Really great article on paragliding psychology....

This is probably the best article I've ever read on paragliding psychology.

Here is the link to Cross Country Magazine where the article first appeared

The Headgame: Understanding Paragliding Psychology   

 - by Matt Warren


The Flow Channel … If you have high skill but set yourself low-level challenges you will be bored. If you have zero skill and a big challenge, you’re in danger. The trick is to match your skill level with the ambition of the challenge.


Here are a couple of comments about my own thoughts after reading the article:
My personal experience of this concept of the "Flow channel' was highlighted in the last two years. After witnessing the tragic death of a fellow pilot in 2015, I found my paragliding skill level and motivation level immediately plateaued. This article and particularly the diagram (reproduced above) helped me understand where my sixteen year flying career was headed and what sort of flying I needed to focus on in order to stay in the zone of enjoyment. 

I'd always been a very part time pilot, having moved around the world living for 12 years to places with limited local flying, so I had to always travel to fly. Moving to southern California, with its year round flying season, allowed me to move more rapidly up the skills side of the graph, but stay in the flow channel of enjoyment with a mixture of excitement,  relaxation and new challenges.  This even resulted in me winning a couple of races in our local paragliding league as I rapidly progressed and gain confidence.

My friends death jolted me out of the flow channel and deep into the Anxiety Zone. Essentially I went straight up on the graph even when the flying I was doing was technically the same.  When I went to the US Nationals in the Owens valley in late 2015, I felt uncomfortable in the air almost every day,  and performed well below my expectations.

My realization this year is that to stay in the flow channel for many years and stay safe, it is OK to choose what sort of flying you really want to do and are comfortable with. I needed to remind myself often that what we do as pilots is so exceptional and so otherworldly to most of the non-pilots we meet, that even the most boring sled run on a disappointing day is still a miracle to be enjoyed and celebrated.

Thanks to Matt Warren for this amazing article.