I live in Kent on the coast, and I think there's a magnificent new kind of sport practised on the sea. It's what I call Kite-gliding. YOu take a surf-board and you deploy a parachute-like-kite. Of course, you are dressed properly in a wet suit that suitably make you look like James Bond! Then, you ask for some friend to hold your kite up and you enter into the water and lie down on the waves. Your freind then launches the kite in the air; this should pull you straight and enable you to do some wind-surfing. Although i don't do it myself, I have watched people here on the beach. It seems great fun, peole not only glide, pulled by the kite, but perfommr some high jumps, the wind sometimes carrying them in the air for a while.
My sister-in-law lives in Stroud. When I when hill-walking, we saw a para-glider. He was trying to launch himself into a thermal. Unfortunately, the thermal was not very strong, and we saw the chap flying over us, then quickly descend itno the next field. Fortunately there are many fields there!. My wife on the contrary, started running down the hill and could not stop herself. Eventually, she made herself fall to [put a stop to this very scary run. As I said, fortunately,there's lots of fields round there and not too much harm incurred apart from a shocked mind!
That's all my experience for now!
Michael