1 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,120 Hey, hey, hey, hello, paragliding pilots across the 2 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:11,640 world. Welcome to your weekly dose of 3 00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,200 awesomeness on Paragliding Atlas podcast, the fastest growing 4 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,560 show on the interweb for the sport of paragliding. 5 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:23,040 And today we are talking about a topic that most of us are or 6 00:00:23,040 --> 00:00:26,920 have been curious about it sometime, and that is how to 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:31,320 share the absolute magic that we experience in the air with our 8 00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:33,600 friends and family and hopefully beyond. 9 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,480 And how about this? If I told you that there's one 10 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:42,720 person who has figured it out whether he wanted it or not, and 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:47,080 he has figured it out up to a point where it is infectious and 12 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,640 a lot of us want to try and replicate that. 13 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:55,360 Yes, as the name of the episode suggests, we are talking about 14 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,880 none other than our very own influencer who has managed to 15 00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:02,640 crack the short form content creation code and relentlessly 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,320 brings all his adventures to a phone screens time and again, 17 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:11,520 invoking nostalgia, FOMO and inspiration all in one go. 18 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:17,080 Benjamin is hands down single most followed pilot on 19 00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:21,040 Instagram, amassing millions of views across his platform for 20 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:22,920 for his creative style of storytelling. 21 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:26,680 And the whole idea of coming out with this episode was to try and 22 00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,680 divulge the details to a larger audience on how he does it, why 23 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,760 he does it, and if you're inspired by it, how can you do 24 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,720 it? So without further ado, this is 25 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:40,960 not just to talk about how to get likes. 26 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:45,760 Instead, it's a master class in passion, perseverance, and the 27 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:49,720 pursuit of stories that inspire. And no, you don't have to pay 28 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:52,880 for it. That's the beauty of it as it 29 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,680 resonates with the whole idea behind paragliding Atlas and 30 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:59,360 that is to bring knowledgeable information about the sport at 0 31 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,160 cost to consumer. So TuneIn and I hope you like 32 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,160 it. Oh and yes, do not forget to 33 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,400 like, subscribe and share to both of our channels, the link 34 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,280 to which is in the show notes below, because that is the way 35 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:14,160 we get to spread this awesomeness together and make 36 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:19,040 the whole community a lot more aware about the joys that the 37 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:26,360 out of light brings in our life. Benjamin Killett, what an 38 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:28,240 absolute honour to finally have you on the show. 39 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:30,680 Man, I think I have to tell this to my audiences. 40 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:34,240 There hasn't been an easier guest to reach out to. 41 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:38,520 You replied in 5 minutes and we are talking in two days from the 42 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:40,960 start of conversation. Man thank you so much, love it. 43 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,400 Now, it's a pleasure to be on here and I love bringing the 44 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,440 Stokes community, so I'm happy to do these sorts of things and 45 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:50,680 glad you reached out. So yeah, thank you very much for 46 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:52,480 having me. Awesome man. 47 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,040 But just to start, when you said you love sharing this with 48 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,920 community, how did this thought process come to you? 49 00:02:57,920 --> 00:03:01,480 Because I think you are one of the most successful Instagram 50 00:03:01,480 --> 00:03:05,120 influencer, if we have to put it that way on the in the 51 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,840 paragliding scenario. Or like, how did the thought 52 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,440 process of sharing the aerial adventures come to you and 53 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,880 what's the meaning behind them? Oh, mostly it started from just 54 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:18,280 to be honest with you. Like I would go flying and I'd 55 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:23,240 make videos for myself and during the flight I would talk 56 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,800 to add context to the video. Because otherwise when you look 57 00:03:26,800 --> 00:03:29,640 back at if, if you're flying and you just take videos of the 58 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:31,280 scenery, yeah, it's nice to look back on. 59 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:35,520 But what I thought was added more value to that for myself 60 00:03:35,520 --> 00:03:37,920 was I'm just going to silence my phone. 61 00:03:37,920 --> 00:03:41,560 I apologise. What I thought for myself added 62 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:47,160 more value was to describe my thought process during that time 63 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,520 and my emotion and how I was feeling and what I was looking 64 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:53,080 at. Because I thought maybe if I 65 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,240 look back at this footage and I go where am I? 66 00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,960 What was when was this? What was going on? 67 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:05,320 So I would just tell myself I'm purely talking to myself saying, 68 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,600 OK, so I'm looking at mountain pollocks and I'm thinking about 69 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,400 making a glide over here, but I'm just making sure that I can 70 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:16,760 get high enough. It's November, it's 2015 and 71 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,000 it's a really beautiful day and I'm happy to be here. 72 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,079 Stuff like that. And I'd do that and, and then I 73 00:04:22,079 --> 00:04:23,680 look back at him and go, Oh yeah, go away here. 74 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,360 Maybe I'll post that on that, that clip on Facebook and I'll 75 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:29,680 do that. And I just upload it and people 76 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,760 started liking it and, but mostly it's just for myself, 77 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,600 like the thought process stuff. And then I can look back a bit 78 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:39,920 and I can analyse my decision making. 79 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:42,600 I could look at the flight, was it a good flight? 80 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:44,320 Was it a bad flight? Where did I mess up? 81 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:47,160 OK, this decision was wrong, I shouldn't have done that. 82 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,120 And then I can look back at my footage and go, this is what I 83 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:52,680 was thinking. That's what was actually going 84 00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,720 through my head because your, your, your, your perception of 85 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:58,840 what you're actually thinking changes over time. 86 00:04:58,840 --> 00:05:01,280 So I could look back and go, OK, this is actually what I was 87 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:02,800 thinking. And yeah, that was incorrect. 88 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:06,160 That's I'd made the wrong interpretation of the weather 89 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:08,920 conditions or my expectation of the day. 90 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:10,680 And, and that's why I made the mistakes. 91 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:13,480 So it was a learning curve. It was for my own pleasure and 92 00:05:13,480 --> 00:05:15,960 enjoyment. And I, I just shared it and I 93 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:18,400 keep sharing it. And I, and I think people like 94 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:20,840 that. I think people like to see and, 95 00:05:20,840 --> 00:05:25,000 and the, the raw point of view, what it's like to be in the 96 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:27,720 moment and in that experience, but also understand what's going 97 00:05:27,720 --> 00:05:30,280 through my head. And at the beginning it was for 98 00:05:30,280 --> 00:05:32,120 me. And when I got more experience 99 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:35,840 and I started doing better flights, people started taking 100 00:05:35,840 --> 00:05:38,200 things away from that and using it for their own learning 101 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:40,640 experience. And that's my style. 102 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:47,760 More raw, like it's nice to put up a scenic video of scenery and 103 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:50,640 some cheesy music every now and again, but but more I prefer 104 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:56,440 sharing the emotion, decision making and logistical side of 105 00:05:56,440 --> 00:05:58,920 it. I, I, I, I would say your voice 106 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,840 overs are infectious enough to try and recreate. 107 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,840 Try and motivate all of your viewers to recreate their own. 108 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:06,880 You're doing something pretty right there. 109 00:06:06,880 --> 00:06:10,320 This reminds me of of a video review system that we have in a 110 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:12,920 lot of professional sports in paragliding. 111 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:20,160 We use that pretty heavily in, in Sivs and I was, I, I always 112 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:23,520 used to wonder that why can't we do the same in cross country and 113 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,000 everything. But I think you are taking a 114 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:29,560 step in that direction. And I understand the battery 115 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,320 systems and all of the limitations of the cameras are, 116 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:36,720 are obviously limited. But I, I often wonder if we can 117 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,440 have a dash Cam or something like that on our cockpits, which 118 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,080 just records the whole flight for safety evaluation or 119 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:45,640 anything. So I think this is one step in 120 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,440 that direction in, in new technologies, I would say, yeah. 121 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,080 But so let's say, would would you mind talking about your 122 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:54,320 airtime, like how, how experienced you are, how long 123 00:06:54,320 --> 00:06:55,320 you've been doing this? And. 124 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,440 Yeah, sure. So I started paragliding in 125 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,720 2014. So it's yeah, it's just, yeah, 126 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,120 December 2014. I'm knocking on 10 years flying 127 00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,800 now. I learned to fly in on Coronet 128 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:10,200 Peak in Queenstown. There's big tandem flying 129 00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,760 community here. So I saw people flying. 130 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:16,360 I had a decision one day I wanted to go and do something 131 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:18,200 new. I didn't 0 research. 132 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:20,640 I had no idea what paragliding was really. 133 00:07:20,640 --> 00:07:22,320 I just wanted to go and give it a go. 134 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,440 But the decision I got was a, do you go for a tandem flight or do 135 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:27,280 you go to the school? And the school did an 136 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:29,080 introduction day for the same price. 137 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,200 And I said I might as well go do the introduction day. 138 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:33,880 I actually get to fly the glider myself. 139 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,120 And I went and did that, flew off the training hill five times 140 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:40,000 and loved it. And then they said, if you come 141 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,200 back tomorrow, you can fly off the ski field. 142 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:45,720 And I went and fell off the ski field. 143 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:47,800 I was hooked. And that did a bit more research 144 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,960 and I found out that you could do long distance, you could do 145 00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:52,720 aerobatics and things like this. Yeah, that's how I got into 146 00:07:52,720 --> 00:07:54,680 flying. It's basically just from seeing 147 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:57,600 other people fly myself and deciding that I would give it a 148 00:07:57,600 --> 00:07:58,920 go. I would. 149 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:02,520 I've been living in New Zealand for 14 years now. 150 00:08:03,040 --> 00:08:04,520 I'm British. Yep. 151 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:10,280 So originally from the South of England and I now for the last 152 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:12,920 three years I'm doing 6 months in New Zealand and then I'm 153 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:15,480 spending the other half of the year in the northern hemisphere. 