04. Flughund - Kerim Jaspersen

Podz-Glidz, the Lu-Glidz podcast.

Stories from the cosmos of paragliding.

Today with Kerem Jaspersen and Lucian Haas on the mic.

Kerem Jaspersen is a name that triggers a "I know him from somewhere" feeling for many paraglider pilots in the German-speaking scene. That's not because Kerem stood out somewhere with mega-routes or as a hardcore X-Alps pilot. Years ago, Kerem made a name for himself with narrative paragliding videos with titles like Rush Our Dream or Flying is Freedom. That was back at the very beginning of the YouTube era. Since 2010, the now 44-year-old has been living and flying in England. Often joining him while flying are, on the one hand, his wife Lena, and on the other, his dog Bella. And that's in the air too. I was interested in how Kerem managed to get Bella to patiently join along on thermals flights of over an hour.

Once in front of the microphone, I naturally had him tell me even more. In the following short hour, we also talk about what it's like to fly in England, why Kerem once had a reputation as a lawbreaker at the DRV, and how it happened that a flight site in El Salvador, Central America, was named after him. Now, if you get the impression beforehand that this Kerem Jaspersen must be some kind of true show-off, you'd better listen more closely to the music as well. Because that also comes from Kerem. The piece is called Istanbul, and he composed it years ago on his iPhone during a long wait at an airport.

Let's imagine we go flying. You and I together. But you get to decide where and how we do it. Just depending on your preferences. So I'm asking you, what would we rather do? Should we go to the coast for soaring, or would we rather fly in the mountains?

I'd love to go flying here in England, and we can also go soaring in the mountains there. And it's almost like being on the coast, just with a beautiful mountain.

And what glider do we take with us then? An EN-A, an EN-B, or an EN-C?

That's completely up to you, because they all fly just as well in Soaring-B conditions. And personally, I always enjoy flying an EN-B. That's because I'm always distracted while flying when I'm taking photos, filming, or carrying passengers.

What glider are you currently flying?

A Low-EN-B, specifically a Phantom XS.

Okay, next up. We have to decide what harness to take with us. Should we take a bivy harness or a seat harness?

Since we have to hike up every mountain here, I prefer light harnesses. And yeah, so I either like mountain harnesses, meaning really light ones, or light sit harnesses. So I'd say let's take a sit harness, it's warmer this time of year.

Okay, and then the helmet, open or closed?

A good helmet is a closed-face one.

One last question for this round. Are you going to bring your dog along, yes or no?

Yes, we'll take him along. And

is that allowed with flying?

That's possible, I mean you can't just take every dog along, but for us, it was more that we couldn't not take the dog because, well, we tried a few times, but she just kept howling and barking and wanted to come along. And then we locked her in the car and she tore the car apart, like ripped the roof off.

And yeah, then we just figured she had to come along if she couldn't stay behind.

Yeah, I was hoping you'd say you're taking the dog with you—I'd already mentally prepared for that answer. There's a video on YouTube, you showed it too, it's called Bella Dog, and in it you can see how you fly to the Alps with your dog Bella. Bella actually sits quite calmly on your lap somehow. She's a very small dog, not a lap dog, but more of a medium-sized one, and in some special harness, if I saw that correctly. And she's also wearing a really cool pair of glasses—so the dog is wearing these cool glasses. How did you even come up with the idea of flying with your dog in the first place? That

...gradually happened. At first, as I said, we only took her along out of awkwardness. But then the question came up whether we should take her on our honeymoon... to the Alps or not. And we weren't entirely sure if she would behave as calmly on long flights as she did on short flights to Zoring. But then we thought we'd just see how it goes, and we had practiced enough with her. And actually, after one—well, basically the very first flight—we were traveling for over an hour and she was completely calm. So... But we also... just bribed her. The dog is very food-motivated, so we always took an extra load of her favorite snacks, and then during the flight, before the flight, and after the flight, there were just endless amounts of these treats, so flying became fun for her too.

And you could tell she was getting more and more relaxed.

Now you said a flight like that was an hour. Show that she might not have been so comfortable in between, that she might have even felt sick. I mean, she must have already done some thermals, where it always goes in circles.

No, not at all. I mean, she didn't get bad at all, and the only thing is, when my wife flew very close to us, she always had this urge to go over. She still does it; sometimes she even stands up and tries to... she gets very excited and always wants to go there, and I get the feeling she has no sense of height at all. I mean, she doesn't really... I think if you told her to jump, she would try to jump. She's completely oblivious to the pain.

