Raul Rodriguez

Where do you live?
Moving with the wind, around Spain, winter time in Granada, Andalucia and the rest in Organya.

What do you do for work?
From 14 years old my work is all about flying paragliding, understanding every move and creating new moves, promoting and developing paragliders, acro exhibitions, teaching coaching SIV and acro. My work really is just Flying and sharing my experience with the flying community.

What year, and how old were you when you started flying?
In 1987 I started to fly at 12 years old, my first flight was in Albacete.

Did a family member introduce you to paragliding?
Does anyone else in your family fly?My father Felix Rodriguez start to fly in 1986, I was there asking for me also to fly but at this time kids couldn’t fly, so my father created a paragliding school and one year later taught me to fly, two years later Felix Papi taught my brother Felix to fly, a few years later also my cousin Horacio Llorens and my little brother Alejandro started to fly with us. Then some time later my mother also started to fly, and also three more cousins started to fly Jesús, Carloni and Rafiky. It is a passion that runs in the family. 

What other passions do you have, or activities do you enjoy?
All mountain and nature sports is my passion, Since I was a kid I’ve practiced a lot of rock climbing sportive with reaching a  maximum level of 8a+, and my maximum level a view is 7c. Then not that often I love to practice Base jump from paragliding, skydiving, and kitesurfing.

Why is flying important to you, and what does flying mean to you?
Flying is all I have, since I was 12 years old I decided to live from paragliding. All these years my passion has been to create something new. At the beginning I was learning to control the basic maneuvers and  in 1997 I finish the list of existing maneuvers. Then I was pushing all the limits in every maneuver mixing all of them trying to find something different, creating something new.

After years of practice and work I created what is known as ACRO, invented all different moves, developed  new gear and accessories for this modality. A new world inside paragliding was born.

What are some recent adventures, competitions or trips you've had over the past few years?
My biggest adventure was in the beginning of the acro from 2000 until 2007, with the SAFETY ACRO TEAM traveling all around the world sharing our philosophy of Acro, the safety and control practice of Acro paragliding. 

I have won many events including  5 Times the World Acro Championship, set a Record Guinnes in 2006  with the Infnity Tumbling (108 turns) and create most of the now well known Acro maneuvers.

Do you have any goals, dreams or plans for the next 1-2 years that you want to share?
My plan is to create a new way of teaching for beginners to acro pilots, an enjoyable teaching and learning experience. Fly as much as possible and create new maneuvers. 

Horacio and I have just opened a new school in Organya called the “FUSION FLYING SCHOOL”, the plan is to share our experience will all our students here in the Magic mountain developing our FUSION Method.