154 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:17,840 I've worked professionally as a tandem pilot. 155 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:20,760 That's my day job. That's six months a year in New 156 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:22,040 Zealand. I've worked three months of the 157 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:24,920 year in Switzerland and I'm travelling for about 3 months of 158 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:27,640 the year. But yeah, as I I do also make 159 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:31,760 videos, which is a bit of a side hustle, but primarily my day job 160 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:36,200 is flying tandems, yeah. A side hustle made you the most 161 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,039 followed person on Instagram? How cool is that? 162 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:41,080 It's sort of like bragging rights for life, man. 163 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,880 Yeah. Thank you. 164 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,240 No, it's cool. It's really exciting that the 165 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,480 and to be honest with you, it's grown a lot over the last six 166 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,520 months. I've honed in my style of video 167 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,640 that seems to be resonating with people outside of the 168 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:00,640 paragliding community. It is exciting. 169 00:09:00,640 --> 00:09:04,520 It's lame enough that people that don't fly understand to 170 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:06,840 some extent what's going on isn't exciting for them. 171 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:11,760 But there is enough Easter eggs and knowledge in for the people 172 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:15,200 that do fly to get something out of it. 173 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:20,760 But it's very short, like a cram a day into a whole full biv day. 174 00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:25,320 But a lot goes on in the day of Flying Biv Cram it into a minute 175 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:27,920 and a half and and and people enjoy it. 176 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,000 But it's grown a lot in the last six months, which is exciting to 177 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,320 see. Basically, once you started 178 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,560 sharing your flights and narrating narration and all the 179 00:09:36,560 --> 00:09:40,040 voiceovers behind it, how did the community start growing 180 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:41,960 around it? Can you talk us to, can you take 181 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,160 our audiences through early days of how a growth looks like in 182 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,760 this perspective? Yeah, I mean, it's just mostly 183 00:09:48,760 --> 00:09:51,200 just friends and family really that were watching the videos 184 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:55,560 that I that I was putting up. And it was quite raw, you know, 185 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,000 in the beginning because it, as I said, it's just my emotion and 186 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,320 my decision making. But what helped with the growth 187 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:05,280 was my skill as a pilot increased. 188 00:10:05,560 --> 00:10:09,920 And when I started flying bigger distances and flying, it was a 189 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:13,000 combination my my skill as a videographer and a pilot grew 190 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:14,640 together. I'm not a very skilled 191 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:17,520 videographer. The, the more unique thing I 192 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:21,920 think is that I'm willing to wear and use a camera and do 193 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:24,160 flights that people aren't normally doing. 194 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,800 It's the combination of the two. I was flying lines in New 195 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:30,400 Zealand that aren't commonly flown. 196 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,880 But the unique part was that I was wearing a camera and I was 197 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,080 talking about it. And, and as I grew as a pilot, 198 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,160 the videos got better. I got better at recording videos 199 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:42,520 and that's how it grew together. But mostly it was friends and 200 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,880 family in the local community, mostly people who are very 201 00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:49,480 interested in flying, specifically in New Zealand, who 202 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,360 got the beta from the the lines that I was flying in, learning 203 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,600 the hard way, like I did some mistakes and shared it 204 00:10:57,600 --> 00:10:59,840 nonetheless. And it was those two things 205 00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:02,440 together, I think that really made it grow initially in the 206 00:11:02,440 --> 00:11:05,920 very early days. Yeah, curious question comes to 207 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:08,560 my mind and I'm pretty sure this was this was resonate a lot with 208 00:11:08,560 --> 00:11:13,000 our listeners as well. Did Ground Suck try to pull you 209 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,360 down at times when you were putting out your vulnerabilities 210 00:11:16,680 --> 00:11:19,080 out to the world? From other people. 211 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:22,080 Yeah. Not so much to be honest with 212 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:23,840 you. I was quite confident making my 213 00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:27,440 own decisions, always have been. A New Zealand, it's the 214 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:29,600 community is growing, but there's not, it's not a huge 215 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:31,160 flying community. There's not like a big 216 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:34,760 mentorship program really like in other countries like in 217 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:38,160 France or the UK or Switzerland where you've got big pools of 218 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:40,520 pilots and you have experienced pilots that you can follow. 219 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:43,400 If you want to do cross country flight in France you can just 220 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,400 follow other people on a good day. 221 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:46,640 They've got plenty of gardeners in the air. 222 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,320 You can just go out and do it. Whereas in New Zealand, where I 223 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:52,360 really cut my teeth, is you can't really do that. 224 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,080 You have to go and do your own thing. 225 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:58,000 You have to go and hike up a hill, make your own plan and go 226 00:11:58,000 --> 00:11:59,480 for it. The community's growing, but 227 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:03,240 it's not there yet. I wasn't influenced so much by 228 00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:07,600 other people's decisions. I just was left to just do my 229 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,680 thing. I flew with friends and we did 230 00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:13,080 some stuff together but it was and there were more experienced 231 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:18,120 parts I have flown with. But mostly it's it was my own 232 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:21,160 decision making and I never really felt too much of the 233 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:23,880 ground suck as you say. Yeah, not so much. 234 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:26,800 That seems like quite a blessing in in digital age. 235 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,280 My my my, my question stemmed from the curiosity that social 236 00:12:30,280 --> 00:12:35,160 media by its default design is is meant traditional 237 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:37,360 gratification and validation and everything. 238 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:41,280 And regardless of how much we try, somehow the algorithms do 239 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,960 reach us and the likes and the comments end up affecting us 240 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,080 unless we are strong enough to just not press that notification 241 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,520 buttons or just check that out for people out there who are 242 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:55,160 inspired by what you do. And of course, as the landscape 243 00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:58,960 is growing with digital and digitisation, there will be 244 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,760 people trying to replicate. Is there a defence mechanism to 245 00:13:02,760 --> 00:13:07,680 try and block away the, I can put it in as simply as 246 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:09,400 negativity. Some, somebody goes out there 247 00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:11,800 and says that you shouldn't be doing this in the comments and 248 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,240 you're like, that's his life, but I have to protect mine. 249 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:17,520 So is is there anything that that you have done which has 250 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:19,880 particularly worked for you, which kept the comments and the 251 00:13:19,880 --> 00:13:23,480 likes and the the validation that comes from it immune away 252 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:24,520 from your? Passion. 253 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:27,640 You mean doing something in the flight specifically for the 254 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:32,080 making a video? Oh the audience reacting other 255 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,840 than planned to your video and you not letting that affect you 256 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,920 in the air. To be honest, really the yeah, 257 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:44,920 the comments and the things that I get from on my videos, 99% 258 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,840 are, are positive. Mostly I'm, I'm fortunate like 259 00:13:48,840 --> 00:13:52,880 I, I'm put, I think generally I'm putting out positive content 260 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:56,520 is it's about an experience. So I don't get very many 261 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:59,640 negative comments. See, the negative comments that 262 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:04,560 I do get in towards what I'm doing are somewhat unjustified 263 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:06,680 and it's mostly people that just don't understand. 264 00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:09,760 They just don't understand what paragliding is and how it works. 265 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:11,800 I don't think I and I never would. 266 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:16,240 And I don't post videos of me being negligent towards my own 267 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,440 and other people's safety. I don't think I'm taking any any 268 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:21,680 unnecessary risk and posting it online. 269 00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,240 So I'm not really exposed so much to that. 270 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:27,720 I think the negative comments that you get from I do get from 271 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,880 people from sometimes you just laugh it off because it just, 272 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:32,440 it's just people that just don't understand. 273 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:34,960 And sometimes I try and educate and I respond to the comments. 274 00:14:34,960 --> 00:14:37,120 I always respond to, I respond to most comments. 275 00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:40,240 And I just explained to him, it's not like that like how you 276 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:43,600 get people comment things like what will happen if you are you 277 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:46,240 not scared that you're just going to fall out of the air and 278 00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:49,400 die? I'm like, no, because I'm flying 279 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:49,960 air. I know. 280 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,160 And it's like it's, that's the only sort of things that that I 281 00:14:53,160 --> 00:14:56,720 get that in that negative way. Yeah, I'm not too concerned 282 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:58,840 about that. I I like to try and educate 283 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:01,600 people that don't understand what paragliding is. 284 00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:04,800 That's really a big motivation for me is that when people that 285 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:06,800 don't fly watch it and they don't understand. 286 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,320 But most of it's positive. Most of the comments are 287 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,600 positive of people who don't understand, but they're excited 288 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,640 to see it and they want to understand what's going on. 289 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:17,560 How are you doing this? You don't have an engine. 290 00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:19,720 This is crazy. And I love explaining that to 291 00:15:19,720 --> 00:15:22,280 people. Every now and again you get a -1 292 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,200 where people say, oh you're not going to, you're not going to 293 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:27,040 last long. They just, they just don't 294 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,560 understand and that's OK. Now that's great that keyboard 295 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:33,440 warriors are sticking to their keyboards and not affecting you 296 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:36,320 in the air. And I think this is a welcome 297 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:39,600 outlook on on social media. I was not expecting this because 298 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,960 usually social media is a place where people love venting out. 299 00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,320 But if there's positivity in the community, then that's so 300 00:15:45,320 --> 00:15:48,440 motivating then. All right, got it, man. 301 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,080 Benji, before I move on to the next topic, I quickly just want 302 00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:53,600 to touch upon how did the growth look like with respect to 303 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,400 timeline? Because obviously a lot of 304 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:58,520 algorithms and information out there which says how to grow on 305 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,480 these channels and everything is you should post at certain 306 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:03,280 things. And from what I see that you 307 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:05,280 were just going out and living your life organically. 