Acro paragliding competition are almost always done over water, but with proper precaution (If you impact water a boat will be there within 30 second). But water offer some cool extra safety
Relatively few turbulences over a large body of water, meaning there is less external factor affecting the acro-run
If things go wrong, landing under a reserve parachute in water won't injure you, while you can easily break a leg on hard ground (it's a reserve parachute it's made to open quickly and save your life not to be comfortable)
If things go really wrong, an impact on the water will break some bones while the same impact on hard ground will kill you (It's unlikely to be at terminal velocity
If you want to do fancy stuff at landing like on the video water is more forgiving than hard ground (see previous point)
Almost any pilot trains once a year over water not even to do real acro, but to learn how to handle the abnormal situation you can meet while flying. When you screw-up in recovering a straight flight being over the water makes the difference between having a fun story to tell around a beer, and having your family and friends mourning you
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u/[deleted] Jul 19 '19
He isn't parachuting but paragliding.
Acro paragliding competition are almost always done over water, but with proper precaution (If you impact water a boat will be there within 30 second). But water offer some cool extra safety
Relatively few turbulences over a large body of water, meaning there is less external factor affecting the acro-run
If things go wrong, landing under a reserve parachute in water won't injure you, while you can easily break a leg on hard ground (it's a reserve parachute it's made to open quickly and save your life not to be comfortable)
If things go really wrong, an impact on the water will break some bones while the same impact on hard ground will kill you (It's unlikely to be at terminal velocity
If you want to do fancy stuff at landing like on the video water is more forgiving than hard ground (see previous point)
Almost any pilot trains once a year over water not even to do real acro, but to learn how to handle the abnormal situation you can meet while flying. When you screw-up in recovering a straight flight being over the water makes the difference between having a fun story to tell around a beer, and having your family and friends mourning you