Now you said you trained her, you started with small, tethered flights. What do you have to teach the dog, or how did you go about it? How did you do it so that she really accepted it and just says, "I'll let you do that to me"?

It varies a lot from dog to dog, because some dogs naturally like being picked up or sitting on a lap, and some don't. And our dog didn't like that at all. He was absolutely not a lap dog, so we had to train him. So, when we were sitting, he first had to put his front paws on my knee, and then he'd get a treat. Then we taught him to sit in a... a crate and fed him every time. Then we started lifting him up a bit with the crate and putting him down again, and fed him. Then I taught her to step into a shopping bag, like a slightly larger Ikea bag, and I lifted her up with that.

And always with treats and lots of play. The first flight, or the first three or four flights, were in tandem. So my wife or a friend was with me. They had the dog, and I just took care of the flying while the passenger just took care of the dog. And always with lots of treats, short flights. That's how we slowly got her used to it.

Is there anything special about that for the start? I mean, you're running, and she's probably just hanging there against your chest on the carabiners. A dog has to be able to handle that at first, too.

Yeah, what I did was, I have a mountaineering harness, so the chest part. I'm wearing a mountaineering harness for humans. And the dog has a harness on, and I clip it in so that when I'm standing upright, it hangs almost in front of my chest or my stomach. And I can just walk freely. And as soon as I sit down, it's basically automatically placed on my knees. That's how it works with the start, but of course, it's already uncomfortable for the dog. And you should also practice that calmly beforehand. Because during the start, you naturally have to concentrate on the start and can't worry about the dog.

Do you only do forward starts there, or do you do backward starts as well?

You can do both, backwards and forwards. Actually, I prefer backwards starts because running isn't really that nice for the dog. And in stronger winds, you just don't have to run.

Now I imagine you take off, and now you have to somehow sit forward, probably on the lap, and say, "Now be calm" or something. At the same time, the launch is of course a stressful phase where you might be busy with something else. It's probably best to have the house thermal on the left before the launch site and you say, "I have to go in now," and at the same time, my dog. But you can get all that sorted out well.

Yeah, you're touching on a good point, because I think that's really the main thing when it comes to flying with a dog. I mean, he automatically sits on my lap, but also because he's used to it. I think...

On the first flight, he sort of half-jumped off me and was dangling next to me, and then suddenly I had a lot to do. I mean, I had to get into the lift band, avoid other pilots, lift the dog up, and that was... So when you fly with your dog, flying has to be completely secondary. It has to be so ingrained that you don't think about it anymore. Because with all the pre-flight prep, the takeoff, and getting airborne, a dog is already an extra load.

Is this harness they're hanging in actually a custom-made piece?

That's available as a custom order, but this one is just a standard off-the-shelf climbing harness for dogs that you can just buy like that.

As a climbing harness, to actually go climbing in the mountains? Exactly. I had no idea that there were... climbing harnesses for dogs, that's... they exist. Yeah, okay, you never stop learning. Now, I saw that Bella also wears goggles during the flight. And normally, you'd imagine—I don't have a dog, I only have a cat—but if I put goggles on her, she'd just be busy trying to get those stupid goggles off her eyes somehow. How did you manage to get Bella to just tolerate the goggles?

So dogs need goggles because they get conjunctivitis when they're in that kind of airflow. That's why you shouldn't let them look out the window when you're driving or something. And there are special goggles for dogs that have a strap going around the back of the head and one that goes under the snout, like an elastic band. Because of that, they stay on pretty securely. And yeah, the brand is called Doggles, so like goggles, just with a D. And she keeps the goggles on during takeoff and the flight—strangely enough, I don't know why. But as soon as we've landed, she gets the idea that she doesn't really want the goggles anymore.

Maybe she's just excited in the air. Maybe. Then she doesn't think about the glasses at all. There's so much to see that the glasses aren't really that interesting anymore.

I could also imagine that she's just so excited at the beginning that she pretty much forgets about it. But I've never seen her try to take the goggles off.

Do you get the impression that Bella is really enjoying it? You know, there are dogs—dogs that jump into the car as soon as you open the door because they think car rides are so cool or something. Do you get the impression that Fliegen thinks that too? And as soon as you arrive with that mountain harness, does she say, "Hey, are we going flying again?"

