Parasailing

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Parasailing, also known as parascending, is a recreational activity where a person is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a specially designed parachute, known as a parasail. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air. If the boat is powerful enough, two or three people can parasail behind it at the same time. The parascender has little or no control over the parachute.

There are six parts of a parasail. The harness attaches the pilot to the parasail, which is connected to the boat, or land vehicle, by the tow rope. The activity is primarily a fun ride, not to be confused with the sport of paragliding. There are commercial parasailing operations all over the world.

Land based parasailing has also been formed into competition sport in Europe. In land based competition parasailing, the parasail is towed to maximum height behind a 4 wheel drive vehicle and then releases the tow line and flies down to a target area in an accuracy competition. The sport was developed in the early 80's and has been very popular ever since. The first international competitions were held in the mid 80's and continue to run today.