Violinagliding in Gokseong
Written by Eden Jones
Photographed by Gokseong Train Village Paragliding
You’ve heard of skydiving and probably even paragliding, but have you ever heard of “violinagliding”? Probably not, and that’s because I’m pretty sure I made it up.
Back in July of this year, smack dab in the middle of Korea’s record-breaking, sweltering-hot summer, my friends and I decided to take a weekend trip to Gokseong, a train-themed village about an hour and a half by bus outside of Gwangju. When we arrived, we were surprised to find the village mostly quiet with few tourists around. We could only figure everyone was off at the beaches, and we were happy to have the place to ourselves.
When my friends and I saw advertisements for the reasonably priced paragliding experience, there was little debate over whether we should try it. We called up the company and booked spots for the following morning. Oddly, the man we spoke with on the phone wanted to meet in person to discuss the booking, so we asked him to meet us later in the evening, as we wanted to make the most of the daylight.
The rest of that day was spent riding Gokseong’s famed rail bikes and then chilling by the river. We were enjoying ourselves so immensely that we stayed out till dark and almost forgot about our meeting with the paragliding guy. We called him up and, to our surprise, he agreed to meet us there at the river.
By the time Paragliding Guy arrived in his adventure vehicle, it was almost too dark to see each other and the mosquitos were out in armies, so we all ended up going to dinner together, which was followed by ice cream, pie, and cards back at the hostel. At some point, the fact that I played the violin was brought up.
“I wonder if anyone has ever paraglided while playing the violin,” I said.
“Now that is an interesting question,” replied one of my friends.
We looked it up on YouTube and, sure enough, someone had done it – in Turkey. This led to our discovery that accordions, guitars, and even a full-length keyboard had been played while paragliding. But as far as we could see, no one had ever played the violin while paragliding in Korea, at least not at Gokseong Train Village Paragliding. I asked Paragliding Guy whether he’d allow it, half-jokingly.
Paragliding Guy’s face grew thoughtful. Then after a moment, he said, “Let me talk to my guys, and I’ll let you know tomorrow when you come for your session.” We all laughed, and then it was time to call it a night. I went to bed, both nervous and excited at the possibility of what I might have the chance to try the next morning.
In the morning, we arrived at the paragliding office where we filled out liability forms and got suited up in these cool, army-green flight suits that made me feel cooler than Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Paragliding Guy and his team said I could take my violin, and we spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how to attach a GoPro camera to it. The paragliding team seemed just as excited as my friends and I were to try out the experiment.
Giant sport trucks drove us to the top of a mountain that had a rounded plateau that’d been cleared of trees. I was deemed to be the first to go. They strapped a helmet on me, and soon I was clipped into the parachute harness with my flying guide behind me. My flight guide said, “When I count to three, start running as fast as you can.” I gulped and clutched my fiddle tightly in my right hand. 1… 2…. 3… and we ran. Before I could even reach my full speed, the parachute had lifted me and my flying guide into the air. The weightless feeling was more incredible than I could’ve imagined, but the view was even more amazing. Immediately, I lost any sense of fear. I felt completely safe and incredibly lucky to be there in the air – flying!
After fully taking in that first moment, I lifted my instrument and played. We were circling the takeoff point, and I could see my friends pointing and cheering. What a funny sight I must’ve been. But hey, not too many people can say they’ve paraglided while playing the violin. I felt in that moment that what I was doing was equally cool, ridiculous, and free-spirited. It was one of those moments when you just know you’re enjoying life to the fullest.
And that’s the story of how violinagliding was born. I wonder, what could be next?
Gokseong Train Village Paragliding
(곡성 기차마을 패러글라이딩)
Address: 42 Deokyang-seowon-gil, Ogok-myeon, Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do
전라남도 곡성군 오곡면 덕양서원길 42
Telephone: 010-5847-7448
Website: http://www.gspara.com/
The Author
Eden has been teaching English in Korea since 2014. Last year she started her Instagram account @violin_everywhere, where she chronicles her many unique adventures with her violin.