308 00:16:05,280 --> 00:16:09,200 There was no specific motive in trying and being successful in 309 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:11,160 this direction. However, you ended up doing it 310 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,320 as it should be. So how just to tell our 311 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:17,040 audiences, how did the timeline look like from you posting to 312 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,640 you getting traction to finally starting to grow and then the 313 00:16:20,640 --> 00:16:21,880 last six months? What? 314 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,760 What's the road map to here? I've been posting videos on 315 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,520 social media for for paragliding since I started flying, which we 316 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:31,840 started flying 10 years ago. But maybe I've been posting more 317 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:36,200 seriously eight years, but like the the reality you meant. 318 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:41,280 So it's been a long road, but the goal has never really been 319 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:44,040 to do anything. I never really, I never started 320 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,440 posting videos on social media with this in mind. 321 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:49,840 I posted it in the beginning just to share my experience with 322 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:52,160 my friends and family. And then the paragliding 323 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:54,680 community or that I was living in within New Zealand got 324 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:56,640 interested. And then that kind of motivated 325 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,680 me to keep posting more than other people got more 326 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:03,720 interested. So I keep posting more and it 327 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,880 took a long time, but then you go through waves of motivation 328 00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,200 because then you, you at some point you think, what am I doing 329 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,280 this for? And you have to come back to 330 00:17:13,280 --> 00:17:17,760 your core motivation, which is I like posting videos that I enjoy 331 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:21,480 to make, that I enjoy to share, that I'm passionate about and 332 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:23,640 that I think other people might like as well. 333 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,000 And if you're not doing that and you're just making videos for 334 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,080 the sake of making videos and it's a waste of time. 335 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:33,320 And, and, and that's, I've, I've stuck to those principles since 336 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:36,120 the beginning and it's just naturally just evolved. 337 00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:38,480 I've gotten better at them and more people have gotten 338 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:40,960 interested them and it's and it's evolved and grow together. 339 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,640 But I've been posting for eight years, more or less. 340 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:49,720 After about four or five years of posting, I started generating 341 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:51,960 a bit more of a following on Instagram. 342 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:54,240 My focus in the beginning was actually probably more on 343 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:58,400 YouTube. And then the problem that what I 344 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:03,080 did over the last year was stop posting as much on YouTube 345 00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:06,560 because the amount of time and effort that goes into making a 346 00:18:06,560 --> 00:18:11,960 YouTube video is so much more. It's so much more work making a 347 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:16,120 long form YouTube video than it is to make a one minute video 348 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,040 for your phone on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. 349 00:18:20,520 --> 00:18:24,280 It takes me an hour, an hour or two to make a reel on Instagram 350 00:18:24,840 --> 00:18:27,360 and that sometimes can reach millions of people. 351 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:32,040 And that has a much wider effect for me than spending a week. 352 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,800 Literally like the YouTube videos can take me a week to 353 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:39,280 make a 15 minute video and it just doesn't have the same 354 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:41,720 reach. And I speak an hour and it's 355 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,680 just for the light, the balance of lifestyle for me, just making 356 00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:48,720 these shorter videos just makes it just made a lot more sense to 357 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:50,600 me. And that's why I made that shift 358 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:54,240 about a year ago that I stopped making so much YouTube stuff and 359 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:56,920 I started just making just actually just putting more of my 360 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:02,280 time and effort into Instagram and TikTok, the short Facebook 361 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:06,880 short 9 by 16 vertical format videos. 362 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:09,680 And they just reach so many more people. 363 00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,280 And I've had the end. I've had so many people message 364 00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:14,720 me and ask me how do I get into paragliding? 365 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,000 And that really motivates me. This is amazing. 366 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:20,160 This is super cool. I don't care about the money 367 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:22,800 that you know, or maybe I'll get more money if I did the YouTube 368 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:25,000 stuff. I think this is easy, easy. 369 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,840 I make short videos. It reaches loads of people, 370 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:28,360 brings paragliding to the forefront. 371 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:30,360 It's cool. And that was the kind of the 372 00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:33,040 progression. Quick question comes to my mind 373 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:37,360 when you talk about DMS, how many DMS do you get in a day man 374 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:40,000 with that kind of following on Instagram and how many of them 375 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:40,800 are from women? It's. 376 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,400 An interesting fact because Instagram does give you quite a 377 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:49,400 detailed analysis of your following, which I look at and 378 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:53,360 I'm 92% male. Unfortunately for me, yeah. 379 00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:56,160 But now you get lots of it depends on the month, but you do 380 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,480 get a lot. I do get a lot of message, but 381 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:02,000 mostly the people that that send me direct messages are people 382 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,160 that are really motivated by watching my videos and they 383 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,520 really want to just know how to start the sport. 384 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,040 And I do not remind responding to those messages at all. 385 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,480 No, I love it, man. I I think that there's something 386 00:20:14,480 --> 00:20:17,920 with the digital landscape and women consuming paragliding 387 00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:22,120 because we, the paragliding Atlas hover between 15 to 20% 388 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:24,200 women listeners compared to male listeners. 389 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:27,400 Yeah, yeah, yeah, so far. But yeah, let's see here. 390 00:20:29,520 --> 00:20:34,920 Let's, let's see who catches up in each other's foray here. 391 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:40,280 That that's, that's great. But I quickly want to know, did 392 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:43,280 you see some periods of growth like that first thousand was the 393 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:46,560 hardest or 1st 10,000 was the hardest or first 100,000 was the 394 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:49,160 hardest? Like which one was the slowest 395 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,080 and which one was the fastest in the past metrics? 396 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,560 If I'm being totally honest with you, I don't know because, and 397 00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:01,200 I'm not trying to seem nonchalant about it, but I 398 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:03,440 wasn't really paying that much attention to it. 399 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:05,920 What I was doing was just sharing videos that I was 400 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:09,440 passionate about. And yes, I did notice when I did 401 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:14,600 gain following, but my when I was posting videos, I wasn't 402 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,720 trying to get more followers. So I wasn't really, it wasn't 403 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:19,320 like, Oh my, do you know what I mean? 404 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:24,040 Like I, it happened and it was probably I posted a few videos 405 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:28,400 when I had a, my Instagram account was just starting and I 406 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:33,480 did a couple that I got like 1,000,000 views on one video and 407 00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:35,400 that was huge for me. Like I didn't have that many 408 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,160 followers and that and it was one video. 409 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:39,360 I just put like a, a video of me. 410 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:44,040 It was a 360 camera on my head and I flew false on full speed 411 00:21:44,040 --> 00:21:48,200 bar down the a road. I just flew down the road and I 412 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,280 put some catchy music to it and boom, they got a million and a 413 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,680 half views and that and off that. 414 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:57,000 So this is maybe a piece of advice for people who want to 415 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,760 grow a social media account in the same respect is that when I, 416 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:05,160 when that happened, when I got this boom million and a half 417 00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:08,440 views, I kept posting. I posted every day. 418 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:11,800 I posted every day for the next two months or something. 419 00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:17,640 And I rode the wave and riding the wave of that one that did 420 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,520 really well grew my following. And that's really when I started 421 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,560 paying attention to how many followers I have, how many 422 00:22:24,560 --> 00:22:26,400 people are following me, how many views I'm getting. 423 00:22:26,680 --> 00:22:28,680 Because before that, I was just saying, I don't care. 424 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:30,120 I'm just posting stuff that I like. 425 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:32,560 Think that's cool. And then I had this one that 426 00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:34,320 went really well. And then I rode the wave. 427 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:36,600 And then I grew. And then I went, OK, wow, OK, 428 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:39,360 now I've got the OK, well, now this seems worth doing. 429 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:42,520 And that was a bit of a game changer for me, just having one 430 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:45,200 video that did well. What, what, what, what was the 431 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,320 amount of likes you were at before that a million viral 432 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:51,680 video and and after you eventually rode the wave out for 433 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:53,760 the next two months, what what was the difference in the in the 434 00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:55,960 likes of or followers in your profile? 435 00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:59,120 Not sure, I can't remember to be honest with you. 436 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:05,680 I probably only had like maybe 1000 or 2000 followers and then 437 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:10,200 that one had one big video. But then I spent a long time 438 00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,560 posting after that. I can't remember. 439 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:18,400 It was it probably took me to 20,000 followers or something, 440 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:20,840 but it wasn't initially off that one video. 441 00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:24,080 That one video just gave me the opportunity. 