Getting some serious hang time...
US pole vault champion Derek Miles is among the world's best in his chosen field but in his downtime he likes to do something even more risky and go paragliding! He chats to spikesmag.com about his passion for altitude.
I was training in Arkansas with my training partner, Tye Harvey, and he got me hooked on paragliding. In 2001 I purchased my own equipment, and just kind of picked it up. I have a blast with it.
For the most part it is a relatively safe hobby. You fly at a pretty slow rate - it's not like handgliding where you fly a little bit faster. You have a reserve chute and a harness you wear, so they are small things which make it safer, but you have to know your limitations and what kind of weather you can and can't fly in.
That is not to say paragliding is without its dangers. One of the hardest parts for me was when Jeff Hartwig (the recently retired US pole vaulter) took me through a teaching progression when I was learning to pilot against the wind. They towed me up to about 150ft off the ground, where I was learning to balance in the wind. He was saying 'right break' and I was applying left break! I ended up turning with the wind, turned sideways and suffered a loss of altitude. By the time I got into the wind it pushed me right down and I landed on pretty hard-pan dirt. I landed flat on my face and my chest and just completely bounced off the ground. Jeff was pretty surprised I didn't break anything because of how hard I hit the ground. Thankfully, the main damage I did was to my pride but quickly figured this can be pretty dangerous if I'm not careful.
I've avoided serious injury but it's always a balancing act. It is difficult to do during the season, especially if I step off a ledge and twist my ankle, so I tend to do paragliding more out of the season.
It's a little bit hairy at times because of the wind conditions but sometimes when there is a really beautiful sunset and we fly over some water that is when it can be real fun and I can relax and enjoy it. It's a great release. You immerse yourself in pole vaulting so much it's easy to become overwhelmed by it. Paragliding keeps me refreshed and rejuvenated.