Hang Gliding
The park boasts the Dockweiler Beach Hang Glider Flight Training Park, where beginners can learn the sport of hang gliding. Students launch off 25-foot-high (7.6 m) dunes. The facility was built by the city and county and is operated by concession WindSports. With gentle breezes and a broad, sandy landing zone, Dockweiler was a major testing ground for hang gliding pioneers in the 1960s. Concerned about safety and liability, however, city officials banned the sport at the beach in 1986. Practitioners lobbied for 13 years to reopen Dockweiler to hang gliding, ultimately winning a $6 million renovation in 2000 that included the flight training park. It was the first hang gliding park established in conjunction with a city government.
Read more about this topic: Dockweiler State Beach
Famous quotes containing the words hang and/or gliding:
“For myself and my loved ones, I want the heat, which comes at the speed of light. I don’t want to have to hang about for the blast, which idles along at the speed of sound.”
—Martin Amis (b. 1949)
“I stand on a bridge of one span
and see this calm act, this gathering up
of life, of spring water
and the Muse gliding ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)