Yeah, well, she definitely... I think we've been able to associate it with so many positive associations or positive things that she's already happy when we take it out. And when it comes to launching, she's pretty much impossible to hold back anyway. I think it's more because she's afraid she won't keep up, rather. But in principle, I think it's more that she enjoys the whole thing, that we're somehow heading off in the car with the packs, because she knows we're going up a mountain somewhere. And I think it's more the walking that gives her joy, and she just puts up with the flight. But I don't get the feeling that it bothers her much anymore.

If you're going flying with a dog now, how often do you actually take her with you on your flights? Well, when we go flying together, basically always. And if I go flying alone and don't actually have to take the dog, then I don't. So she probably comes along about every second or third time.

But that means, bottom line, you get into the air a bit less today, or rather, you're not up there as long because you have to consider the dog and say, okay, maybe I'll land after 20 minutes. Maybe she won't be feeling it as much by then, or is it not a restriction at all?

That's not really a restriction. Yeah, I mean, we've already done some proper short flights with the dog. If I think about a soaring flight like that, I'm already not in the mood after an hour anyway.

So I'll definitely go and land again sometime.

No longer feeling like it because you're cold, or no longer feeling like it because you're saying, "boring soaring, I've flown back and forth in front of this edge 500 times now, that's enough"?

Yeah, I think I'm more of a starter and lander. So, the taking off and landing. I enjoy the landing, then I fly around a bit, then I land again, have a chat, and take off again. So for me, that's the nice thing about soaring—that you're also on the ground sometimes. But if I have a specific task, like a route or somewhere I want to go, then I can fly for hours. It's just that if I'm just flying around in one spot, then yeah, it's about an hour. That's actually the maximum I usually do.

Now you said earlier, for our imaginary flight we took, that we're going to fly in Great Britain. That means you live in Great Britain now. I'm on the phone with you right now, Skyping with you to Great Britain. But you used to live in Hamburg. What brought you to England?

I lived in Hamburg, exactly. And then I... I

met my

met my wife, or current wife. And she lived in England, specifically because she's an academic and worked at the university in Kiel. So University of Kiel in Staffordshire. And at first, I was commuting back and forth. But then I was in Wales at the film festival. And there I met some local pilots. John Sylvester might still know one or two of them.

And Jareth, who was out with Steve Nash, unfortunately.

And they were just so nice. And I didn't have a glider with me. Then they gave me gliders and told me where I could go flying. And I had that mega-flight in Wales in the Snowdonia area. And I landed somehow and then sat there drinking beer with them. And I thought, this is the perfect country for me. And then I decided to move to England too.

At first glance, you always think, England—can you even fly there? Now you're saying it's the perfect country for you. So, set me straight. How good is paragliding in England?

Yes, you can fly pretty well because it's a small country, but very, very diverse. In terms of the landscape and also paragliding. You can actually get to many different flying sites in a relatively short time. And that ranges from coastal areas over small hills to little mini-Alps. So in Wales, Snowdon I think is just under 1,000 meters high and goes up from sea level. So that's a real mountain. And we also have the Yorkshire Dales. And the Lake District isn't far either. That's one of the most beautiful landscapes you can imagine.

So it looks a bit like something out of Lord of the Rings. And they are like miniature mountains, but 1,000 meters is still a mountain. I mean, if it's really measured from the ground. That

But now it's also 1000 meters, basically top to bottom. You can fly down 1000 meters, right? Exactly. But there are no cable cars going up there, so you have to hike up those 1000 meters.

Exactly. So sometimes you can approach it a bit gradually, or you just climb from 300 meters up to 700 or something like that. So that's not that bad. But normally, you do have to hike a few hundred meters of altitude. Except for a few mountains that are also very popular, where you can actually drive all the way up. And park there and take off directly. Especially for paragliders. And that's actually the only way to get into the air there. It has

Has flying changed for you since you moved to Great Britain? Do you fly differently there than you did on the mainland?

That's a good question, because since I lived in Hamburg, most of my flights were soaring flights along the coast. And because of that, England wasn't that different. We always fly in stronger wind. So there's always... always about 20 km/h at the launch site or more. And then we soar up and look for connections in the thermals and then head out on a cross-country flight. But those are always kind of downwind flights. And because of that, this soaring element was already kind of... I felt right at home with that.

