SAFA Skysailor Magazine

57 SPRING 2025 | September-October-November SKY SAILOR The cultural side is just as tough, and maybe even more important. Sexism in the sport is rarely overt. It’s usually casual, insidious, and baked into the way people talk or the assumptions they make. All the little comments chip away at your confidence, such an essential part of flying well. That erosion of trust in your own judgement is a big challenge for women trying to progress. Your thoughts on the sport’s culture and how it affects women’s participation? Both top-down and bottom-up work are needed. Top-down things include SAFA initiatives that set the tone for an inclusive and safety-conscious culture through guidelines and standards that states and clubs can adopt. For example, I was glad to see SAFA receive Naomi and Courtney’s research on women in the sport and commit to supporting a Women’s Council – this should form the basis of any future initiatives to increase the number of women participating. A huge step forward. Bottom-up work is just as important. It’s about the community and culture at sites, clubs, and within crews. Being the only (or one of few) women in a group can feel very isolating; having spaces where women can talk to each other across clubs, states, and associations makes a huge difference. Even sharing stories helps break down that isolation. What has been a personal highlight for you in the sport? One of the best things for me was flying all over the world and finding that no matter where I went, there was a paragliding club I could connect with. When I was working in the US, I could just show up, meet pilots, and instantly have friends to fly with. That sense of global community was incredible, and it’s a pretty unique thing. I also loved flying tandems. I got into it as a way to make money after COVID and lockdowns, but really fell in love with it! Being there when someone experiences flight for the first time is just pure magic – a real privilege to share that moment! How did you handle fear, tricky conditions, and the mental game of flying? I struggled with it for a really long time, and would just keep throwing myself at it. At one point, during that interme- diate-syndrome stage, I had a complete