We arrived in the park above Mona Vale and Warriewood beaches for a late afternoon picnic. There were half a dozen or so paragliders trying to catch enough lift to take off, mostly solo, but there was one tandem pair. Within a couple of minutes of our arrival, one got off for a couple of runs along the clifftop and back.

For the next half hour or so, the paragliders took it in turns to lift their canopies to try to catch the breeze. Mostly they'd get to 45° for a few seconds, then the canopy would fall back to the ground. The tandem pair managed to get their canopy all the way up, and held it, but there obviously wasn't enough lift to get them both airborne.

One by one, the gliders were packed up, but one stubborn flier remained. After several attempts to take off, he finally managed to launch himself off the cliff at 4:17pm. After three or four passes along the edge of the cliff, falling lower with each pass, he dropped out of sight at 4:19pm.

Ten minutes later he trudged back up the hill, his 'chute under his arm.