Now you keep saying "we." What do you mean by "we"? Did you join a club in England? Or is it just the way it is there, that as a paraglider... you have to be in a club to maybe even be allowed to fly there or something?

You don't have to, of course, but it's convenient because the clubs are more like geographical associations of pilots who simply manage and maintain the flying sites.

You have to maintain that kind of communication with the landowners... In very busy areas or with larger clubs, they sometimes pay the landowners something. And where I live now, we don't pay them anything. But of course, we rely on their goodwill. And we invite them out for dinner once a year, do an event, and give them a whisky for Christmas and those kinds of small things. And of course, things like that also end up on the website. If, for example... if a flight area is currently closed because of livestock or because of something else, I don't know, the daughter just has her horse there or whatever, and they don't like paragliders.

So you just have to be mindful of those kinds of things. But

That's exactly how it is in Germany. So the farmer shows up and says, "I've got my horse standing here, or my cattle, or whatever. You either have to take the other meadow or something else."

Exactly. And in that case, the club is a great point of contact for someone like that. Because they can tell them. They put that on the website. And if you then want to fly on the sides and aren't a member of the club, you normally give them a call and ask if it's okay. And they are usually very friendly about it.

If I were to come to England now as a tourist, as a paraglider tourist, what would you recommend to me if I wanted to fly there? Should I always contact the local club? And how would they react to me if I came there as a German? If I say, I'd like to fly here?

They are usually, I mean in smaller clubs like ours, they're really thrilled if someone took the trouble to call. And then you get a lot of useful tips. So I would definitely do it, because it's never wrong. No one is ever going to tell you, no, you're not allowed to fly here, you German or something. So it's usually more of a positive thing. Of course, there are also flying areas right now in the south of England where there are very many pilots and where there are sometimes start fees or a day membership or things like that, just like in Germany. And then sometimes you just have to pay five euros or whatever.

It's usually not a big deal, though. Normally, if you just show up at the launch site and haven't found a phone number anywhere or it just didn't happen that you called, you can just approach people and ask what the situation is. It's certainly always good to go up to the local pilots. And very often they'll say, yeah, you actually have to call, but it doesn't matter right now. I

I read somewhere that English clubs often have something like that, they called it a mentoring system, where other... beginners who are new to clubs are also given special care, like being assigned someone who says, we'll guide you into further flying. Is that the case in your club too? Or do you know of such a mentoring system and how does it work?

that? Yes, that actually still works in England. We have so-called Club Coaches, provided by the BHBA, the national association—basically the English DAV. They offer courses for these coaches. It's not like being a flight instructor; it's just a mentor, like you said. And they look after people who have just gotten their license, or those who need help, or people returning to the sport. And then there are so-called Coaching Days, where you meet on the mountain and go flying together. And in Germany, there's a bit of that theoretically as well.

However, you can also... get into serious legal trouble if you're sort of acting as a flight instructor, half-coach, giving someone advice on something. And if something happens, then it's difficult. And in England, it's not exactly without risk either, but I've never heard of anything happening. And that's why the system works. So every club has several club coaches, and as a newly minted pilot, you can spend the first weeks, months, years, so to speak, in this group and really learn how to fly.

And that's already good, because I can see that someone coming out of the training isn't a finished pilot yet. It's a good system. Have

Do you also have contact with, like, English schools—meaning, have you visited or observed flight schools? Does the training work differently there? I mean, they don't always have... You say there are high mountains in Wales, but then probably not all the time. And everywhere else, you just have your little 100-meter hills and you're supposed to learn to fly there.

Yeah, so learning to fly on a 100-meter hill is already difficult because you always have to climb those 100 meters. And then you might manage one or two flights, or maybe three at most. And that was it for a normal student. That's why they sometimes learn to fly on even smaller hills. So the flight school I'm with here... I'm out with Dean Crosby quite often. He's a friend of mine and he has his own flight school. And that's... I mean, he teaches his students on a 30-40-meter bump. And there they first learn ground handling. And then they do...

Then they do a few straight flights down. And then it's actually about teaching the students here how to stay up. Basically with soaring. Soaring, exactly. Or maybe a bit of thermals. But mostly just embedded thermals at most. But it's about finding and using lift. And then landing perfectly again. So that's basically where the flight instructor says, okay, he can fly now. And then there's a signature. And then he gets his license.

