Quite a number of adventure sports can be enjoyed in Mallorca, such as archery, hiking, caving and speleology, canyoning, rock climbing, abseiling, diving, mountain biking, rafting, canoeing, kite surfing, parachuting and paragliding, plus probably a few more. Especially parapente (paragliding in Castellano) as well as kite surfing have attracted a steady number of followers over the last few years, here on the island. The Spanish Championship in paragliding (free style), for instance, was won in 2005 by a young Mallorcan man from Campos del Port. Paragliding can be seen to be practiced near Randa, Alcúdia and Bahía Grande.

Whilst extreme sports always entail a certain risk factor when gravity is involved, they are said to be safe in general, provided one follows the guidelines and acquires a level of training before one goes out practicing the sport on one’s own. But, there are exceptions to the rule, as always. Sadly, there was a fatal accident two days ago near Llucmajor, when a young German resident had an uncontrolled impact whilst paragliding, resulting in a crash landing (photo below). The victim leaves a pregnant wife behind as well as a young daughter. The cause of the accident is still unknown and an investigation is in process.

Both photos were borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of diariodemallorca.es. The video clip was also borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of YouTube and nortonroad.

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