GG Ramírez

Andrés Ramírez launches paragliders off the ridges above Medellín's valley, where he logged a thousand flights before twenty-five and now teaches office workers that the hardest part is committing to the run. He grew up watching the wings from his grandmother's roof and saved three years of bus-conductor wages for his first one. At the board he flies the same way: read the wind, commit completely, go: you run at the edge fully or you do not get airborne. A bad roll is a sink-out; there is always another thermal. The chips make it worse rather than better. He doubles hardest when he is in front, since a lead is a thermal and you climb in it or waste it, and both of the games he does not remember losing went that way, in a chouette, with five people taking.