Setting Up a Paraglider

Video Transcript

"Welcome to expertvillage.com. My name is Patrick Eaves with Wingency Paragliding. In this clip, we're going to be talking about how your risers are setup, what they do, and how they hold your brakes. Here you hae one set of risers. Let me show you one thing abou the risers. First, this is where your risers connect to your harness. Some risers will have 3 sets of risers, but most new paragliders have 4 sets of risers. There's the A riser. You know it's the A riser because it's on top of the risers. This leads to the leading edge of the wing or the front edge or with the edge with the opening. Then you have your B riser, your C risers and your D risers. Now your D risers lead to the trailing edge or the back end of your wing. Your A's are what you're going to use to bring your wing up when you're kiting. Your D's are what you're going to use to bring it down in the AD method, or in the AC method, here are your C's. A lot of modern paragliders will have a speed system. That's this pulley device on the front of the risers. This connects to an attachment that your feet push down to make the wing go faster. Your instructor will help you figure out your speed system. Also on your risers are your breaks. There's a couple of different ways to hold your brakes in flight, so let me show you a couple of ways to do it. One is to put just your hand just half way through the break and you're going to put your forefinger and thumb on the lines just at top of the brake. This will give you a lot of feeling for what the wing is doing. Another popular way to put your hands is all the way through the brake and then again come back so that you have your thumb and your forefinger on the lines at the top of the brake. To get your hands out of this configuration, just close them up and pull them out."