Sometimes what appears to be a "no wind" situation at Torrey is just a brief pause before the wind starts blowing from the east ... downhill. I've done a number of "no wind" launches in a paraglider, and it relies on your ability to generate enough forward speed to make the glider fly before you leave the hill. That gets much harder (translation: nearly impossible) to do if the wind adds even a few miles per hour from behind. I don't know if that's what happened here, but it's something that paraglider pilots should know.

You make an excellent point Rick that hang gliders have much more control of their airspeed than paragliders. I was at Sylmar when the wind turned to blow very lightly from the back. The hard core Sylmartians were able to dive their gliders straight down from the steepest part of the launch to get airborne. I watched with awe and amazement ... as I folded my Falcon.   

Regarding the ParaglidingForum, they're really very afraid of anyone speaking out about anything negative. I am a paragliding pilot, and I think there's nothing wrong with flying paragliders under appropriate conditions. But I was banned because I dared to speak about some of the problems in the sport. There's something wrong if the people who control a sport are that afraid of free speech. Ever wonder why USHPA doesn't have a forum? Ooops, I made myself laugh!!