That means he doesn't even have to have flown thermals properly yet. Flying means being able to take off, steer, land, and soar. But doing a 360 might happen eventually, maybe years later, just by chance somewhere.

So a 360 isn't that easy to fly here. Well, it depends on where you're flying. But for someone who can stay in a lift band, a 360 isn't really a problem anymore. So someone who's gotten a certificate here can do a backward start, a turn, and a top landing. That's what's important here. Whether someone can fly a full circle.

Well, I think so, but they also assume that someone is capable of doing that.

Does that mean if a Brit goes to the Alps and doesn't have much experience yet, you should be as careful as possible with them or keep your distance? Yes, in

in any case. If there are rods at the start, the Brits always fly right through them. They're afraid they can't start forward, and then sometimes they try to start backward even though there's no wind. And that looks pretty funny. And the other thing is, if they manage to work up the courage to start forward, they're afraid of running because they don't know that the canopy is soft. They're only used to the fact that you take a few steps and then it lifts you off. So for them, starting in the Alps is like baseball. Base jumping, more or less. They're really scared of it. And also with the landing layout, they often don't know a boxer approach. That's also something the Brits have difficulties with.

Or landing in zero wind, they're really bad at judging that.

Are you now known in England as someone who says, wow, he can not only do coastal soaring, but he's also flown thermals in the mountains and has gained really significant experience there? Does that put you in a different league in this scene? I

I don't think so. I mean, it stands out whether you're good at ground handling or not. And I had the advantage of coming from the coast, having done a lot of ground handling, and being able to launch my glider in any condition from any angle. Because of that, they thought, oh, someone's coming from Germany and for them, the Alps are just like that and they can take off. They were a bit surprised. But in terms of flying skills, the level is already relatively high here. At least among the people who go on cross-country flights, because it's not exactly easy.

And yeah, so anyone flying cross-country here is usually pretty good already. So people can fly good cross-country routes in the Alps too.

Now I'm going to jump in a bit. You just mentioned that you mainly did coastal flying at the beginning and learned most of it there while you were still living in Hamburg. And back then, you were already making videos of your flying. Some of them were a bit like, you're actually showing your illegal coastal flying that you were doing at the time and documenting it. Were there actually any reactions from the DAV back then, like they complained to you or something?

Yeah. There were. And at that time, the DAV was still very... well, it was a bit different than the DAV now. And that was still before YouTube, when I made those films. And we were sometimes flying around without helmets in unauthorized flight areas with unauthorized gliders, and we had a blast. And these videos came out. And they were somehow well-received. But the DAV was, of course, shocked that there were such outlaws up there. And then, I don't know when that was, sometime in 2000 something,

I went to the Thermik trade fair and ran into Charlie Juist. I knew him from pictures, of course, and was like, "Hello, Charlie." And he recognized me too and said, "You're one of those lawbreakers."

Just for context for those listening: Charlie Juist is the chairman of the DHV. Okay. So, you were the outlaw and flew illegally without a helmet and all that. Did you actually teach yourself to fly illegally back then too? Or how did you get into flying as a young guy from Hamburg in the first place?

I started that quite legally. Specifically in Westendorf in 1994 as part of a ski flying trip. I was there on vacation with my parents. I did a basic course with my father. But back then, paraglider equipment just seemed unaffordably expensive to me. And I also didn't know any flying sites in Hamburg; I had no idea that you could fly somewhere there. And not until 1998 or 1999 could I take it anymore, so I did another course and then said, you're buying a glider now. And then I bought an old glider, officially for practicing ground handling, an old Edelspace, and then I taught myself to fly with that, yeah, illegally.

So, I had done the basic course, but I wouldn't have been allowed to fly like that yet. And anyway, there were no authorized flying sites on the coast. But I just, yeah, it was mainly ground handling at first, and then stuff like that. But you just learned an incredible amount. In

...have become even more well-known in the scene lately, also through videos. I think your most famous film is called Rush Our Dream. In that one, you can see yourself—I think it's originally set in Hamburg—and you're taking the S-Bahn to work, wearing a suit. Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf, okay, Düsseldorf to work, sitting on the train, wearing a suit, nice shoes and all that. And then you fall asleep, start dreaming, and wake up in the dream on a mountain railway, ride up the mountain, but you're still wearing the same suit, the same tie, great shoes, sit down on a bench somewhere up on the mountain, open your laptop bag and, oh my god, out comes a small paraglider. And then in the film, you actually fly down the mountain with this paraglider, but you're only wearing a tiny harness, like a mountaineering harness, but you can see the harness, and that laptop bag is still fluttering behind you.

