Parasailing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parasailing, also known as parascending, is a recreational activity where a person (two or three people may also ride at the same time) is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a parachute. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air. The parascender has little or no control over the parachute. There are 5 parts of a parasail. The harness attaches the pilot to the parasail, which is connected to the boat, or speeding form of transportation by the tow rope. The activity is primarily an amusement ride, not to be confused with the sport of paragliding. There are parasailing locations all over the world.
Land based parasailing has also been formed into competition sport in Northern Europe and especially in Finland. In land based parasailing the parasail is towed behind a car or a snowmobile. In accuracy competitions the tow-vehicle controls the speed and height and the person flying the parasail controls the parasail sideways. The competitions consist of two parts: dropping/throwing a streamer to a target and accuracy landing. The sport was developed at the end of 1990s in Finland and is growing fast. The first international competitions were held in 2004.
[edit] History
The first Parasails were developed by Pierre-Marcel Lemoigne in 1961. Lemoigne is a well known developer of ParaCommander-type of parachutes known as "ParaCommander" or PC-canopies. The first towing of a parasail is not known, but one of the first mentions is a flight by Colonel Michel Tournier from France flying behind a tractor in the same year - 1961.
In 1963 Jacques-André Istel from Pioneer Parachute Company bought a licence from Lemoigne to manufacture and sell the invention with a name "parasail".
Brian Gaskin, the founder of Waterbird, created some of the first parasails after experimenting with ex-military parachutes in the late 60's. In 1974 he created the first true parasail which he named "Waterbird". Nearly all commercial parasails in operation today were derived from Brian Gaskin's original "Waterbird" design.
In 1975 he founded his company "Waterbird Parakites" which is still in operation today producing commercial and recreational parasails in the UK.
At the same time Gaskin was creating the "Waterbird", Mark McCulloh of Miami, Fl was designing the first parasail winchboat. The winchboat was patented in 1976 and made its commercial debut in the 1980s. Today nearly all commercial operators use winchboats equipped with a PTO (power-take-off) which uses the boats engine to drive a hydraulic winch.
The combination of these two designs ushered in the era of widespread commercial parasailing.
[edit] Modern commercial parasailing
Today's parasail operators have evolved into highly organized and professional operations. Many of the largest operators are located in the Southeast US and Caribbean. The formation of PAPO (the Professional Association of Parasail Operators, founded by Arrit McPherson in 2003) and advancements in safety technology have increased safety throughout the sport and helped the industry's image in recent years.
Operators have moved from small (20-foot range) parachutes to large (30-40 feet) parachutes which utilize high-lift, low-drag designs enabling operators to fly higher payloads in lower (typically safer) winds. Most operators now offer double and triple flights using a tandem bar. The tandem bar is an aluminum bar attached to the yoke of the chute allowing two or three passenger harnesses to be attached side-by-side. A tandem bar can be seen in the photo showing the Chris Abbott designed chute.
Typical parasail flights are performed with 500-1000 feet of line although some operators use as much as 2,000 feet (610 m) of line. In some locations, notably Myrtle Beach, SC, FAA regulations limit flying height. In the case of Myrtle Beach the max height off the water is 300-500 feet. Daytona Beach, Fl, on the other hand has flights as high as 2,000 feet (610 m).
The largest current parasail operator is Caribbean Watersports in the US Virgin Islands.
[edit] World record
Recently, on 13th April 2007, N.K. Mahajan, age 87, from Pune, India took a parasailing flight and possibly established a world record.[citation needed] Senior Instructor Anand Munje supervised and controlled this flight. Indian "Limca Book of Record" has approved his earlier attempt in Feb 2003 (in its 2004 edition) and will possibly certify Mahajan's feat too.
No world body (Guinness Record and Fédération Aéronautique Internationale) considers parasailing as a sporting event or as an activity.de:Parasailing
