Author: Dave English

Jack Kornfield on Paragliding

By Dave English

I had no idea about this. Listening to a repeat of a Tim Ferriss podcast with famed Buddhist writer and teacher Jack Kornfield, he expressed his love of … paragliding: “One of my favorite things is to tandem paraglide and go off the top of places like Grindlewold in Switzerland, where you can take the ski lift up 9,000 feet and then jump off and float silently, like you’re a bird among the clouds. The birds actually do come by sometimes and check out, what’s this big bird flying up here? You can catch thermals and go way up above the … Continue reading Jack Kornfield on Paragliding

Come Fly With Me — Herb Alpert

By Dave English

“I play it just about every day of my life–not because I have to, but because it’s something that gives me pleasure. That’s what I tell kids when they ask what’s the secret to being successful in the music industry. If you’re not really passionate about what you’re doing or if you’re doing it because there are some benefits like attracting chicks, forget it, man. While you’re sleeping someone else is practicing who wants the exact same thing you want.” Herb Alpert, interview for his (fantastic) album Come Fly With Me, by KC Ifeanyi in Fast Company, 2015. “You never … Continue reading Come Fly With Me — Herb Alpert

Control of fear

By Dave English

“The control of fear is a necessary part of the inner work of flight.” William Langewiesche Breathe. Relax. Do the ‘what-if’ work ahead of time. All these are part of the Inner Work of Flight. Quote is from Langewiesche’s 2010 book Aloft: Thoughts on the Experience of Flight. And yes, his Dad wrote Stick and Rudder.

I’m just a bird

By Dave English

“I used to think, I’m just a bird. The glider is the shell, the body of the bird. You become part of it. If you can get to that stage, you can manoeuvre the glider anywhere you want to. Rather than thinking about how to control the machine you’re sitting in, you think, this is all a part of me.“ Lemmy Tanner, quoted in the 2018 book Skybound.

Mountains are

By Dave English

“Mountains are not fair or unfair, they are just dangerous.” Reinhold Messner, All Fourteen 8,000ers, 1999. Wikipedia says this about Messner: He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent of Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, doing so without supplementary oxygen. Messner was the first to cross Antarctica and Greenland with neither snowmobiles nor dog sleds and also crossed the Gobi Desert alone. He is widely considered as the greatest mountaineer of all time.