So it's actually a great image. How did you come up with the idea to make a film like that?

That was, I think, mainly Ecke Fiedlers idea. A pilot friend of his from there, Freiburg knew the guy. We just kind of brainstormed it as a film idea. And then I asked in the forum if anyone had the time and interest to help me with the film. And by chance, a Gleitschirm-Blog saw it, Christian Mann, who worked in television. And then we made a plan and produced it together. With

You even won a few awards for this film back then. That was, I think, 2011 or 2012. Yeah, I think 2009.

I had it in Saint-Hilaire. And exactly, I won a prize there, some kind of Newcomer Award, I think. And then I had another prize in Wales, one in Vancouver,

I won at the Bergfestival. And then it went to the Banff Film Festival. That was obviously the best part, where it then went on the world tour. Have

did you also get feedback from many people, like international feedback, even from people who don't fly at all, saying, "wow, that's really inspiring" or something like that? No, but he already...

well, in the rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking community. I mean, I think that was... that was just something many people, like, you know, that you work and you dream of pursuing your hobby. So, many people could identify with that. And, well, I already got good feedback at the film festivals. But now in real life, I only meet paragliders. And sure, I do get, well, they do recognize me every now and then somewhere. No matter where. Whether it's in Brazil or, yeah, Austria or England. So, many people have already seen this film.

I

I also have the impression that this film, back when it was primarily being watched, also contributed to this idea of Hike and Fly, or also this idea of going into the mountains with very light equipment, in a way that almost set the seeds in the paragliding scene that something like that is actually possible and that you can think more in that direction. Do you think this film would still have the same resonance today, where Hike and Fly hasn't actually become an absolute mass movement yet, but has at least reached much, much more of the scene?

Yes, I think so. But yeah, of course, there was that extra novelty factor that you could pack a glider so small that it fits into a laptop bag. And that was the E-Bags, the first E-Bags that came out, which made that possible. It was probably already light before that, I don't think the E-Bags was the first light glider. But it was definitely a very interesting product because it was also stable, it had sleeved lines, and in the end, it was an everyday light glider with a very small pack volume.

That was also great publicity for Nova, which you basically filmed. A great commercial, even if it wasn't necessarily planned as one. But at the same time, it's noticeable that shortly after, or around that time, you were alsoinducted into the Nova pilot team. Is one of those connected to the other?

Not directly, but it definitely contributed. But I had already flown Nova before and I'd become friends with Pipo, Philipp Medicus, back in the forum. And at that time, I don't even know, he was still practically an intern at Nova. Or maybe not even that yet. And that's how this connection to Nova happened. And then I think I also exchanged some messages back and forth with Hannes.

So, do you mean Hannes Papisch, the current designer?

Hannes Papisch used to be a designer, but today he has his own brand, Vieh, but Pipo is the designer of Nova now. But back then, you were still an intern. So it was a while ago, but since then, you also became one of the Nova pilots. And you basically brought the pilot team in with you. Exactly.

So, after that success with the film, I made another one about, yeah, how my current wife is learning to fly. And yeah, and then at some point they asked me if I wanted to join the Nova team as well. And of course, I did.

And are you still involved today? Still involved, yes. And what does that mean for you, or what does it give you, being in Nova's pilot team? Is it a special community, an honor? Or do you have feelings about it, like, hey, I'm a team member or something?

Yeah, so it doesn't really bring anything directly. But what's nice is that it's such a community and you can exchange ideas with each other. Once a year, we're invited to a team event.

Which is, of course, very nice. And then, yeah, there's this proximity to Nova, which is really great, that you can exchange ideas with them, talk about new gliders. Sometimes they ask you what you think, what could be done better. So if you're interested in flying and somehow like a community, it's already quite good. For people for whom flying is more or less their life's work, it's already a good thing.

The Nova pilots team also stood out at the beginning in a positive way. They basically contributed to that mentor-mania when the Mentor 2 came out and suddenly everyone was flying really long distances with an ENB. It was always said, "Yeah, but those are also these Nova team pilots." Are you actually a good pilot? Do you have any idea? Do you have any special achievements to show off? Not that I'd consider that something great, but do you have something where you'd say, "Yeah, that's why I was accepted into the team"?