442 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:30,080 It that one video that went really well, put me gave me a 443 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:33,120 podium to stand on to then show all the other stuff that I had 444 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:35,840 to show. And so I got one opportunity, 445 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:37,320 that being one video went really well. 446 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,240 And then I just posted, I can't remember how many people what 447 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,480 the what the numbers were, but I did do that. 448 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:47,200 I noticed that that happened. Get the wave, I get the wave. 449 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,720 A question comes to mind that when did the brand start 450 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,640 recognizing you? Like when did it become 451 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,360 desirable enough to reach out to Ozone or Xe Mag or there's a 452 00:23:57,360 --> 00:23:59,440 list of sponsors on your website where you said that. 453 00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,360 All right guys, let's try and come together and create 454 00:24:02,360 --> 00:24:05,440 something rather than just me doing this by myself like. 455 00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:08,640 Yeah, it's a, it's a funny one really, because to be honest 456 00:24:08,640 --> 00:24:11,840 with you, like the, the, my experience with brands, what 457 00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:15,320 they want, it's not necessarily how many followers you have if 458 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:18,280 they're not that it depends. It depends which brand because 459 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,000 obviously like it does help if you've got a million followers, 460 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,960 it's going to be better for the brand because you're going to be 461 00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,160 able to market their products to a wide audience. 462 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:31,560 But in reality, that's not the be all and end all. 463 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,280 It helps, but it's not the most important thing. 464 00:24:34,280 --> 00:24:38,480 My experience with brands is that if you create good content, 465 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:44,800 if you're a person that matches the image of their brand and 466 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:47,360 you're some there's somebody that you're, they're happy for 467 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:50,840 you to be a figurehead and market for them and a good image 468 00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:53,480 for them. Then it doesn't matter so much 469 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,560 how many followers you have. What they want is that you make 470 00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:59,480 good quality content that displays their product nicely 471 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:01,920 and it's something that's shareable and that they can use. 472 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:07,440 For me, it wasn't like I reached a certain follow ship that then 473 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,400 people started because the brands that I work with, they're 474 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,840 not so concerned about the amount of followers that I have. 475 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:17,840 What they want is they, they wanted to know that I was a good 476 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:22,320 person that made good decisions, respected the safety of the 477 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,000 sport, was respected by my peers. 478 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,560 People respected me and would listen to me. 479 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:33,280 And, and I think that's way more important than just looking at 480 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,200 the statistics on social media because it's actually, when it 481 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,600 comes to brand partnerships and things like that than just 482 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:43,600 looking raw statistics of engaged followers or whatever. 483 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,520 It helps, but that's not really what people are looking for. 484 00:25:47,560 --> 00:25:51,720 So what really got me in and, and to make these connections 485 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,320 with brands was talking with them, having somebody get my 486 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,680 foot in the door and having conversations. 487 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,160 And then them speaking to me and understanding and getting to 488 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:04,160 know me and knowing that I'm a person that they would like to 489 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:08,200 work with and that they would be happy for me to represent their 490 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,880 brand more than the social media stuff. 491 00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:14,280 Just out of curiosity, let's say if there's somebody I can take 492 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:17,240 my example, I'm starting out and I'm trying to build up a whole 493 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:21,680 ecosystem around this. What would be a good time to go 494 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,480 out and explore brand sponsorships for a creator who's 495 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,840 trying to make something in their field? 496 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,920 I. Mean it's never a bad time. 497 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,040 Like as long as you're, you can present yourself that you have a 498 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:37,160 you're a stand up member of the community that people respect 499 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:40,160 and or you make nice, interesting videos. 500 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,520 Like I wouldn't say to somebody you need to get at least 10,000 501 00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:47,320 followers before you start. I wouldn't say that's the case 502 00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:49,560 at all. It's it's, I don't think there's 503 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,440 any benchmark for that. It's more about how you are as a 504 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:56,200 person, how you interact with people and how much people 505 00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:58,600 listen to you and you're a respectable person and likable 506 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:01,240 person. That's more important is I don't 507 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:03,760 think you should be putting it benchmark on on on that. 508 00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:06,880 But as long as you're yeah, yeah, respectable person and 509 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:10,080 people listen to you and you get on well with with the brands and 510 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,000 you don't have to be a huge social, social media person. 511 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,880 I think I love it, the way you're presenting a beautiful 512 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,400 side of social media and paragliding because usually 513 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,960 every other aspect of social media, you need to have so many 514 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,280 followers, you need to keep on posting toxically, You need to 515 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:27,760 follow all of that and you're telling me no paragliding is all 516 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,720 Chill row. Even the bras don't care about 517 00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:32,360 the numbers. Just bring your passion and 518 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:37,200 that's all that matters in here. Like having a massive following 519 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,600 helps if you were trying it's this is a thing, right? 520 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,160 Look, realistically, look, paragliding is pretty niche. 521 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,080 OK, so there's not a huge if you're trying to sell a 522 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:50,080 paragliding product And we were talking specifically about 523 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:54,360 paragliding here, you don't need you don't need a million follow. 524 00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:57,000 You can't have a million if you can't have a million paragliding 525 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,360 followers because there's not a million paraglider followers. 526 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:03,400 So it's no point. So if you've got 10,000 527 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:08,640 followers, but those 10,000 followers are diehard paraglider 528 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:13,320 pilots, you're way better value than old mates celebrity who's 529 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,760 got a million followers and none of them paraglide. 530 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,640 So the, the, the, it's not, that's what I mean. 531 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,120 It's not all about the numbers and it's more it's a tight knit 532 00:28:22,120 --> 00:28:23,920 community. So as long as you've got respect 533 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:26,320 to Max, the community, then I think that's more important than 534 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,400 your total following. I quickly want to touch upon 535 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,280 TikTok because I saw you're active on that platform as well 536 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:37,680 and some when I usually research on how social media works, a lot 537 00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:42,400 of people say TikTok following isn't as effective as Instagram 538 00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:43,280 is. Is that true? 539 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:46,280 Do do you find more abstract followers on Tiktok than than 540 00:28:46,280 --> 00:28:49,520 other platforms? It, it's interesting, like I 541 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:52,000 don't really, I'm not super experienced with Tiktok and, and 542 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,040 basically what I do is whatever I post on Instagram, I post it 543 00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:59,400 on Tiktok. My understanding is that so far 544 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,600 is that you have a different audience on Tiktok, The people 545 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:06,440 on Tiktok, there's probably a little bit of a crossover with 546 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:08,600 Instagram, but it certainly is a different. 547 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,920 You get a lot sometimes younger, but also older, like you have a 548 00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:17,520 mix of ages on TikTok too, but it's a just a different platform 549 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:22,160 and people expect a different style of video, perhaps longer, 550 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:26,360 perhaps more personalized, detailed, maybe more behind the 551 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:30,680 scenes sort of stuff. Instagram is more like visual, 552 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:36,120 catchy music, stylish and Tik Tok's a bit more raw. 553 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,040 It's just a different style that people go for. 554 00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:42,080 If I was really motivated, I'd I'd make slightly different 555 00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:44,800 videos on TikTok than I would Instagram. 556 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,520 Takes a lot more time. But yeah, it is a slightly 557 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,960 different style of viewing and I think that's why you do get a 558 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,880 different audience. But it's a mix of ages and I, 559 00:29:56,200 --> 00:30:00,000 it's something if that's worth doing, you know, if you're going 560 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,560 to be posting and doing social media, Tik Tok's huge. 561 00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,200 It's huge. It has a huge amount of people 562 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:06,920 on it and it's worth posting there. 563 00:30:07,280 --> 00:30:10,160 And another point that's worth mentioning as well, it's TikTok 564 00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:13,400 pays a pay-per-view. Wow. 565 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,840 Yeah, so you get same on Facebook pays per view as well. 566 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:19,600 Instagram you don't get paid anything. 567 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:21,400 You don't didn't get any money from Instagram. 568 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:25,600 You can get money from sorry through Instagram, you can get 569 00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:27,600 paid. They can people can gift you or 570 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,200 they can you can do a subscription service. 571 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:33,520 But Facebook pays you per view because they put adverts on the 572 00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:38,040 reels and TikTok does the same. And you can make good money on 573 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:40,400 TikTok people. And that's what a lot of people 574 00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:42,320 do. And that's why it's worth 575 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:47,720 considering, because it's the pay-per-view on Facebook isn't 576 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:52,800 that far off YouTube, yes. Wow, are you telling me that 577 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,000 revenue models of Facebook and YouTube are competing with each 578 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:57,600 other? So you can definitely get paid 579 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:01,560 the most per view is YouTube. But but the the thing with 580 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:05,200 Facebook is you get it's much easier to get more views. 581 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:10,400 So maybe you only get 30% per view on Facebook, but you reach 582 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,160 a much wider audience. It gets displayed a lot because 583 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,360 a lot more people are watching Facebook on their phone. 584 00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:19,880 So you may get paid 1/3, but your video will be viewed 10 585 00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:24,000 times as much. So yeah, it's interesting. 586 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,080 It's interesting for sure. Something to consider. 587 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:28,960 Yeah. TikTok and Facebook 588 00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,840 pay-per-view. I feel like you'll be coming up 589 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,640 with a master class on how to do social media and and adventure 590 00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:39,120 sports here. Like when does the money start 591 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,680 trickling in? What kind of number on views are 592 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,920 we looking at to to bring in some sort of income? 593 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:46,920 It really depends. It changes. 