Fresh Air Riders DVD

DVD

Fresh Air Riders

Paragliding &
Hang Gliding

Bivouac Flying
Adventure Film

Starring
Greg Hamerton &
Johan Anderson

Filmed on location in South Africa at Lion's Head (Cape Town), Barrydale and Porterville.

This film captures the essence of the South African free-flying experience.

A professional production which has been flighted on Discovery Channel (Europe) and SABC TV (South Africa).

The Fresh Air Crew have won awards at the Banff Mountain Film Festival for their ability to convey the spirit of the adventure sports they document - paragliding and hang gliding.

In Fresh Air Riders, paragliding pilot Greg Hamerton convinces SA Champion hang gliding pilot Johan Anderson to join him on an aerial cross-country flying adventure. Together they explore the remote mountains of Barrydale and Porterville in an attempt to complete a long-distance 'bivouac' style expedition.

The film features air-to-air footage from both the paraglider and the hang glider as well as the ground-based crew. The narrative is kept short and the crisp visuals and innovative camera angles will keep you focused on the flying. The laid-back soundtrack by The Famous Roaches lends a feel-good atmosphere to the production.

Fresh Air Riders is a great introduction to cross-country flying in South Africa - highly recommended!

Language(s) : English

Duration : 26 minutes + out-takes

Format : PAL

Reviews...

By Steve Roti

US Hang Gliding & Paragliding Assaciation (USHPA) Magazine

March 2007

Imagine yourself on a biwingual vol bivouac trip, one paraglider and one hang glider flying over spectacular countryside during the day and camping out at night. For pilots who enjoy the adventure of flying cross-country, it doesn’t get much better than this. For Greg Hamerton and Johan Anderson, longtime pilots from the Cape provinces of South Africa, it sounded like so much fun they took along a camera crew and made a video titled Fresh Air Riders so the rest of us could share in their adventure vicariously.

Fresh Air Riders was filmed in the mountains near the towns of Porterville and Barrydale, but it doesn’t take long for the pilots to leave civilization behind. and at times the film crew has to work hard to keep up with them. Air-to-air footage from both the paraglider and the hang glider shows us the similarities and the differences in their points-of-view. As you might expect, there are times when conditions favor one type of wing over the other. For example, one windy day Hamerton, the paraglider pilot, is forced to wait on launch while Anderson, the hang glider pilot, soars overhead. But more often the two pilots fly together, land together, and eat dinner together under the South African sky.

There are as many different reasons for flying as there are pilots. When we first learn to fly, every flight is a unique experience and every new flying site brings a fresh view of the world. But as we spend more time in the air at familiar sites the uniqueness may start to fade into sameness. Fresh Air Riders is an antidote for sameness, a break from the flying patterns we all tend to fall into. And even though a vol bivouac trip may be more than most of us can fit into our busy schedules, the vision of these two South African pilots has the power to inspire us to try something new and to reexperience the uniqueness of our sports.