Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 12:December 2014 | Page 27

Photos by

Rebecca Bredehoft
I
started flying solo in 1998 at the Point of the Mountain
after being introduced to paragliding on a tandem flight
in New Zealand at the age of 12. Now, I am 30 years
old. I don’t have a steady job, children, or a TV (thankfully). I don’t have a house or even a physical address. What I
do have makes me much happier than those things ever could.
I have a 1998 Chevy Astro van with a custom chalkboard
paintjob. We spent a few hundred dollars converting the
Astro into a livable campervan before driving it from Jackson
Hole, WY, to Costa Rica and back last winter. I’ve got a mohawked little black dog in the back seat that would pick the
van over a house any day and probably loves exploring even
more than I do. He’s been to seven countries. I’ve got the best
partner-in-crime ever, Cade Palmer, who is currently behind
the wheel, navigating us down I-84 toward Salt Lake City.
Behind the van we have a small cargo trailer containing the
remainder of our worldly possessions. The majority of those
possessions are composed entirely of ripstop nylon and string.
These days I’m a tandem pilot and advanced instructor,
a photographer, a traveler. I get in the air almost every day.
When I’m not paragliding and speedflying, you might find me
skydiving, kitesurfing, hot air ballooning, sailplaning, hang
gliding, and now flying small planes. I’m an adventure-sports
and documentary-style photographer. In addition to expanding my love of the sky to a variety of aerial sports, I’ve been
exploring a passion for birds of prey for the past few years by
volunteering for raptor conservation organizations and donating my photography to their educational and public awareness
programs.
We are between seasons, transitioning from our summer
home of Jackson Hole and en route to here and there. Since

graduating high school in Billings, MT, I’ve moved a lot.
Travel has become the norm and I haven’t called any one place
home for longer than six or nine months at a time. I haven’t
seen a winter in five years. Adding to the instability of my
nomadic nature, my daily life depends almost entirely on the
weather. If it rains I might have time to do laundry or make
dinner with a non-flying friend. We’ve been wandering far
and wide, chasing wind and seeking out wonderful places
to fly, working as we go to fund the next leg of the journey.
And along the way, I’ve been documenting our adventures,
attempting to capture the moments of pure brilliance that
are born of this lifestyle. These adventures would be nothing
without the global network of air junkies who make it all possible (and fun!). These people offer up their couches, driveways, and kitchens. They contribute their local knowledge
and share their earth and sky.
There is nothing that makes me happier than crisscrossing
the globe, floating in the sky with friends new and old—the
joy of playing with air over incredible landscapes with incredible people. I strive to let these experiences shine through in
my images, hoping that a single captured moment will tell
the story of the hours and days and years that it took to get to
that place in time. I love that technology allows me to share
these moments with an international network of friends and
family, keeping us all close even when we’re far away. I’m so
very fortunate to be a part of this global community of flying
people and can’t wait to see what the next chapters bring. This
winter I’ll be combining my passions for flying, photography,
conservation, and birds of prey as I join the Parahawking
team in Pokhara, Nepal. If you’d like to follow along on the
adventure, you can find me on Facebook. Happy flying!

LEFT Rebecca | photo by Sofia Jaramillo.

HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

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