• What is your paragliding specialisation, and what drew you to focus on this particular aspect of the sport?
I’ve been in air sports since 1998. My first jump was with a round parachute at a small club in a small town. That jump changed everything. Progress was slow, so I moved on, completed my AFF course, and dove deep into skydiving. I joined big-way RW, explored freefly and wingsuit. Summers, I lived in a tent on the dropzone.Around 2007 or 2008, friends began BASE jumping and ‘ground launching’ skydiving canopies. It was wild, reckless, dangerous. I watched, then walked away. I turned to freeriding.
That was another chapter, Siberia. Freeride was a hobby. I pulled tricks at small ski resorts and managed maybe a month each year in the big mountains. But three powder days a season? I needed more. The gear had changed, the sport evolved. Now they called it speedflying.
Work and life kept me busy. Every year I delayed the course. Then in 2018, a friend and I launched a dropzone. I returned to the skies. In 2020, thanks to COVID, I finally took my speedflying course. And there it was, the thing I had searched for all along.
• Which wing do you fly, and what makes it special to you? How does it enhance your flying experience?
I fly the lightweight Pixel size 9. There are plenty of wings out there, but for me, this one strikes the perfect balance across the board. Choosing a wing isn’t about copying your friends or chasing trends on social media. It’s about the feeling, how it flies and how it speaks to you.
I knew from the first flight with a prototype in the fall of 2024. The Pixel felt right. It’s the shape of my heart.
• What is your best flight so far?
It was in Spain, on Peña Oroel. A hike-and-fly mission with a 16 m miniwing. The sun was setting. The whole world turned gold. Just after takeoff, a family of vultures rose from the cliffs below. They formed up around me, quiet and steady. We circled together in the last breath of the thermals.
I call those moments “meetings with God.” Moments like that don’t want witnesses. When I landed, I found my camera dead. No record. But when I close my eyes, I still see it.
• Do you have any specific routines or rituals that you follow before taking off?
Before every flight, I visualize the line. I know exactly where I’ll release or pull the trimmers, where I’ll dive, where I need to stay high to scout for new lines and where I’ll land if anything goes wrong. I check the harness even if I never took it off. I check the lines, the trimmers, the weather, and the airspace.
Then it’s time to commit.
• What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned during your paragliding or speedflying career?
Speedflying is only as dangerous as we make it. In skydiving, a lot is handled for you. Someone maintains and pilots the plane, checks the weather, packs the reserve, gives the call. You pull, and land. That’s your job.
In speedflying, it’s different. You choose the line, judge the conditions, set up the gear. There’s no one else. No fallback.
That’s the lesson: it’s all on you. And that’s what makes it honest.
• Where do you think your paragliding or speedflying carreer will lead to?
Nowhere. And that’s fine. It keeps me alive. It makes me feel what life really is.
