Bob Kuczewski wrote:Bob wrote:Don't get dragged down and around by the sport of paragliding. Just promote the sport you know and love - hang gliding.
RickMasters wrote:Bob, the next time you see a bunch of paragliders flying around, I would like you to ask yourself how many of them might have become hang glider pilots had the USHGA not invited paragliding into our hang gliding association.
Rick, I know that probably better than anyone. Torrey Pines has been "ground zero" for the PG takeover, and they've turned the SDHGPA into an almost purely paragliding organization.
I'll share a story. In 2004 I was interested in getting back into hang gliding (I had dabbled with HG in 1978 and PG in 1990). So I went to Torrey Pines and found myself sitting at a table with David Jebb. I told him I was interested in hang gliding and then he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was an engineer. Then he told me that "all the professional people are getting into paragliding" as if I would be swayed by his appeal to my snobbery. I was mostly disgusted, but I am sure that many in the San Diego paragliding scene got their start because of David Jebb's appeal to their egos.
It's clear to me that if paragliding didn't exist at all, then about 80% of those PG pilots would probably be HG pilots (I'm estimating a 20% washout because hang gliding can be more challenging to learn than paragliding ... especially at Torrey Pines). However, that's not what you asked. You asked what would have happened if USHGA hadn't invited paragliding into their association. I still think paragliding would have grown. It's my understanding that the national paragliding association was financially "on the ropes" when they joined USHGA, and that certainly helped them. But I believe they would have grown (maybe not quite as fast) even if they'd stayed on their own.
But here's what would have changed. If USHGA had stayed USHGA and the SDHGPA had stayed a hang gliding only club, then the paraglider pilots would have needed their own national association (which they did have) and their own local association (which they could have easily started). Those two PG clubs would certainly have petitioned the Torrey Pines Soaring Council for admission, and I believe it would have been hard to exclude them (and they certainly would deserve their own representation). So the Soaring Council would have had the two original HG representatives (one local and one national) as well as two new PG representatives (one local and one national). So the combined sports would have had 4 (FOUR) representatives. But by combining the clubs (locally and nationally) it turned out that no new seats (representatives) were created, and the two previously HG seats have become effectively PG seats because both the SDHGPA and USHPA have not cared enough about hang gliding to appoint a true hang gliding representative to that Council. The result is that there are ZERO dedicated hang gliding pilots on the Torrey Pines Soaring Council.
There's no doubt that paragliding has hurt the sport of hang gliding, and it will get worse as USHPA becomes more and more of a paragliding association. If hang gliding is going to survive, it is going to need its own voice.
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:49 pm
