SOAR – a Girls' Paragliding Roadtrip (2024)

One of the world's leading
female paraglider pilots,

Kinga Masztalerz, found fame in
sharing her solo bivouac adventures

deep into some of the
world's most remote regions,

from the Himalayas to the Andes.

She's also the only woman to have
twice qualified for the Red Bull X-Alps,

the world's most extreme endurance race,

where athletes hike and fly over 1000km
through treacherous mountain terrain.

With incredible achievements like these,
and an appetite for the unknown,

what could be the next
challenge for Kinga?

RHIAN: Hello!
WESTIE: Now then, welcome.

RHIAN: Lovely to meet you.

KINGA: So cool to meet you, I feel like
we’re already best friends! [laughing]

RHIAN: How are you doing?
KINGA: Excited!

WESTIE: Was there a lot of cloud
when you came into England?

KINGA: A little bit, [laughs]
but that's okay.

RHIAN: It's fine, we’re going out of it now.
WESTIE: We are, we're gonna travel

and we're gonna find
some sunshine and fly.

RHIAN: So we've invited Kinga to the UK

to come and meet some of our
new upcoming female pilots

for a week long adventure.

And we're going to start in SE Wales
and hopefully find some decent flying.

WESTIE: So at the end of the week
we're going to finish with the X-Lakes,

which is hike & fly competition
like the X-Alps,

where Kinga and dozens
of other competitors

are going to tag mountain tops
in the Lake District.

– What site are we at?

RHIAN: We're at Hay Bluff I think,
aren’t we, yeah.

So we're going to go flying at Hay Bluff.
Let's give it a go.

KINGA: We’re going up!

Oh, it's really nice. Maybe we
would like a little bit more sun,

but it's windy enough
that we should be able to soar.

Look at that. It's stunning.

One of the things I love the most
in flying and generally in life,

it's doing things for the first time.

It always means an adventure
and learning.

So, pretty stoked to be here!

It's my very first flight in UK.
Very excited about it!

Paragliding, and in particular hike & fly,
is the ultimate freedom

of moving through the mountains.
Either just fly off it to the bottom,

or we can fly dozens or sometimes
even hundreds of kilometres

using only this power
of sun and wind.

So that's like having a magic
carpet in your backpack.

It's a very, very special,
special feeling

to be able to move through
the mountains like a bird.

Yeah, that was fun.
New place. New friends.

EMILY: So yeah, I drove down
from Brighton last night and

I was at a talk with Kinga.
Yeah, we were hearing all about her

epic journey through paragliding and
trips and… Yeah, it was awesome.

So I've always been sort of
attracted to these kind of sports.

I did kite surfing for the last kind
of ten years or so, and er,

I think I was struggling to push
myself onto the next levels.

Kiting is very physical.

Paragliding actually came along
at a perfect time where I’d…

I think I was a bit in denial that I wasn't
really enjoying kiting as much.

Yeah, it’s just so addictive.
I love it.

So glad to have discovered
this sport. It's really cool.

INGA: I don't know exactly what the plan
is for today other than

getting some height and,

looking at the sky it doesn't really look

very promising at the moment.
But yeah, we'll see.

We had a bit of a hike up, um,

that's also a good kind of exercise
or practice for X-Lakes.

[chatter, laughing]

Um, the place we’re here at the
moment, Hundred House,

I've never flown here before,

but it really looks like a
gorgeous place to be, so.

I learned, nearly four years ago.
I kind of didn't do any sports.

I learned how to ride a bike
when I was 30. I still can't swim,

so it's kind of jumping from
nothing into this for me.

So I think I'm kind of
overcompensating.

KINGA: Second day, second flight!

INGA: I was aware of Kinga
because I watched X-Alps.

I also follow her on Instagram
as most people do, so,

she's like very inspirational
in the sense

of going out and doing her own thing.
She's kind of on another level, I guess.

When I get an opportunity, I'm
probably out on the hill all the time

even if it's just a little
soar about after work.

So yeah, loving it.

EMILY: That was awesome. Great day.

KINGA: It's amazing.

First day, first flight.
Today another flight.

I will advertise UK as the most reliable
paragliding destination! [laughing]

WESTIE: I’ll take that one, every day.

RHIAN: So we've just got back
from our flight,

and we've just been invited
by local pilot Anna

to go and stay with her,
and she's got us some food in,

so we're gonna have a nice evening,
chill, have a chat.

ANNA-P: I got a little message from
the lovely chairman of SE Wales,

and ended up with everyone bundling
down to mine, and we had a lovely night.

Shamrock was a little bit bemused,
basically just shrugged his shoulders

cause he's used to random
strangers in the house, so.

Today is Wednesday,

and everyone here is flying
on the Pandy Ridge in Wales.

I'd always had an inkling that
I wanted to fly,

and I was an avid, obsessed skydiver,

and then saw some
people paragliding.

So I've been flying for ten years, but
I'm in a bit of a trough, I would say.

So it was really nice to be
inspired again.

Yeah. Followed Kinga for ages.
So yeah, super nice to see her

and hear all of her stories.

KINGA: Easy. What can go wrong?
[laughing]

ANNA: It's not one of those sports
where it matters, really.

You don't need strength,
you don't need endurance.

Those things help,
but really, it's a little bit more…

just a bit of skill and
a bit of experience.

Understanding how to launch
your wing into the air,

a few steps forward
and you're in the air.

