david barrish story2

David Barish comments: "NASA wouldn’t buy a double surface chute. But they also wanted a better glide. That’s why, in 1966, we progressed to the version with 5 lobes. Then, the double surface part was extended to one third of the chord. It was Domina Jalbert who invented the entirely double surface parachute. What else about the design? Well, I thought the enormous stabilizers were necessary. And spinnaker cloth was an obvious choice, if you want a wing, you need the lowest possible porosity. I determined the length of the lines came from the experience of kite-flyers who already knew all there was to know on this subject.'
The first flight, in the company of his son and friend Jacques Istel, took place in September 1965 at Bel Air in the Cats Hills. This is a ski resort two hours from New York and not far from Woodstock (where Hendrix had not yet played 'Purple Haze' and 'Little Wing'!). David often flew the slopes of Mount Hunter, in the same area. A keen skier, David Barish had a crazy idea: a new summer sport which would consist of skimming down the grassy slopes of the ski pistes. The new sport was christened "slope soaring.' At the suggestion of a friend who was a journalist on "Ski Magazine', he and his son did a tour of American ski resorts, from Vermont to California in the summer of '66. The aim was to demonstrate that "slope soaring" could be a viable summer activity in ski resorts