At 11:46 a.m. on July 27, Ari DeLashmutt took flight in his Ozone Zeno paraglider from Pine Mountain, Central Oregon’s popular paragliding spot. He climbed to 9,000 feet in the air, crossed into Christmas Valley, then to Summer Valley, then flew across the entire Warner Mountain Range in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

When he finally landed 65 miles south of Alturas, California, on U.S. Highway 395 nine hours after takeoff, he had traveled 230 miles — breaking Reavis Sutphin-Gray’s June 2018 Oregon state record of 198.2 miles for a single flight.

According to the unofficial USA Paragliding distance records, the 33-year-old DeLashmutt’s state-record flight ranks in the top five in the country.

“It is the pinnacle of adventure,” said DeLashmutt, known online as Ari in the Air. “The size and the scope of the game that we are playing — it is hard for me to explain that. Literally, I crossed multiple mountain ranges. I went from the center of Oregon and down very far into California.”

Paragliding is an adventure sport in which the pilot is harnessed into a canopy-like parachute and uses the wind and air pressure to fly and maneuver.

What makes breaking the record so special is that so many variables have to fall into place. On DeLashmutt’s July 27 flight, they all fell into place for him to smash the record by 32 miles.

“I have to work with nature,” he said. “I have to forecast the right day, then once the day comes, I have to work with the day. I have to fly the weather. I have to fly the environment.

“I have to fly the landscape. I have to fly the sky that day.”

The game that cross-country paragliders are playing while in the air, DeLashmutt said, is a game of chess that can sometimes be deadly. During last week’s flight, he reached 16,500 feet of altitude in a “bed sheet with nylon strings.” Throughout the flight, there is no time to eat, go to the bathroom, or take a break while thousands of feet in the air.

There are multiple layers to having a successful flight. The first layer is handling the glider — making it turn left and right, up and down. Then there is the challenge of flying the correct route to land at the right location. One miscalculation can land a paraglider in the middle of nowhere.

“My brain is doing these complex probabilities,” DeLashmutt said. “Based on where the thermal is going to be, based on the direction of the sun, the direction of the wind, shape of terrain, size and shape of the cloud.”

While all those calculations are happening throughout the flight, the final challenge is to make a concerted effort to enjoy the views from above, he said.

“I’m trying my best to take in what I am doing,” DeLashmutt said. “And just try and come back to being present and observant and grateful that I have the opportunity and skills and equipment and experience to allow for this kind of thing.”

Rocket ship ride

Born in Bend and raised in Redmond, DeLashmutt was bitten by the adventure bug at a young age when he was skiing off cliffs and trees with his two brothers. The former professional freestyle skier did his first backflip at Mount Bachelor when he was12. Then he got into highlining — slacklining between cliffs hundreds of feet above the ground — to scratch the adventure itch.

But paragliding is a new adventure for DeLashmutt, who discovered it in 2015 while shooting a stunt with Bend filmmaker Wes Coughlin. The stunt included two paragliders — DeLashmutt was a passenger in a tandem paraglider — and a base jumper. The base jumper launched off a rope swing between the two paragliders, then fell 1,000 feet before deploying his parachute.

It was the first time DeLashmutt had been in a paraglider, and he was hooked. A few short months later, after filming the stunt, DeLashmutt was on the Oregon Coast learning to paraglide. Since starting, he teaches the art of paragliding and has flown in 15 countries on five continents.

“It has been a rocket ship ride in paragliding ever since it instantly took over my life,” DeLashmutt said. “It has excited me in really profound ways.”

The full 25-minute interview with DeLashmutt can be found on The Bulletin’s YouTube channel and at bendbulletin.com/sports. 

To learn more about paragliding, DeLashmutt hosts a podcast on the sport called Ari in the Air. He also has instructional videos on his YouTube channel under the same name.