“You could feel how special the day was”: Carpinterian breaks local paragliding record

Many Carpinterians can relate to the rush of catching the perfect wave. But for Andrew Byron, a local paraglider, the perfect wave is in the sky. 

“You’re surfing up the side of a cloud,” he explained to CVN. “It’s magic to me every time.”

On March 15, Byron set a new paragliding record for the longest foot-launched flight to the Santa Monica beach from the Santa Barbara mountain range. His journey began at the VOR, a takeoff location along the Camino Cielo Ridgeline in the Santa Barbara mountains, and landed him on a beach in Santa Monica in just under five hours. He hit a max altitude of 9,600 feet above mean sea level (MSL). 

Bryon has been a Carpinteria resident since 2019; he planted roots in the area so that he could be closer to one of his favorite flying locations, Bates.  

“I can’t tell you how many times I would get off work and race up from Point Mugu to spend all afternoon at Bates – sometimes flying, sometimes just sitting there listening to the wind and watching the waves,” he said. 

After serving eight years in the military, Byron said he felt ready to try something new. This led him to Fly Above All around 2015, a paragliding school located in Santa Barbara, where his paragliding career really took off. 

“The moment my feet left the ground, I was in the air by myself and I knew that this was going to be a part of, if not, my whole life, for the rest of my life,” he said. “I fell in love with it immediately and pretty much have been trying to design the rest of my life around this beautiful sport since then.” 

Byron is now coming up on about eight years of paragliding experience. He said that his training has been all about taking things slow, being patient and learning how to handle life on wings – which requires special attention to the daily forecasts. 

“I wake up and the first thing I do is open the window and check out what’s going on in the sky,” he shared. “Then I get on the forecasts, and I read what’s going on.” 

During the week leading up to March 15, Carpinterian paragliders had their eyes on the sky, gearing up for what was looking to be a great fly day. Carpinterian Tom Traux, a local pioneer to the sport who has been flying for over 50 years, initially planted the seed for what is now referred to as the “Malibu Invasion,” a flight from Carpinteria to Malibu.

He saw something particularly special in the weather patterns that March week and immediately notified a group of local pilots, including Byron, to prepare for an eastbound flight that could potentially take them all the way to Malibu – or in Byron’s case, Santa Monica. 

But, according to Traux, the day actually started out slow, with a lot of pilots struggling early on in their flight. It wasn’t until nearly mid-flight that the goal to reach Malibu began to feel like a reality.

“You could feel how special the day was as we were transitioning to Ojai,” Byron recalled.

A moment later, Byron found himself flying above his air traffic station near Moore Park – a particularly gratifying moment of his journey, he noted, as he works in Point Mugu as an air traffic controller.

“To be there looking down at my job was this huge, full-circle gratification,” he said. “That’s why I go to work every day – I work at this job, so that I can paraglide as much as possible here.” 

From there, his friends began to peel off down the coast; a lot of them ended up in Malibu, and Byron kept flying. 

“I was thinking, ‘I’m here, how far can I push this,’” he explained. 

Somewhere between losing himself in the fun and catching the perfect conditions, Byron landed in Santa Monica, just before Los Angeles International Airport. 

“It was a special day, because usually it’s pretty windy from the southwest. But we were just kind of floating on these little thermal bumps all the way. It was really peaceful and beautiful,” Byron shared. “And I eventually just landed in Santa Monica.” 

Byron did not set out to break records on March 15, instead just expecting a good fly day with great friends. He noted that sometimes in paragliding, everything lines up – the forecast, the winds, the clouds – and the day can turn out really spectacular. March 15 happened to be one of those days.

“Sometimes you just find yourself on this thread of air that takes you to amazing places,” he said. 

Byron said he continues to design his life around paragliding as much as possible. He encourages people to find what makes them happy and chase after it.

“Paragliding can be whatever you want it to be,” he added. “I think we need to spend time asking ourselves, ‘What do we want out of this life, what makes me happy?’ And then push into that.” 

Carpinteria has attracted a special community of paragliders over the years, according to Traux, of pilots who are both determined and truly enjoy the sport. 

“If you go back seven or eight years ago, there were still a lot of spectacular flights. But it’s usually just one guy out there,” said Traux. “Now when you’re getting these big days, you’re getting out there with a big group of pilots.”

Of the pilots who flew on March 15, four were Carpinterians, including Byron, Traux, Dylan Laughlin and Bummy Koepenick. Within the total group, eight also had their personal best flights from Santa Barbara that day. 

Additional details from Byron’s March 15 flight can be found on bit.ly/AndrewByronFlight.