No, I think I was accepted because of my filmmaking and maybe my personality or my social side in some way, but not because of my piloting skills. For me, flying is something that's hard to do in a competition. I mean, just like skateboarding or surfing, it's possible to make a competition out of it, but ultimately it's something you do for yourself to have fun. And that's how it's always been for me.

If you say you got your at least second license in 1999, and your first in 1994, then took a break and really started in 1999—that means it's been 20 years now. What still appeals to you about flying after so many years? I mean, what does flying mean to you?

So it's still like a miracle for me. I mean, when you spread out your glider and inflate it and just feel it lift you up and start gliding, it's somehow, yeah, it still fascinates me like the first day. And every time I'm in the air, I think, wow, I'm flying. And I don't know, I've had this urge to fly since childhood, I dreamed about it and always thought it would be so nice if you could fly like that now.

And paragliding gave me exactly that—moving through this three-dimensional space more or less like a bird, and in such a beautiful way too. I also love the G-forces in the turns, and it's just such a great feeling. Yeah,

Is flying still an adventure for you these days, or are you so experienced now that you're like, whether I'm standing on the ground or moving around in the air? Adventure—that was in the past.

Yes, it's still an adventure. I love traveling and I think it's great to discover new flying areas. And it can be quite adventurous sometimes when you're somewhere that no one has ever flown before. So, you just have to see what the wind conditions are like, what's out there? You have to keep an eye on the weather, the launch options, the landing spots, what the hazards are? And yeah, flying involves a high level of risk and a lot of risk management.

If you look at your YouTube channel, especially regarding adventures, there's a film about flying in El Salvador. That's a Central American country that people almost never have on their radar. Is there even any well-known paragliding there? A paragliding location, and how did you come to the idea of traveling to El Salvador to go flying there?

So, I was born in El Salvador and I've gone back there repeatedly to work, and I even lived there for a while. And yeah, at some point, I took my little E-Bags with me and met a "flight instructor" in quotation marks, a crazy Frenchman named Simon Vacher. And he was just, so to speak, training the first batch of Salvadoran pilots there, on this small slope that was terrible. And then I kept thinking, there has to be a better flying area here. And then we drove around together and I had this idea that it might work quite well at some ridge, like a small mountain range.

And actually, we discovered and flew a flight area. And after a few weeks, someone from the village said, "Hey, don't you maybe want to buy that?" He wanted to sell a piece of land up there, the launch site. And then I said, "Yeah, in principle, yes." But then he actually wanted to sell the whole thing, the whole mountain more or less, for 10,000 dollars.

A

the whole mountain for 10,000 dollars.

Yeah, and then I thought, that's a small mountain, maybe 300 meters, and I said, yeah, okay, in a sort of crazy approach. And then I just bought this mountain. And since then, it's sort of been the most visited flight mountain with a nice launch field that is maintained. And a small club we founded flies it. And foreigners who come there also like to fly there. Tandem flights are done there. Are you an honorary member of this club? I'm an honorary member of the club. And they've somehow also called it Loma de Kerim. And if you enter Loma Kerim on Windfinder, it's also a Windfinder spot, interestingly enough, now.

So

Loma Kerim, Kerim's Hill. Yes, exactly. That means you have your own hill in El Salvador. Yes.

Would you say El Salvador is worth the flight, or is the adventure there actually too big of a undertaking?

Yeah. Yeah, I think, strictly speaking for flying, it doesn't always go that smoothly. There are a few good spots there. So Lago de Ilopango, but that's a bit tricky with the gangs because the landing field belongs to one gang while the launch site belongs to another. And you have to hike up there. And then you're constantly crossing the territory boundary, which is just bad.

Are they criminals anyway? Explain to me, if you say "gang," how am I supposed to imagine that?

Yeah, they're, well, they're, yeah, they're often cited as the most dangerous gang in the world or the most dangerous gangs in the world. So that's the MS-13, so Mara Salvatrucha. And the Dieciocho, that's the 18th Street Gang. They were both founded in L.A. to defend themselves against the Bloods and Crips and stuff like that. And then as part of the zero-tolerance policy, they were all deported. And yeah, El Salvador knew nothing about it. They just settled in there. And meanwhile, there are about 20,000 members or something. They've also gone back to the US now. And yeah, they are extremely dangerous.

