NEWSPAPERS


WEIL PERSPECTIVE - THE CITY MAGAZINE OF WEIL AM RHEIN, 1998
Menschen und Meinungen
MACH DIE LUFT ZUM LIFT
DIETER STRASILLA, FATHER OF PARAGLIDING






Oberengadin in the winter of 1972/73: A spectacular skier is sailing back and forth on Lake Maloja, pulled by a round parachute-like sail. a whistling wind is going though the fabric. A cross-country skier is running after the first guy like a madman. After many traverse rides the excited skisailor finally comes to a stop. That winterday an amazing tandem is created: there is 30 year old chemist Dr. Dieter Strasilla at the sail and there is Andrea Kuhn from Engadin, his future test pilot, only 17 years old at the time and still on cross-country skis. Five years later, magazines, newspapers, professional journals, radio stations and TV stations from Japan to Canada celebrate "daredevil pioneer" Dieter Strasilla for inventing the most exclusive type of windsports: skisailing.

At the same name (i.e. in 1978) the Berchtesgaden native moves to Weil am Rhein for professional resasons. Up to the present day experts call Strasilla the father of paragliding, a type of sport pursued by more than 100.000 people all over the world today. In a collage of excerpts from reports on Strasilla "Perspektive Weil" documents the development of a sport that remains fascinating.


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