Speed Riding is What do you get when you cross Skiing with Paragliding and Kite Surfing.

She Flies Like a Bird.

pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: diet bread from the 70s with honey.

Some might call it crazy, some might call it suicidal; others call it speed riding or ski gliding.

The sport starts by getting to the top of a snow covered slope and launching yourself off the mountain. Take care to have skis attached to your feet and a fabric wing overhead. Then head downhill as fast as possible; This is what more and more are calling great fun.

The objective is to stay as close to the snow as possible. Jumping boulders, skipping over edges and sliding down gullies. The closest many will get to this sort of experience is paying 150-ish euros to strap yourself to a swarthy Frenchman. Then spending 15mins hanging underneath his canopy. An experience available in any of the major ski resorts of the Alps: This is not the same!

The experts easily reach speeds close to 100mph. There are many fine examples of the experts at work to be found on YouTube: take a look at these…

We saw a Warren Miller ski film in Leeds a few years ago.

Came across this making-of video for the speed riding segment in Kazakhstan – awesome.

pop trivia: “She flies like a bird” from “I can’t let Maggie go” by The Honeybus, used in the Nimble adverts of the 70s.