Sajid Khan
On paragliding banter
We paragliding pilots are a funny bunch. When we are flying we talk about flying. When we are not flying we still talk about flying or review the recent flight second to second. We form groups and conduct zoom sessions within ourselves and talk about maneuvers, techniques, psychology needed to fly and so on. Even be ready to review old videos of ourselves or others from the group much to the disdain of our family and our other non flying friends. Most of us have our social media dominated by only flying related posts.
So this Feb having done all the above I mentioned on our whatsApp group that I am getting bored. Immediately Kannan, our fellow pilot suggested I do a podcast because she liked my style of explaining things. Well I listened to her and without much thought I registered and recorded my first episode, talking to myself. I named it Paragliding Banter because I wanted to keep this podcast a casual discussion. Like the one you would have at the end of a flying session while having something to eat and drink. So the format is simple, casual and easy sharing of knowledge.
I am doing this for the community. To create a platform where we can make it easy and fun to share our experiences and knowledge. Sometimes books and videos need a lot of time to read and watch. But a podcast can be heard while driving, jogging, cleaning or doing other mundane work.
Today Paragliding Banter is close to 20 episodes old and over 3500 Plays.
I have been lucky to have had some serious talent and popular names in the paragliding circles from our very own Avi to Jocky Sanderson, Russ Ogden – test pilot of Ozone, Kinga – Red Bull X alps contestant, Dr. Matt WIlkes, Gurpreet Dhindsa and many more that include my friends like Viz, Rohit, Kartik, Vishal and many more. I have some very interesting episodes planned in the coming months.The most important observation I have is that all the people who have been on the podcast have one thing in common. And that is HUMILITY. I am so happy that we have such people in our community that in spite of towering achievements and long illustrious careers still agree to do a podcast and are humble in sharing their knowledge. Mind Blown.
Initially the audience was mostly from India with over 90% Indian listeners.Today the top 6 countries where this podcast is popular is USA, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland. Overall Paragliding Banter is being heard in 70 Countries world wide. That according to me is huge for a simple podcast to be appreciated so widely and I am more than grateful to the participants who so willingly share and spread knowledge.
Listen to Paragliding Banter here :
Spotify, Anchor, Apple podcasts, Podcast addict, Google Podcast, Listen Notes , Stitcher
