Bir is a small village in the District of Kangra about 50 kms from Dharmashala and is a part of the Joginder Nagar Valley of the Dhauladhar Range in the foothills of the Himalayas. Unbelievably beautiful, it is a farming village comprising a Tibetan settlement and the local population, students volunteers, foreigners taken in by the beauty. Most people live in the southern end in a place called Chougan and a field about 14 kms to the north called Billing is a paragliding site at an elevation of about 2400 meters. It has hosted many international events and this year it is hosting the World Championships between the 25th and the 31st October 2015!! It is beautiful to watch the flyers perform tasks as they are rated. There were over 100 pilots from several nationalities competing and there is a link that was tracking the flights in realtime as it happened.The team from France has taken the overall winners position flying a contingent of 11 Ozones & one Gin Boomerang 10 and a Niviuk. They were followed by the UK, Slovenia & Norway. The home team placed 12th with great flights by instructor Gurpreet Dhindsa in his Bommerang 10 and others in the team Ajay Kumar, Jyoti Prakash, Budh Ram, Arvind Paul, Vijay Soni, Prakashchand Thakur and Gautam Nath and their scores below. What is as usual sad is that they have no sponsors and are self funded!!
| Rank | ID | Name | Nation | Glider | Sponsor | T5.1 | T5.2 | T5.3 | T5.4 | T5.5 | Score |
| 12 | India | 2305 | 971 | 2316 | 512 | 1874 | 7978 | ||||
| 421 | Ajay KUMAR | IND | Ozone EnZo 2 | 781 | 260 | 845 | 184 | 850 | 2920 | ||
| 365 | Gurpreet DHINDSA | IND | Gin Boomerang 10 | PG-Gurukul | 753 | 269 | 750 | 175 | 501 | 2448 | |
| 431 | Arvind PAUL | IND | Ozone EnZo 2 | nill | 701 | 432 | 721 | 153 | 523 | 2530 | |
| 435 | Vijay SONI | IND | Gin Boomerang 10 | 771 | 230 | 149 | 0 | 0 | 1150 | ||
| 430 | Prakashcand THAKUR | IND | Ozone Mantra 6 | 327 | 270 | 569 | 141 | 455 | 1762 | ||
| 433 | Gautam NATH | IND | Ozone Delta 2 | nil | 231 | 197 | 562 | 122 | 410 | 1522 | |
| 434 | Jyoti PRKASH | IND | Gin Boomerang 10 | self | 239 | 262 | 565 | 114 | 476 | 1656 | |
| 1701 | Budh RAM | IND | Ozone Delta 2 | 214 | 176 | 111 | 47 | 383 | 931 | ||
Not surprisingly there is a also a paragliding school here where Gurpreet’s the instructor and I made a plan to meet him soon. This looks and sounds like stuff that I think I should do and a perfect complement to my scuba experiences – high up in the air from deep down in the sea !!
