Profile – Jason Gondonneau
JASON GONDONNEAU
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
JG: My name is Jason Gondonneau (Jaz), and I’m 25 years old. I was born in the southwest, near Agen and its delicious prunes. From a very young age, I was an outsider, unable to fit in. My entire school career was nothing but suffering, so I withdrew into video games. At 15, I started a CAP program in carpentry. With my CAP and BP in carpentry under my belt, I started working in a blacksmith’s workshop making cutlery—my hands let me express myself. Happy and at peace with myself, at 19 I decided to bring together all the elements that had made me happy. It’s inevitable—it’s on the road, meeting people, that I feel at my best. Meeting people, learning, feeling alive, and learning some more. That’s what I love!
When and how did you learn to paraglide?
JG: I learned at the end of my first trip (8 months on the road with my friend Nicolas). After being picked up by paragliding pilots, they explained to me that it's not that inaccessible, and that you can Take-off with all your hiking gear. It's decided I won't break my knees anymore going down all the mountains I would have climbed. After my initiation course and 5 flights, I bought my gear and flew 20 times alone in the Pyrenees. Then 80 more in the Cantal, where I do the shuttles for the school paraglider Puy Mary during 4 months.
Can you tell us a little more about the project you created?
JG: The project Supair helped me with is *Au Fil du Vent*. Even though I had only 80 flights at the time, Supair believed in me and my ex-partner.
The idea was to finish what I had started: walking around France to meet its people, based on the principles of sharing and exchange. I’m setting out for a year—on foot, hitchhiking, with no money, and my paraglider on my back—to circle France. I’ll cross the Pyrenees from east to west and follow the coast northward. Then, in Brittany, I’ll follow the west coast north-eastward to Dunkirk before heading back south through Belgium and the Alps.
Supair will allow me to significantly lighten my pack with its lightweight gear (Leaf Light and Radicale 3). Just 6 kilos—including the wing, harness, and reserve—to fly throughout this journey. I could have traveled even lighter in terms of paragliding gear, but it’s important to remember that at the time of my departure, I had only 100 flights under my belt and barely a year of experience.
Do you have a special memory of flight to share with us?
JG: Just one? I think the hardest part is choosing—they’ve all been unique and have all taught me something. But the flight I’ll never forget is my very first one. I took off—I’d been waiting for this moment, I was so excited, with a slight knot in my stomach—and barely a minute later, that knot was gone. Looking at my wing—this thing that lets me fly—and the landscape around me, I remember starting to cry with this thought in my head: “Why did it take me so many years to get here?” I had just found my element.
What are your plans for the future (paragliding and other activities)?
JG: I have tons of them! The first is to finish editing the film about this whole journey. To travel the globe meeting people. An idea to set off on horseback together—with a paraglider on our backs—with my sweetheart Apolline. A dream for her and another for me, with—why not?—the possibility of training the horses to winch me up. The project with Nicolas: one day, to find a place and live there as self-sufficiently as possible. To have a home of our own, and the chance to welcome others in turn. Then there’s everyday life: sculpture, drawing, creating, and all kinds of experiences.
Contact:
www.au-fil-du-vent.fr
https://www.instagram.com/aufilduvent.fr/
https://www.facebook.com/Aufilduvent.fr/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo3hKyXONNwjJTKRsUcXhnw
