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BackCountry.com - Outdoor Gear, Hang Gliding Gear
Extreme Sports - Hang Gliding
Fulfilling a dream to get as close to birds as possible and to achieve
bird-like flight are among the many reasons Eureka resident Dave Brose
said he learned to hang glide.
Now he is working to preserve one particular launch site that allows him
and other hang gliders to temporarily leave the ground.
Brose began hang gliding almost five years ago by taking short runs from a
dune on a nearby beach, but has since progressed to more advanced flights
that take him thousands of feet into the air and eye-level with birds —
sometimes planes.
“It is like a dream come true,” Brose said. “It’s also fun and addictive.”
A little more than one year ago, he helped form the club Humboldt Wings, a
North Coast organization of about 25 hang gliders and paragliders that
provides insurance for its members.
According to the U.S. Hang Gliding Association Web site, the hang-gliding
concept dates back to the famed 14th century artist Leonardo Da Vinci.
However, modern day hang-gliding technology emerged as a sport in the
early 1970s, according to the Web site.
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Paragliding is similar to hang gliding, which uses winds to stay aloft,
but uses special parachutes that are launched from cliffs or
steep-mountain slopes.
Through the Humboldt Wings club, Brose has been working with Humboldt
County Parks Division and the Federal Bureau of Land Management to make
improvements to and protect one of the club’s formally recognized hang
gliding sites at Table Bluff County Park.
After a visit to the area, it’s obvious why the hang gliders like to soar
in the strong cool winds that blow off the ocean and sweep over Table
Bluff.
Looking out from the 150-foot-high bluff’s grassy launch point, an
observer can peer out over the blue-green ocean’s horizon, as well as look
down on the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the sandy beaches of
the peninsula’s south spit.
Brose said the club has undertaken an effort to formally designate the
launch site with the county and BLM to protect its use for future hang
gliders and paragliders, which is one of the premiere hang-gliding sites
in the county that is within a short driving distance from Eureka.
Although the club has use of the park’s launch site now, because of
development and liability risks incurred by owners, Brose said lands
available for hang gliding are disappearing.
Hang gliding in the United States is also on the decline, according to
Brose.
He said the majority of pilots who participate in the sport today are the
original founders from the 1970s and there been few new recruits.
“That is all the more reason to preserve what is left,” Brose said.
Following its reopening several years ago, BLM has been managing the South
Spit under an interim management plan in cooperation with the California
Department of Fish and Game and Humboldt County Parks, according to Bruce
Cann, an outdoor recreation planner for the BLM’s Arcata office.
Cann said an updated and more permanent management plan for the area,
which is used by many different user groups, is in the works and is
expected to move forward at the beginning of the new fiscal year in
October.
“We try to provide a variety of recreation opportunities,” Cann said, “and
that is a prime spot for hang gliding.”
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