594 00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:50,600 There's a lot of metrics that go on you you get pay-per-view, but 595 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:53,680 the amount that you get pay-per-view depends on a couple 596 00:31:53,680 --> 00:31:56,440 of factors. On YouTube, it's how many times 597 00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:00,360 people who are presented with your thumbnail click on the 598 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,600 thumbnail. For all of the platforms. 599 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,400 It depends on the percentage of time that people watch your 600 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:09,840 video. If they only watch the 1st 10% 601 00:32:10,080 --> 00:32:12,880 and turn it off, you get paid less than if they were to watch 602 00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:17,000 the whole thing through. And the metric is how long the 603 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,920 total hours of all the people that are watching your video 604 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:23,680 watch it. That basically the longer you 605 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:27,400 can keep people looking at their phone, the more money you get. 606 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:30,320 So that that's the same. That's the most simple way to 607 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:34,600 look at it if you can, whether there is number of views or 608 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:38,240 hours or time percentage. But there's a few metrics, so 609 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,440 you can't put your finger on exactly how much you're going to 610 00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,800 get pay-per-view. But that's the nuts and bolts of 611 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:46,320 all the platforms, pretty much, yeah. 612 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,640 Since we're talking about this, I have to put it out there that 613 00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,160 for me, this is such a big conflict of interest because all 614 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,680 of us out there know social media does add to depression, 615 00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:58,360 anxiety, and everything that comes with it. 616 00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:03,640 And yet we like it or not, just to be a part of the race of 617 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,560 capitalism. We have to be a part of the 618 00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:10,120 machinery that promotes it because that is the only way to 619 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,400 go ahead and make something meaningful in this landscape, 620 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,680 which is dominating the revenue generation in today's world. 621 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:21,240 So the way that I I process it and I really find as you go 622 00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:23,160 through, like I've said before, you go through waves of 623 00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:26,520 motivation of why you make these videos and what makes it because 624 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:28,520 man, I don't make good money from it. 625 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,280 I'll be honest with you, I straight up I'm not, this isn't 626 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,200 a full time living. I still have a day job. 627 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,120 Like I'm, yeah, maybe I have a good following on Instagram, but 628 00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,720 I'm not rich. Like it doesn't mean Instagram 629 00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:40,920 makes no money. This is the reality. 630 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,280 And then you have to go back to like, why are you making these 631 00:33:43,280 --> 00:33:45,560 videos? And am I making these videos so 632 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,760 that people are glued to their phone all the time? 633 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,840 No, I'm making these videos because I'm making people aware 634 00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,320 that paragliding is a thing and it's a cool sport and I want 635 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:58,320 more people to get in involved and give it a go. 636 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,800 And one negative comment, a call back to the previous question 637 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:07,080 that I've had, is that somebody commented and I really enjoyed 638 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,679 responding to this. Someone come and said please 639 00:34:09,679 --> 00:34:15,159 stop promoting the sport, we don't want more people doing it. 640 00:34:15,159 --> 00:34:16,760 They're going to ruin it for everyone. 641 00:34:17,199 --> 00:34:19,280 And I just thought you're an absolute moron. 642 00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,520 Absolutely not. No, no, I completely disagree 643 00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:24,560 with that. I want as many people to start 644 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:27,280 paragoning as possible because we have power in numbers. 645 00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:30,080 And also it's amazing. I really love it. 646 00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,400 It's an amazing sport and I think everyone should be doing 647 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,600 it because I love its bits. I think it's great. 648 00:34:35,120 --> 00:34:38,840 And also if more people do it, the more sway we have. 649 00:34:38,840 --> 00:34:41,639 And look at Switzerland's if they've got the paragliding. 650 00:34:41,679 --> 00:34:44,000 A picture of a paragliding on the money, for God's sake. 651 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:46,960 Yeah, the 50 franc. No, exactly the 50. 652 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,840 Franc, no, there's a picture of a paraglider and the flying in 653 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:53,920 Switzerland is amazing because they have good bargaining power 654 00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:55,800 with the Civil Aviation Authority. 655 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,880 They have air spaces that are open specifically for free 656 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:00,720 flight, Hang Gliding guide of flights. 657 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:02,680 They take these things into account. 658 00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,520 If we had a huge flying community internationally, we'd 659 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,720 have more sway in in how airspace is shaped and how we're 660 00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:13,280 considered towards it. And and we can only make things 661 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:15,560 better by power and numbers. And I think it's really for. 662 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,480 So I don't think it should be any negativity towards more 663 00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:20,800 people taking up the sport. Just doesn't make any sense to 664 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:22,160 me. But yeah, yeah. 665 00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:25,120 I faced this dilemma and questioned myself and I was 666 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:29,720 like, bro, if people before us thought the same, then we would 667 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,280 be still on the ground. The only reason why we are 668 00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:34,760 getting the art of light is because somebody thought they 669 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:36,440 wanted to share with a broader audience. 670 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:40,280 And the only way to to to do more good in the world is to 671 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,840 spread what you're getting. So it's to me that doesn't make 672 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:45,880 either sense at all. But yeah, I I can imagine that's 673 00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:49,040 quite funny putting sense into people's head like this. 674 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:54,760 And now when we're talking about time, effort and wave of 675 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:58,640 motivation, it really have been curious about editing and post 676 00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:02,280 production because that doing all the recording is the fun 677 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:05,200 part that is effortless because that is where we are living our 678 00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:07,920 dream. And then comes the screen time 679 00:36:08,240 --> 00:36:10,600 before we are able to share it. Just just take us through your 680 00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:13,880 editing process and let's let's talk about mine, the short form 681 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,400 1st and then then we'll go back to YouTube and why you 682 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:17,840 eventually thought it was not worth it. 683 00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:21,520 Social media, when I'm posting on Instagram and things, they 684 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,400 it's like a minute and a half long or if it's a story it's 685 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,520 even less. I can do most of that just on my 686 00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:28,440 phone. And that's what I did over the 687 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:30,560 last year, especially when I was travelling through Europe, 688 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:34,240 Pakistan and India, Canada, I was just doing everything on my 689 00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:35,840 phone. Takes me an hour and a half, two 690 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:42,440 hours Max to put a one to 1 1/2 minute video together and that's 691 00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,480 fine. And that's why I do more and 692 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,600 more of it. The YouTube stuff takes way 693 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,480 longer spend. It does also depend on whether 694 00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:53,160 I'm doing any hyper lapse. I've done some hyper lapses in 695 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:56,200 the past, which is a lot more time consuming because it's a 696 00:36:56,200 --> 00:37:00,880 huge video file. I'm filming 5.7 or 8K and it 697 00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,560 records the whole time. So the computer takes time for 698 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,880 it to process. You have to create proxy files 699 00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:10,920 so that you're in order you're able to edit it without any 700 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,280 lagging. So there's some stuff that just 701 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:15,600 takes time that I don't have to be set at the computer, but I 702 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:17,960 have to set it up and the computer has to do the work for 703 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:21,600 a while, do I? So with the hype apps, I record 704 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:24,800 the whole flight. I then I have to go through, get 705 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,360 the footage onto the computer and I keyframe the whole flight 706 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:32,440 and then I export the whole flight in a flat aspect ratio in 707 00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:36,840 4K. Then I take the 4K and I proxy 708 00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:40,280 all of the footage so that it's a low resolution file that I can 709 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:44,080 then edit with. Then I speed ramp all of it and 710 00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:46,520 then I export it with the original footage. 711 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:48,800 And so it's a huge process and it takes time. 712 00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:53,080 And that's why I've moved away from that because the the time 713 00:37:53,080 --> 00:37:55,880 that goes into it is just, it's just too much. 714 00:37:55,880 --> 00:37:58,200 And then at the end of the day, I'm doing this because I enjoy 715 00:37:58,200 --> 00:37:59,640 it. And when it become too much like 716 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:03,440 a job, then it just doesn't seem just not into it. 717 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:07,480 But yeah, editing for the social media, do it on my phone from 718 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:08,600 anywhere in the world, it's fine. 719 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:12,560 I do also make some of the social media stuff on my 720 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:14,920 computer because it increases the quality. 721 00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:19,040 I can make better, shorter videos faster on my computer 722 00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,560 when I'm at my computer. But if I'm travelling that I 723 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:23,320 don't bring, I don't bring my computer with me. 724 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:25,440 I just leave it at home. But yeah. 725 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,280 Let's talk about editing GoPro the whole day into 90 seconds 726 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,320 because let's say you you record maybe 5 minute clips or 727 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:35,760 two-minute clips depending upon the time of the flight. 728 00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:39,160 And then at the end of the day you landed, you have your GoPro 729 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:40,720 and, and the phone ready to be paired. 730 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:44,760 To me that just looks like so much work to transfer all the 731 00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,400 GoPro and then as you said, keyframe them or cut them 732 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,480 shorter. So just talk us through the 733 00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,200 process from six hour flight to 90 minutes. 734 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,120 What are the steps involved? So luckily, second time in 735 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:58,240 pilot, I'm well trained on transferring GoPro footage to 736 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:02,000 phones. It's I do it for money every 737 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:03,760 day. But yeah, you get these. 738 00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:07,760 This is 1 here. This is the USUSBC micro SD card 739 00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,080 reader. So I just take the micro SD card 740 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:14,520 out of out of the GoPro and plug it straight into my phone and it 741 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:16,960 transfers. And I have, I have an iPhone, 742 00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:19,800 but it's USBC and the transfer on USBC, whether you have 743 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:23,640 Android or iPhone is fast. So I can take all the footage 744 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,280 off the GoPro, put it directly on my phone within a minute. 