That means if you want to go flying there, you don't pay a starting fee, but rather some kind of protection money at the end so that they let you take off and land properly.

Yeah, so they actually extort each other. Just the residents and businesses. And because paragliding isn't a business and somehow it only serves, so to speak, the entertainment of the population, you don't have any problems there. It's just that now, when you cross these territorial boundaries, you have to be careful. Or rather, it's best just not to do it.

Now, regarding your travel destinations, you've looked at quite a few different things. Where would you rank El Salvador as a recommendation for others? At the very bottom, somewhere in the middle, or maybe even further up?

Well, I'd rank it for people who are interested in the country and in adventure. It's still a bit... it's very non-touristy. The tourism that exists there is local tourism. That means it's authentic and it's cheap. And you can surf great. So for surfers, it's definitely worth a trip, I think; there's a super wave there. And the volcano is also close to the surf beach. So for someone who wants adventure, it's definitely good. And you can also quickly head further to Nicaragua, which is also a nice travel destination. And Guatemala, of course.

If I don't want to go that far, but just to England to get somewhere in your area, which flight area would you most recommend to me, like, you definitely have to go there?

So, for most flyable days, there's obviously Brighton down there, that area and...

Down there is in the south of England. In the south,

yeah, exactly. It's a bit warmer there too

and so on.

Devil's Dyke, the usual spots, it's warmer there too. And yeah, the weather is just better more often. And for us up north, I wouldn't necessarily come here to fly, because it can be unflyable for longer periods. However, now, when people have visited me, we've somehow always been able to fly. Like, we had a Ganova event here once. We were able to fly then too, we had great flights. And once, one of my film friends visited me from Cologne. And there we had five flyable days out of seven.

That's the jackpot for English weather conditions.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But if you're willing to drive a bit, you can actually fly pretty well here. And that's, of course—I mean, I think this area in the Lake District is very beautiful. And then the Yorkshire Dales and Scotland are also really good. It's not that far from here either. Now

I saw a video of you. You were even on some Scottish... was it a Scottish island? Anyway, some kind of island way up north, where you'd think, who comes up with the idea of going to an island at Christmas and then going flying too? How did you come up with that idea?

We just wanted to spend Christmas somewhere where there's no phone, where we could have some peace and quiet, and no family or fuss. Because Christmas can sometimes be a bit stressful. But we packed the glider just in case. Yeah, and then suddenly on the 24th, it was calm after about four days of storms and sunshine, and I thought to myself, now or never. And then I took off. It was a truly fantastic flight with golden eagles and eagle pairs along for the ride, and it was really great. It was

so your biggest Christmas present, so to speak?

Definitely.

Okay, Kerim, thank you for this beautiful story from your life with all sorts of things, spanning from Hamburg to Great Britain and all the way to El Salvador. Thank you. Thank you. And always there. I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot and I wish you many more great flights ahead.

Yes, thank you very much. And thanks for the conversation, and it's great what you're doing here. Really awesome.

That was Kerim Jaspersen in conversation with Lucian Haas. If you're interested in Kerim's films like Rush Our Dream or Bella Dog, I recommend taking a look at his YouTube channel. You can find it quickly by searching for Kerim Jaspersen on YouTube. By the way, the podcast Glitz can be found on the Lu-Glidz blog and on Soundcloud. Additionally, Podz-Glidz can be subscribed to via well-known podcast catalogs like iTunes, Spotify, or podcast.de. If you enjoyed this podcast episode or previous entries from Podz-Glidz, I have a request. Please leave a comment, a recommendation, or just a good rating on the mentioned sites. Criticism and suggestions are also welcome, but I'd prefer to receive those personally, ideally via email at Lu-Glidz.com.

As always, it should be noted that Podz-Glidz and Lu-Glidz are available for free online. I do this completely independently and am not funded by advertising. However, I do rely on voluntary support from my readers and listeners. On the Lu-Glidz website, you can find information on how to become a supporter via PayPal donation or bank transfer. The blog's address is www.Lu-Glidz.blogspot.com. By the way, Lu-Glidz is spelled l-u-g-l-i-d-z. Now, at the end, you can listen to a bit of Istanbul by Kerim. I'll say ciao for now, until next time.