87-year-old daredevil creates buzz online for paragliding in Ranau

KOTA KINABALU: When paraglider pilot Chris Lammert came to work last Monday (July 17), he expected the usual crowd of eager young clients to do tandem paragliding at Lohan, Ranau.

Paragliding is an adventurous recreational activity and aerial sport that involves the pilot sitting on a harness when flying using a glider, whereas tandem paragliding means a pilot has a passenger.

So imagine the surprise of the tandem master who is attached to a paragliding company in the hilly Ranau district, when one of his clients turned out to be a 87-year-old woman from Rawang, Selangor.

In fact, Madam Thong as Lammert was introduced to, wanted to do it first to encourage her daughter who was in her fifties and too afraid to do it.

“I did not know about this but the registration staff will normally give cases like this to me (due to my expertise).

“I learned that she was on holiday here with family, and she was the one who persuaded the daughter and the daughter’s husband to try paragliding,” he said when contacted after his Facebook (Chris Paragliding) posts on taking the senior citizen for tandem paragliding created an online buzz.

Some of the people online commenting on the two videos shared on his social media account were impressed and praised the elderly woman’s braveness.

Asked how Madam Thong reacted during the flight, he said she was calm even in comparison to some younger clients, and that they had a smooth launch from Bukit Hampuan and landed at Kampung Dilik there.

“Her daughter was very concerned and reminded to be careful with her legs, but I saw she (Madam Thong) came ready with knee support.

“When we were up on air, to make her ease her mind I talk to her and pointed out the mountain, valley, and buildings like the sports complex.

“Apparently, she travels a lot before including to Australia and England as she likes to try new stuff.

“But she made my day as she gave thumbs up and said very good when we landed,” added Lammert.

While she was his oldest customer so far, Lammert said he still has not beaten the record as one of his colleagues claimed they have done tandem paragliding with a 90-year-old man from Singapore previously.

“But I am glad to be able to provide this experience for her, as the previous oldest person I brought for paragliding was my 71-year-old aunt,” said Lammert, who has over 20 years of experience in paragliding.

He also shared an interesting tidbit that while the age of their customers is of varying range from children up to those in the sixties, they have more women interested in this daring activity.

“Since the company started in 2014 in Ranau, we can say 80% of our tandem paragliding customers are women, 10% children and 10% men,” he added.