Alastair Wilson <>
writes:

Sorry to report that the number of university based hang gliding
clubs has been steadily dropping, to the extent that I only know of one active
club, at Southampton. As a student myself I'd have loved to have access to a
paragliding club at my university, but the first I even heard of the sport was
via a caving club.


While it's not unsurprising that university clubs are often unsustainable (it
takes a lot of effort to run a club, people tend to leave after three years, and
free flight isn't something you can just hand to a group of keen freshers and
say 'go ahead') it's a bit of a shame and cuts off a major source of recruitment
to the sport. In contrast, there are plenty of very active student sailplane
clubs - seems the gliding community have got recruitment much better sorted.