LOWA First Flight - By Lisa Ballard

I had the chance to visit the Outer Banks, the long skinny chain of barrier islands on the coast of North Carolina. No mountains to climb there, but we did manage to log some verts on the enormous sand dunes… and fly off them! In fact, I spent an afternoon climbing up the dunes and then hang gliding down them. It was my first time to the Outer Banks, my first time hiking sand dunes and my first time hang gliding.

Kitty Hawk, where Wilbur and Orville Wright made their famous flights, is one of the main towns on the Outer Banks. A former glider pilot, I’ve always been intrigued by the Wright Brothers, though I never truly appreciated what they were up against. Today we take flying for granted, sleeping, eating, working, watching movies, using the Internet… we’ve sure come a long way since December 17, 1903, when Wilbur and Orville flew for the first time.


After four years and hundreds of experiments launching their manned kites off 90-foot-high Big Kill Devil Hill, a sizeable sand dune now stabilized with plants where the Wright Brothers Memorial stands, Orville successfully flew their motorized wooden glider 120 feet in 12 seconds. The Wright brothers made three more flights that historic day. Wilbur went the farthest on his last try, 852 feet in 59 seconds, which is about how far I flew hang gliding.

I’ve never been afraid of heights, which is why I love to stand on top of mountains, and now sand dunes strapped to a kite. What a rush!

My Lowa San Francisco GTX’s were perfect for walking across the 430-acres from the Wright Brothers National Memorial atop Big Kill Devil Hill to the spot where Wilbur soared the longest. I kicked them off for my own flight in the sand.