I'd encourage any women to come,

come and have a go at paragliding,
see how they enjoy it.

KINGA: We’ve spent three days in Wales
and today we arrived to

the Lake District, and erm,

and this is more my type of flying
and my type of natural environment.

More, more mountains.

The weather has been treating
me very kindly.

I've been flying every single day

and actually every day
it's getting better and better.

ANNA-A: So we've just arrived
at Grasmere in Cumbria

for the Lakes Charity Classic,

which is a mix of many different
competitions for different levels

and just a great chance for pilots
to meet and have a great time.

A little bit cheesy!? [laughs]

Yeah, I started learning
paragliding a couple of years ago,

so there was three main instructors
and one of them was a woman,

which was really nice.

The men have been really
welcoming and helpful, and

I don't feel like it's been an issue,
but it's been nice to be here

and be surrounded by other women
and other young women.

The bigger the variety of people,
I think, the nicer it is.

What initially appealed to me
about paragliding

was just that feeling of being
in the air, of flying, of soaring.

And then once you start to do it
more you can just enjoy the view

and see all different places.

One of the best things
about paragliding as well

is just the community.

There's very few situations where
I would just pull up a chair

with a stranger and just start
talking and have a great time,

but everyone is so open and you
have that one thing in common.

LUCY: Well, I've been immersed in the
outdoors for the past 20 years,

and I just fancied doing
something a little bit different.

There's a few of us girls.

I'd say there's obviously a gap,

and I don't really know why that is.

I guess Kate inspired me

because she's got a full time job,
lives in London, has got a family,

and yet she's so passionate about it.

And yeah, she was probably
my role model.

KATE: Paragliding just sort of

came at the right moment
to to be the next step on the cycle

and the next thing to be
a little bit obsessed by.

I think anyone can be
good at paragliding.

I think literally anyone can
be good at paragliding.

You just have to want to
understand how it all works,

and once you've got that desire
to understand how it works, then

you can do it!!

KINGA: I’ve been following the
hike & fly scene and all the new events

and in particular UK has
been pretty active in this matter.

WESTIE: So we’ve just had the briefing
for the X-Lakes,

which kicks off in the morning.
Made sure everyone was 100%

on the task, the forecast and the safety.

Some of the pilots are here just
for the fun and for the adventure,

where others like Kinga, Bud, Rosie
Ireland, they're here to compete.

So basically, I would go
as far as you can that way.

KINGA: Which way? West?
WESTIE: West, yeah. And then...

so you can bag all these here.

BUD: I think there's no problem
in, what have we got, 14 hours?

What about coming along here
and getting here to Loweswater?

KANAN: I didn't usually follow X-Alps
but when I knew Kinga was in it

I was like, ‘oh my God, look at
this girl just smashing it!’ like.

For me, it's more the mental
strength of that woman,

like that inspires me.
I was like, I wanna be that.

And it gives such a great message
that paragliding for a woman

can be done to this extent.

WESTIE: It's like, it's like herding
cats in’t it. Herding cats!

COMPETITOR: Any tips, Westie?

WESTIE: Never wipe your arse
with a hedgehog! [laughing]

Five, four, three, two. one…

[airhorn and upbeat music]

KINGA: I’ve been to a lot of wild and
beautiful places and had a lot of

remote and unforgettable adventures.
All my, all my important adventures,

important to me, actually
happened solo in the mountains.

There's something very special,
in being in the mountains alone.

There's really a level of
connection and responsibility

for your decisions and focus,

and being fine tuned
toward your inner voice,

that's really hard to compare to,
to anything else.

ROSIE: We knew that the first day was
going to be challenging.

It was going to be really windy.
A big rain shower came in

and it was cold. That meant
the first day was really just a hike.

So having Kinga here was such
a motivator and really inspirational.

I've never met a female
hike & fly pilot

who's doing this on a
world stage, really.

It's just incredible to see how
someone ticks and what they do

to prepare themselves for the event.

I try hard and I put a bit
of effort in for training,

but sometimes it's busy and it's
hard to balance everything.

So I would aspire to be an athlete,

but maybe I don't feel like
I'm quite there.

INGA: Yeah, it was definitely the first
time I've done a competition of this

kind of type, where it's over two
days in a very beautiful but

quite unforgiving terrain.

Hello!
WESTIE: You’ve done well!

Did you have a nice flight?
INGA: I had the very nicest flight.

I had heard gossip that I think
Bud is doing best,

and he's currently in the lead
with 160 points or so.

And I know Rosie is doing well,
and she took a

completely different route from the vast
majority of the participants.

So yeah, also rooting for her.

ROSIE: It's really important,
for me, to have people

who have a similar outlook
and a similar want for adventure.

And events like this are
brilliant because, you know,

even if you don't know anyone,
you join the coaching club,

you have a beer and get together, and
everyone's here for the same reason,

and that's to go out and fly,
and learn and get better.

KINGA: The usual narrative
that we hear the most often

is that sport itself is risky, and
women by nature don't like risk.

So to change it or to
encourage more women,

we would need to
shift the whole perception.

ANNA: think most people
their initial reaction is,

‘oh, I would never do
that’, or ‘that looks terrifying.’

So I think if you have that inkling
of like ‘that looks cool’, then

you most likely will be the
type of person that will love it.

And if you don't love it then
you should just stop doing it. [laughs]