745 00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:30,600 The other thing I do is that when I'm filming, so with the 746 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:34,160 software, with the software that I use on my phone, it's the apps 747 00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:36,960 that I use is called cap cut. You probably, you've probably 748 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,040 heard of it. It's it's a popular video 749 00:39:39,040 --> 00:39:42,480 editing up on your phone. And then on the computer, I use 750 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:47,320 Adobe Premiere Pro. Both softwares transcribe 751 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,280 footage and you can delete pauses. 752 00:39:51,720 --> 00:39:54,480 So what I do is I turn the camera. 753 00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:57,320 I have a quick capture mode on the GoPro, which is when you 754 00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:01,000 press shutter button on the top turns on, it starts recording, 755 00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:05,720 turns on starts recording. And I when I see something cool, 756 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,040 I see something worth looking at or I'm in a good or an 757 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:13,320 interesting moment or in a scenic moment, I talk and when I 758 00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:17,800 talk it marks the footage. And this is. 759 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:21,720 When I go back to edit later, I drop all of the footage into the 760 00:40:21,720 --> 00:40:26,920 timeline and I just delete the pauses because it transcribes 761 00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,240 the whole sequence. So it just deletes the bits that 762 00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:32,520 I'm not talking. And that cuts my footage down by 763 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:36,160 about 80% to just the talking. And then I just take that 764 00:40:36,160 --> 00:40:39,720 talking and then I just sift through the words that mean 765 00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:42,960 nothing. And then or it tells the story 766 00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,360 and I just, I just, and then I just delete, delete, delete bits 767 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,840 until I have the right length that I'm looking for. 768 00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:52,320 Sometimes I shift some of the video a little bit so the audio 769 00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,160 or maybe I have a really nice audio, but I didn't quite get 770 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,200 the right shot. So I shift the video slightly to 771 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:02,400 certain matches. But mostly I talk when I see 772 00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,640 something cool. That's why I put a few videos 773 00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:08,720 out that it's just me going, wow, beautiful, wow, look at 774 00:41:08,720 --> 00:41:10,600 that. And it's because I don't know 775 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:13,920 what to say because I'm not, I know this is and I'm just like 776 00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:16,240 caught up in the moment and I'm just like, wow, this is 777 00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:18,400 beautiful. Wow, look at that. 778 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:22,200 Because I know that later I'm just going to cut to that point 779 00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,240 because I just have to say something because I know, wow, 780 00:41:26,240 --> 00:41:28,560 this is amazing. I need to look at this later 781 00:41:28,560 --> 00:41:30,880 because this is spectacular. And that's why I got a bunch of 782 00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:32,320 videos. It's just me saying wow. 783 00:41:33,760 --> 00:41:37,560 I kid you not Benjamin, those compilations of Wows and look at 784 00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:41,320 that is so infectious to look at it puts a smile on the viewers 785 00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,520 face and believe me, your wow is going to get famous. 786 00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,800 So you might think of trademarking the way of saying 787 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:51,440 wow, and look at that impact like, no, that's good to hear. 788 00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:53,080 Because I was I used to always wonder. 789 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:55,120 I was like, how does he not run out of breath? 790 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:58,040 Like his voice is so consistent throughout the 90 seconds. 791 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:01,720 And now it's like, all right, it's the cutting editing magic. 792 00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:05,720 I love it, man Thanks. Thanks for being so honest and 793 00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:08,720 transferring with your secrets behind the camera. 794 00:42:08,720 --> 00:42:12,360 So I'm pretty sure a lot of people out there are getting 795 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:14,960 motivation from this and we'll be following your footsteps. 796 00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:17,400 But Benjamin, let's talk about the gear. 797 00:42:17,720 --> 00:42:19,880 How did you progress? Because this is one of the 798 00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:22,000 biggest things that comes to a creator's mind. 799 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:25,280 All of us want to have the fanciest gear because the 800 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:29,320 supposedly that looks the best, but resources are limited for 801 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:31,560 everyone. And so how did you prioritize? 802 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,520 How was your journey with gear and investing money in that 803 00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:37,080 sense? In with camera equipment. 804 00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:42,000 Yeah, camera audio and or on investing in any softwares or 805 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:44,520 anything like that. I just always use GoPro, really 806 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,520 GoPro for filming on my head. I've used and I'm a sucker. 807 00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:49,760 I'm a sucker like most people. I'm an absolute sucker for new 808 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:51,640 gear. I like to have the latest one or 809 00:42:51,640 --> 00:42:53,440 at least try it. And for me it makes sense 810 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:56,600 because I use it for work, especially for flying tandem. 811 00:42:56,600 --> 00:42:58,240 It's good to have the latest camera. 812 00:42:59,080 --> 00:43:01,720 You know, the clients are paying good money for the photos. 813 00:43:01,720 --> 00:43:05,120 So I like to have the the latest camera, but they also come with 814 00:43:05,560 --> 00:43:08,080 good new features. But I've always done GoPro. 815 00:43:08,840 --> 00:43:14,520 I use 3.5 millimetre GoPro of branded microphone adapter and a 816 00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:19,560 Rode lav 2 wide microphone. And and I then it's been 817 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,040 compatible for the last five Gopros. 818 00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,640 So I've used the same one and and I use it at 360 camera Insta 819 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:29,200 360. I never used the GoPro Max. 820 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:32,720 I always just used Insta 360. I'm using it less and less at 821 00:43:32,720 --> 00:43:34,600 the moment just because it's a lot more admin. 822 00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:39,520 But yeah, I just, it's the gear is not super complicated that 823 00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:43,160 getting good audio came from a wired microphone that plugs 824 00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:48,080 directly into the GoPro. I do have these new microphones 825 00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:50,480 that I use more now just for stuff that I'm doing on the 826 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:52,720 ground. But as I'm sure you're aware, 827 00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:55,800 when you're when you're out on a Vol Biv trip, but in flying 828 00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,880 weight is important. I've got to carry that bag up a 829 00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:03,920 hill so I'm not walking around with boom mics, you know, like a 830 00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,400 wired lav mic and a GoPro is it does the job. 831 00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,280 It's not too heavy. And the Gopros take amazing 832 00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:15,120 footage. They film 5.3 K and the the 833 00:44:15,240 --> 00:44:18,440 colour correction that it does on it in itself and and the 834 00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:22,680 stabilisation takes amazing footage like it is really I I 835 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,720 can't knock it. There are other cameras out 836 00:44:25,720 --> 00:44:29,680 there that I haven't tried. DGI makes the 60 have got the an 837 00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,120 action camera as well. I had a play around with the DGI 838 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:35,680 one in the shop and I wasn't blown away by it. 839 00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,440 But the three the Gopros are good. 840 00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:43,720 One caveat I'd say is that you don't always need the latest and 841 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:46,320 greatest with the GoPro because they do bring them out every 842 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:47,760 year for the sake of bringing them out. 843 00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,720 Like the difference in video quality between the 12 and the 844 00:44:51,720 --> 00:44:56,040 13 is negligible. Like I've owned both and I can't 845 00:44:56,040 --> 00:44:58,640 say that the difference is worth the upgrade. 846 00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:05,360 The main upgrade worthy thing on the 13 versus the 12 is it's got 847 00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:10,320 a they've now have a magnet latch mount so you don't have to 848 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:14,280 do the thumb screw whenever you want to change where the GoPro 849 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:15,400 is. You previously would have to 850 00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:17,320 unscrew it every time. Now you don't, it's just 851 00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:18,880 magnets. It's way better. 852 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,600 So that's the best thing. But the quality of the image is 853 00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:23,680 more or less is exactly the same fact. 854 00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:26,960 The 13th maybe slightly worse. Just because you've got less, 855 00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,200 you've got less options. Yeah, with the gear it's not 856 00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:32,440 super complicated and with the phone, the phones take amazing 857 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:35,640 footage then modern phones. Now if you have a new iPhone, 858 00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:39,520 new Android, they all film 4K, they have stabilisation. 859 00:45:39,760 --> 00:45:43,840 Like I I don't fly, I don't ever take any proper real cameras 860 00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:46,560 with me. I never have So that the iPhone, 861 00:45:46,560 --> 00:45:50,640 new iPhones, new phones and a GoPro is what I've been running 862 00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,480 and it works fine. Magnet Mom that you said, of 863 00:45:54,480 --> 00:45:56,120 course, I saw that when they came out. 864 00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:57,320 With all the marketing and everything. 865 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:00,320 Can our sport really make use of it? 866 00:46:00,320 --> 00:46:03,720 When the collapses and all the violence, all the shit hits the 867 00:46:03,720 --> 00:46:05,280 fan, do you think it'll still stick on? 868 00:46:05,840 --> 00:46:07,920 Absolutely, Yeah. No, that thing's not coming off. 869 00:46:09,240 --> 00:46:11,240 It's solid. I use it. 870 00:46:11,240 --> 00:46:13,920 I use it every day. That thing is not coming off. 871 00:46:14,520 --> 00:46:18,200 You'd have to you'd if you try, if you put that magnet latch 872 00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:21,960 mount on your helmet and tried ripping it off, you'd RIP the 873 00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,800 adhesive off before that latch goes. 874 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,520 It's not going anywhere. And that adhesive's on there. 875 00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,880 I've never lost a GoPro like I've full confidence in that 876 00:46:30,880 --> 00:46:31,840 latch mount. It's not yet. 877 00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,960 It's solid. I use it at work and I've got 878 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,680 everything leashed. But yeah, it's that because it's 879 00:46:38,120 --> 00:46:41,160 it says magnet, but don't be full because it's latched. 880 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:46,560 So it's there's, you have to, in order to disconnect it, it's you 881 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:50,560 have to push buttons in like it's, you put it on and then 882 00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:52,960 it's catches. So it's not just held on by 883 00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:55,640 magnet. It's there's a mechanism here. 884 00:46:55,720 --> 00:46:58,360 It's not coming off. It's a clip on basically and 885 00:46:58,360 --> 00:46:59,360 then. Yes, exactly. 886 00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:01,320 But it's super easy to take it on and off. 887 00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:05,320 And for me it's perfect because when I I'm walking up the hill 888 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:08,680 and I maybe have a clamp mount and I have the GoPro on the 889 00:47:08,680 --> 00:47:11,480 clamp mount and then I need to swap from the clamp mount to my 890 00:47:11,480 --> 00:47:14,400 helmet and it's boom on. And you know what? 891 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:17,200 It encourages me to Fillmore because a lot of times I can't 892 00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:19,680 be bothered because I've got to unscrew it. 893 00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:22,480 And then and that's a big part for me is that I do this sport 894 00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:26,800 because I love it and it's fun and I don't want to it to become 895 00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:28,920 I'm doing this because I'm making a video. 