83-year-old floats down from Mt. Tamalpais
Mill Valley Herald. July 5, 1999. Also published as: 83-year-old Marinite floats down from Mt. Tam. San Rafael Terra Linda News Pointer. July 14-21, 1999.

This past weekend the San Francisco Hang Gliding Center broke the United States record by taking up the oldest man ever to go hang gliding. On Saturday, June 26, Chief Instructor Bohdi Kroll took 83 year old Howard Anton from Glen Ellen along as he floated down from the top of Mt. Tam to Stinson Beach.

The company is the first in the Bay Area to take people tandem hang gliding, with an instructor and pupil on the same glider. They were awarded the contract in April of 1998, as the first hang-gliding facility to be able to do instruction.

"Before, the only way you could go up was if you owned your own glider and had all the equipment," said Kroll.

The company takes up anyone who would like to go. This includes men and women from age 7-75 and even higher as of this weekend. While flying, the gliders cruise at about 20-25 mph, although they get up to speeds as fast as 40 or 45.

"It is one of the safest and easiest places to fly in the country. The wind currents are very predictable and it is real smooth, steady wind because it comes straight up from the beach," Kroll explained. The flight takes riders from the top of Mount Tamalpais soaring with the red-tailed hawks down to the soft sands of Stinson Beach.

Instructors are allowed to take up beginners using the tandem technique, because they are basically just along for the ride. "The beauty of it is that it is so easy. All they need to do is run for awhile to go up in the air and then land on the beach, which is basically like jumping down from a chair," said Kroll.

Kroll started hang-gliding in 1984 at the age of 18. He became a professional hang-glider in 1990 and has been teaching it ever since. He has been to Australia and New Zealand, as well as various places around the United States teaching Hang-gliding. The highest point he has ever flown off of is 8000 ft at Lake Tahoe, where they eventually climbed to 15,000 ft during the flight. After being an instructor with other companies for about 7 years, Kroll decided to branch out and start his own business. "I decided about 2 1/2 years ago to do it for myself. I figured I'd been working so long for someone else that it was time for other people to be working for me, " he said. If all goes well for Kroll, he hopes to expand his business overseas and begin taking people hang-gliding in Switzerland and France. "Right now, we are constantly booked," he explained, "so I'm taking people up gliding about six days a week. I'm hoping to get a few more hang gliders so that I can begin doing the same type of thing overseas." With only 100 people in the United States certified as instructors who are allowed to bring people with them while gliding, Kroll is able to take advantage of a relatively untapped market. At the same time, he is living out a dream of hang-gliding for a living.

"Not many people think that you can actually make a living by doing this, but that is exactly what we are trying to do," Kroll explained. "I'm just happy that I can support myself by taking people out hang-gliding in such an incredible place.