896 00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:32,560 I'm doing this because I love flying and the videography is 897 00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:34,160 just something that I do as well. 898 00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:36,880 And this is actually maybe a point that's worth touching on 899 00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:42,280 because I've flown before with cameras and 360 cameras hanging 900 00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,880 off the side of me and creating hyperlapses and stuff like that, 901 00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:47,960 create really nice images and videos. 902 00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,720 And I've got, you know, this camera on another camera here. 903 00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:55,720 And yeah, it makes nice videos, but in reality just takes too 904 00:47:55,720 --> 00:47:58,560 much away from the experience. And you have to find a balance. 905 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:01,040 And that's why I've actually taken a step back in the amount 906 00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:04,960 of videos that recording and the amount of cameras that I've got 907 00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:08,160 hanging off me because this camera maybe takes, I have to 908 00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:12,640 plug a 20,000 milliamp battery into and a one terabyte micro SD 909 00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,920 card in order to film the whole fly. 910 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:17,400 And it's awkward on the take off. 911 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:19,800 And maybe you break, you've got a different challenging launch. 912 00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,960 You've got the brake line wrapped around it, like it adds 913 00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:27,600 risk in it and it's hanging outside the whole time and it 914 00:48:27,600 --> 00:48:30,520 spoils your view. And, and I've been down that 915 00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:34,040 path and yes, it does make cool videos, but in reality, it just 916 00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:37,320 for me, I found that I had to take a step back. 917 00:48:37,800 --> 00:48:41,680 I'm just, I'm putting too much in the effort of trying to 918 00:48:41,680 --> 00:48:45,760 capture videos and it's taking away the enjoyment and the real 919 00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:49,440 passion of why I'm doing it. And you've got to have a 920 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:51,600 balance. And, and for me, that meant 921 00:48:51,600 --> 00:48:55,360 taking a step back from that. And, and now I just do more 922 00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:58,440 stuff just on the helmet. Super easy, man, that I forget 923 00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,600 the cameras on there, cameras on my head, turn it on and start 924 00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:04,920 recording and turn it off. Boom, just me flying again. 925 00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:07,680 And when you've got other stuff hanging off, it's just too much. 926 00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:11,200 And I get a lot of people messaging me asking me how do 927 00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:15,120 you attach a 360 camera and make these hyper lapses? 928 00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,000 And I'm like, OK, I'll tell you. I'm happy to tell you. 929 00:49:18,880 --> 00:49:21,400 Please let me add the caveat that I don't recommend it. 930 00:49:21,800 --> 00:49:24,880 And I'm not just saying that because I don't want you to make 931 00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:26,400 the same videos as me. I don't care. 932 00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:29,240 It's just it's risk. There's risk involved. 933 00:49:29,240 --> 00:49:32,800 You take off's not going to be a safe and it's a big faff. 934 00:49:32,800 --> 00:49:38,080 Like it's just be aware before you spend €1000 buying a camera 935 00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:41,200 and all the crap. Like it's not the nicest thing 936 00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:45,600 to fight with. Just As for the listeners, like 937 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,960 I'm happy to tell people how to do it, but it's, it's, it's 938 00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:52,000 normal on social media. No, I, I agree. 939 00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:55,600 And and next time somebody asks you how to make magic happen, 940 00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:57,840 you can send them the link to this podcast because that is the 941 00:49:57,840 --> 00:50:00,840 whole idea of of doing this. Yeah. 942 00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:04,840 And I'm so glad you mentioned the the risks that come with all 943 00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,920 of this. But let's say, managing risks of 944 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:11,920 having camera equipment versus enjoying the rewards of flight. 945 00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:15,200 How you eventually found a fine balance. 946 00:50:15,200 --> 00:50:18,280 But for anybody, especially the new beginners out there, 947 00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:21,360 especially the ones who are experiencing the art of flight 948 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:24,600 for the first time in their lives, they're super excited to 949 00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:25,840 share. I was no different. 950 00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:28,680 I wanted a GoPro on my first flight and my instructor was 951 00:50:28,680 --> 00:50:32,840 like, no, that is not coming on until you have quite a good 952 00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:34,600 control over your wings and everything. 953 00:50:34,840 --> 00:50:36,840 The quick, the quick question that I'm curious about is that 954 00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:41,440 how do you manage to not do something out of the comfort 955 00:50:41,440 --> 00:50:45,120 zone for the sake of the video, be it placing a mount at a place 956 00:50:45,120 --> 00:50:49,040 or be it chasing something which looks amazing or that that side 957 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:49,720 of things. How? 958 00:50:49,800 --> 00:50:52,600 How do you look at that? You really have to disconnect. 959 00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:55,480 You have to, you know, you have to forget that you have the 960 00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:58,200 camera on. Really, if you, the dangerous 961 00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:01,120 part is you get into, and it's never really been an issue for 962 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:04,160 me, but I can see how it could be an issue for some people is 963 00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:07,720 that they're making decisions based on the fact that they have 964 00:51:07,720 --> 00:51:10,520 a camera on and they want to do something cool because they've 965 00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:11,800 got a camera on and they want to. 966 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:13,720 You have to completely disconnect that. 967 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,600 The other thing I'd say is that if you're learning and if you're 968 00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:20,520 in school or just fresh out of school, don't wear a camera. 969 00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:22,840 It's no point. Yeah, maybe you want to catch at 970 00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:25,640 the moment and get someone on the ground to film you because 971 00:51:25,640 --> 00:51:27,320 you're not going far. You're a beginner. 972 00:51:27,760 --> 00:51:29,600 Just in reality, you need to focus. 973 00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,880 The biggest risk and the highest incidents are people when 974 00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:36,360 they're right at the beginning and they're fresh and you need 975 00:51:36,360 --> 00:51:38,920 to be focusing on flying and and doing your thing. 976 00:51:38,920 --> 00:51:40,560 You don't need to be making videos. 977 00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:42,440 Like I said, you're not going far. 978 00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:44,840 Get someone to film your take off from the ground. 979 00:51:45,240 --> 00:51:46,680 Get someone to film your landing. 980 00:51:46,760 --> 00:51:50,880 You don't need to be wearing a camera or holding a selfie stick 981 00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:52,840 or anything like that. You shouldn't even be thinking 982 00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:55,560 about holding a selfie stick until you've got a few 100 hours 983 00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:59,280 under your belt because you've got to fly with one hand and 984 00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:03,280 it's just a lot going on. Helmet cams I think pretty, 985 00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:05,760 pretty good. If you stick a helmet camera on 986 00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:08,760 your helmet, I don't think the risk is that huge. 987 00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:10,520 You can turn it on, start recording. 988 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:14,440 It's pretty, pretty simple. Maybe you have some risk on the 989 00:52:14,440 --> 00:52:18,160 take off of your I've never, it's never been an issue for me. 990 00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:22,320 I've literally on take off, never got my helmet camera stuck 991 00:52:22,320 --> 00:52:23,720 in the lines or anything like that. 992 00:52:23,720 --> 00:52:26,720 So well, I don't think that's a justified risk. 993 00:52:27,240 --> 00:52:29,400 Maybe if you're flying aerobatics and you're falling 994 00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:30,640 through the lines, it could be an issue. 995 00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:34,040 Yeah, I've got, I've gotten the camera stuck in the lines after 996 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:36,000 landing, but it's not on take off. 997 00:52:36,360 --> 00:52:39,640 But yeah, in the beginning, just focus on flying, focus on the 998 00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:41,800 enjoyment and don't let it distract you. 999 00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:46,240 Don't let videography on filming during flight distracts you from 1000 00:52:46,240 --> 00:52:49,880 what you're doing because it's amazing, it's really good fun, 1001 00:52:49,880 --> 00:52:52,640 and really it's about the flying, not about the video. 1002 00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:55,920 Makes sense. I, I do have a little bit of a 1003 00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:59,080 different thought about GoPro on the helmet though, because first 1004 00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:02,120 of all, I just hate that they're so heavy and they just add on a 1005 00:53:02,120 --> 00:53:05,480 little bit extra weight, which you will get used to eventually. 1006 00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,840 I I know that I don't. Even know this is The funny 1007 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,360 thing is that I don't know this is because this is I'm 1008 00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:13,040 completely guilty of this because I just I've always had a 1009 00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:15,240 GoPro in my head. I have no idea interest. 1010 00:53:15,680 --> 00:53:16,880 Yeah. Yeah. 1011 00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,600 And the second one is could be a hypothetical situation where you 1012 00:53:20,880 --> 00:53:22,640 you always consider all the scenarios. 1013 00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,560 And what scares me the most is God forbid if it goes in your 1014 00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:32,680 lines and the glider reopens, it's going to snap so hard in 1015 00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:36,400 your helmet that it could actually impact some kind of 1016 00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:38,840 neck structure or something in spine that if the. 1017 00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,520 I think the adhesive will break before your or the line will 1018 00:53:43,520 --> 00:53:45,920 break before you'd actually do damage to yourself. 1019 00:53:46,240 --> 00:53:49,480 To be honest with you, I wouldn't personally be that 1020 00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:52,800 worried about it. The the problem is that it would 1021 00:53:53,080 --> 00:53:56,160 maybe affect if you got really got stuck in the lines. 1022 00:53:56,160 --> 00:53:57,720 It could affect the way that the glider flies. 1023 00:53:57,720 --> 00:53:59,680 But you can always dump the chin strap. 1024 00:53:59,760 --> 00:54:02,280 But I just never it's net for me. 1025 00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:07,200 I've probably flying with a helmet Cam on for over a 1026 00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:11,520 definitely over 1000 hours, maybe 1500 hours that I've 1027 00:54:11,520 --> 00:54:14,600 actively been doing it. I have never got my head stuck 1028 00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:18,160 in the lines. So I can't say yeah for that. 1029 00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:21,240 I definitely there are risks of making videos in flight. 1030 00:54:21,680 --> 00:54:23,400 I think the biggest one is taking your hands off the 1031 00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:24,920 controls. Maybe it's probably the biggest 1032 00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,520 risk to try and mess around with the camera, but actually the 1033 00:54:28,520 --> 00:54:31,160 risk of getting your head stuck in the lines of the camera on. 1034 00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:35,240 Yeah, I just, yeah, I don't think that's the biggest risk. 1035 00:54:35,240 --> 00:54:38,200 I think the biggest risk is the distraction that you're being 1036 00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:41,880 distracted from the flight and your decision making and you're 1037 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,200 not thinking straight because you've got a camera on your head 1038 00:54:44,200 --> 00:54:46,800 and you're thinking about the camera, think about the flight. 1039 00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:50,400 That's the biggest risk. I love your unfiltered honesty, 1040 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,240 but I wish every single guest on this podcast was that. 1041 00:54:53,920 --> 00:54:56,720 But yeah, usually our community is full of people like this. 1042 00:54:56,720 --> 00:54:58,240 And thank you for your point of view. 1043 00:54:58,720 --> 00:55:01,960 Quickly, before we wrap up, Benjamin, I have this tradition 1044 00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:06,440 of asking my guests to share one memorable or one experience from 1045 00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:09,400 the airtime which has stuck with them and wish they would like to 1046 00:55:09,480 --> 00:55:11,560 bring out to the audiences. So does anything ring a bell 1047 00:55:11,560 --> 00:55:12,800 which you would like to talk about right now? 1048 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:15,800 Do you know what it's? It's difficult because there's 1049 00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:19,000 so many really good flights that I've done over the time, but 1050 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:21,480 what's the best one it? Could be otherwise as well, like 1051 00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,840 something that just sticks with you, that you revisit often and 1052 00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,000 that the audiences would love to take away from this one hour of 1053 00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:29,560 a talk. I don't know what's the most 1054 00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:32,840 sensible because what's the most sensible one for me to bring up? 1055 00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:35,720 There's one flight. This was the most probably one 1056 00:55:35,720 --> 00:55:38,720 of the most exciting moments. This is, and this is actually 1057 00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:41,720 with the caveat, it was a stupid decision. 1058 00:55:41,720 --> 00:55:43,760 I shouldn't have done this. It wasn't sensible. 1059 00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:48,240 But nonetheless, it was one of my and most memorable flights 1060 00:55:48,240 --> 00:55:51,760 and one of the most exciting moments that I've had during 1061 00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:55,280 flight, but also an unnecessary risk that I shouldn't have 1062 00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:57,480 taken. And that's the caveat that I'm 1063 00:55:57,480 --> 00:55:59,320 attaching to it. But I was, it was a fight this 1064 00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:01,480 summer. I was in Switzerland and had a 1065 00:56:01,480 --> 00:56:03,440 really beautiful fight. We took off from the Nice and we 1066 00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:06,800 flew towards Martini and we went around the corner, flew into 1067 00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:12,560 Valles and I'm living in the Lauterbrinen Valley and you have 1068 00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:15,520 to pass the Bright Horn. So you're flying along Valles 1069 00:56:16,040 --> 00:56:20,480 and if you want to get back from Valles to where I was living, 1070 00:56:20,520 --> 00:56:23,560 and we were, we had a party that night in Gimelwald. 1071 00:56:24,160 --> 00:56:27,520 You had to pass over this Ridge to get back. 1072 00:56:28,240 --> 00:56:32,160 The cloud base is 200 meters lower than the Ridge. 1073 00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:35,120 Now, my bugger, how am I going to do this? 1074 00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:36,520 I don't know how I'm going to do this. 1075 00:56:37,240 --> 00:56:40,440 And it's like a four hour train ride back, which in the scheme 1076 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,600 of things, having lived and flown in New Zealand for a long 1077 00:56:42,600 --> 00:56:45,320 time, is not a big deal. 4 hour train ride, perfect. 1078 00:56:45,320 --> 00:56:47,040 I can sit on the train and have a beer. 1079 00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:49,440 It's it's all good. But I'm trying desperately to 1080 00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:51,360 get back and there was a glacier. 1081 00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:52,800 There's a glacier, I can't remember the name of the 1082 00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,720 glacier, but it's a really long flat glacier. 1083 00:56:55,720 --> 00:57:01,040 It's two, one or two kilometres long and it's slightly sloping 1084 00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:04,760 up in the direction that I'm going and I can't see over it. 1085 00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:09,680 I'm just high enough that I think I can make the glide over, 1086 00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:12,960 but it's completely in the light. 1087 00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,560 It's really hard to judge your distance from a completely snow 1088 00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:17,480 covered glacier because there's no contour. 1089 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:19,400 There's no it's just completely white. 1090 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:21,400 You don't know how high you are over it. 1091 00:57:22,520 --> 00:57:25,560 I think I'm high enough. Oh, I don't know. 1092 00:57:25,600 --> 00:57:27,960 I'm not sure I'm going to make the glide. 1093 00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:30,840 And I started making the glide and I'm getting halfway across 1094 00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,120 it and I'm like, I don't know if this is going to work. 1095 00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:36,720 And I've got A5 to 10K an hour tailwind, but it's slightly 1096 00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:41,200 sloping up. So if I don't make it, there's 1097 00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:43,040 no turning around and going back. 1098 00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:45,440 And I'm trying to judge my height over the glacier. 1099 00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:48,280 And the only way that I can do that is by looking at my shadow. 1100 00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:52,520 So I'm looking at my shadow. I'm like all the shadows getting 1101 00:57:52,520 --> 00:57:55,400 too big, turn away. All the shadows getting too 1102 00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:59,080 small, turn in. I just did this and I must have 1103 00:57:59,080 --> 00:58:03,000 cleared that glacier with five meters and that feeling of 1104 00:58:03,000 --> 00:58:08,160 elation that I just, I don't, if I'd not made it over, it would 1105 00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:10,560 have been absolute show. I don't know what I don't know. 1106 00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:12,880 It would have been a difficult situation to get out of. 1107 00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:17,200 But anyway, as soon as I made it over the glacier, I had home on 1108 00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:18,480 glide. Boom, done. 1109 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:20,600 I'm home. I'm at the pub Done. 1110 00:58:20,600 --> 00:58:22,320 I'm going to go see my mates. We're going to the party. 1111 00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:27,720 It's cool, just that feeling and I and I'd scratched before for 1112 00:58:27,720 --> 00:58:31,640 an hour to get that extra 100 meters so that I could clear it. 1113 00:58:31,880 --> 00:58:35,360 I really worked. I really worked hard to get that 1114 00:58:35,360 --> 00:58:38,240 extra 100 meters and then boom, I nipped through with five 1115 00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:42,600 meters to spare and I got home and it was just wasn't the 1116 00:58:42,600 --> 00:58:45,800 longest fight they ever done, but that one moment I was just 1117 00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:50,360 super exciting and happy to not land on the glacier and make it 1118 00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:54,440 home to the puck. Did you have a good night out 1119 00:58:54,480 --> 00:58:56,480 though? No, it was good. 1120 00:58:56,520 --> 00:58:58,000 It was good. Do you know what the adrenaline 1121 00:58:58,080 --> 00:58:59,720 that was? The adrenaline was going through 1122 00:58:59,720 --> 00:59:02,560 me for a while. So it's but no, it was probably 1123 00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:05,080 not the most sensible thing that I did, but one of the most 1124 00:59:05,080 --> 00:59:07,760 memorable. I was asking, did you have a 1125 00:59:07,760 --> 00:59:10,400 good night out eventually once you went out on the tower? 1126 00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:12,960 Yeah, it was good. It was good. 1127 00:59:12,960 --> 00:59:15,320 But yeah, it's yeah, I was pretty excited. 1128 00:59:15,320 --> 00:59:16,760 Yeah, it was good fun. It was good. 1129 00:59:16,760 --> 00:59:19,760 We had a good catch up with mates and and all the guys that 1130 00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:23,280 I worked with, so it was nice. I was happy to make it and not 1131 00:59:23,280 --> 00:59:24,800 have to miss it and be on the train. 1132 00:59:26,200 --> 00:59:30,080 I can imagine I, I love when we go proximity flying close to the 1133 00:59:30,080 --> 00:59:32,520 terrain and especially situations like these when 1134 00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:36,360 you're like, Oh, I have to just do my weight shift just the 1135 00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:39,400 right amount so that like we are able to because I haven't been 1136 00:59:39,400 --> 00:59:42,840 in that situation once, not for not with that high intensity, 1137 00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:48,160 But I, I did clear terrain with almost just a meter and I was 1138 00:59:48,160 --> 00:59:51,200 flying a high B, so the glide wasn't even that exceptional. 1139 00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:54,680 So it was, but it does make it all the more worth it once you 1140 00:59:54,680 --> 00:59:56,760 are successful. But if you're not, the 1141 00:59:56,760 --> 01:00:01,320 consequences are quite something to to learn to remember. 1142 01:00:02,000 --> 01:00:05,200 But Benjamin, I think we have covered up everything that could 1143 01:00:05,200 --> 01:00:07,960 possibly come to my mind in for this curiosity. 1144 01:00:08,040 --> 01:00:10,800 Is there anything that that you might think from your end that 1145 01:00:10,800 --> 01:00:12,040 the audiences should know about you? 1146 01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:14,320 No, I think we've covered everything. 1147 01:00:14,320 --> 01:00:18,000 Yeah, no, I think it's good. And yeah, just get there and go 1148 01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:19,880 and fly. It's and try not to look at your 1149 01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,520 phone too much and go and live it for yourself. 1150 01:00:24,280 --> 01:00:26,600 That's what I'd say. No, I love it, man. 1151 01:00:27,080 --> 01:00:29,720 On that note, measurement, do you what's, how does the future 1152 01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:31,320 look like? You know what are we looking to 1153 01:00:31,320 --> 01:00:33,800 consume and how much awesomeness are you bringing to your screen 1154 01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:37,040 in days to come? So I'm just like, I love my job. 1155 01:00:37,040 --> 01:00:40,520 I I fly tandem is I do love it. I I could see myself doing this 1156 01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,480 for a while, but if I can move the percentage of tandem flying 1157 01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:47,840 and some solo flying where I make some videos and I can maybe 1158 01:00:47,840 --> 01:00:49,160 do half and half, that'd be good. 1159 01:00:49,160 --> 01:00:52,200 At the moment, most of my income just comes from flying tandem. 1160 01:00:52,200 --> 01:00:55,560 So if I can find a way to monetize the content that I make 1161 01:00:55,560 --> 01:00:57,960 to make it worthwhile, I can spend a bit more time doing 1162 01:00:57,960 --> 01:01:00,160 that. I recently just launched 1163 01:01:00,160 --> 01:01:02,600 Instagram subscriptions. So people that follow me on 1164 01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:05,880 Instagram can subscribe to get premium content. 1165 01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:08,960 And I'm going to give that a go for a couple months at least. 1166 01:01:08,960 --> 01:01:11,360 And just as long as it keeps growing or I get to the right 1167 01:01:11,360 --> 01:01:15,360 amount of people that I can keep providing content, then I'll 1168 01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:17,560 keep going with that. But it's people want to see that 1169 01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:21,680 bonus stuff, then I can. It means I can facilitate taking 1170 01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:25,560 time out of my normal working day to go and make those videos, 1171 01:01:25,840 --> 01:01:27,680 which I'm super passionate to go and do. 1172 01:01:27,960 --> 01:01:29,320 Unfortunately I still need to eat. 1173 01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:33,960 So it's I need to either fight tandem or do this. 1174 01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:36,840 It's I'd like to find a balance. If I can shift a percentage more 1175 01:01:36,840 --> 01:01:40,720 towards some solar flying and making videos then that, that'd 1176 01:01:40,720 --> 01:01:42,920 be awesome. And, but at the moment I'm happy 1177 01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:46,800 traveling, making videos in my spare time and being in Europe 1178 01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,240 and being in New Zealand and a bit in between. 1179 01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:52,080 I'm very happy doing that. I live, I'm fortunate, I live a 1180 01:01:52,080 --> 01:01:54,280 very nice life. It's good. 1181 01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:58,640 Wow, I'm so glad you recognize it that way because after 1182 01:01:58,640 --> 01:02:02,960 speaking to you for almost an hour, it's very understandable 1183 01:02:02,960 --> 01:02:05,920 for me to see that you're in a happy place right now and that 1184 01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:08,040 is where anyone thrives and grows. 1185 01:02:08,040 --> 01:02:11,360 So keep rocking, man. You are doing it and just the 1186 01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:13,520 way it's supposed to be. Thank you. 1187 01:02:15,600 --> 01:02:17,840 I just have to bring this out because you mentioned that the 1188 01:02:17,840 --> 01:02:20,240 subscription video, that thing that you have because I was 1189 01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:23,160 scrolling through your profile. And just for the sake of our 1190 01:02:23,160 --> 01:02:25,760 audiences, if you go to Benjamin Killer's Instagram, which will 1191 01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:30,320 be in the show notes and the description, go to the pinned 1192 01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,080 post next to that subscription which has almost half a million. 1193 01:02:34,080 --> 01:02:36,240 And I'm not telling you because the content is same for us para 1194 01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:38,760 lighter pilot. But God damn in the comments 1195 01:02:38,760 --> 01:02:42,760 that non Flyers are put under that video are freaking 1196 01:02:42,760 --> 01:02:48,000 hilarious to look at man. I respond to this is The funny 1197 01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:49,480 thing. Then some of the stuff you get 1198 01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:51,760 put on there. I'm like I I have to have a 1199 01:02:51,760 --> 01:02:54,400 little bit of self-control sometimes with with how I 1200 01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:57,000 respond to it because it's it is funny. 1201 01:02:57,120 --> 01:02:58,400 Yeah. We're just standing what 1202 01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:00,000 paragliding is. They just have no, yeah. 1203 01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:04,400 That's hilarious, but I think with great power comes great 1204 01:03:04,400 --> 01:03:07,720 responsibility. I try and behave myself. 1205 01:03:09,800 --> 01:03:11,200 No. Awesome, Benjamin. 1206 01:03:11,680 --> 01:03:14,880 Benjamin, I think on that note, one of the most amazing episodes 1207 01:03:14,880 --> 01:03:16,240 that I've had on the show so far. 1208 01:03:16,240 --> 01:03:19,240 So from the bottom of our heart, thank you so much for coming on 1209 01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:22,160 board and sharing your wisdom, man, and cannot wait to share 1210 01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:23,480 the sky with you one day, I'd say. 1211 01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:25,800 Absolutely, I'm looking forward to it. 1212 01:03:26,120 --> 01:03:28,720 Yeah, sky and the screen. I think that's where the magic 1213 01:03:28,720 --> 01:03:30,440 will happen. Perfect. 1214 01:03:31,080 --> 01:03:32,880 Yeah. Thanks man.