Photos: Paragliding pilots take flight from Mussel Rock Park cliffs in Daly City

The weather on Thursday, with sunny and clear skies seen from Mussel Rock Park, was perfect to beat the heat wave in most of the Bay Area. But for paraglider pilots, the weather wasn’t perfect. They needed more wind: “It was a bit bumpy,” one paraglider said after landing back on the 200-foot launch cliff.

But for Bonita Hudson, it was her second flight of the day. The first was about noon from a roughly 400-foot altitude; the second came with her boyfriend, Jarred Bonaparte, at sunset from the “Cheetah” launch site, at 180-foot elevation. The Pacifica paragliding pilots have been flying for 16 and 12 years, respectively, they say.

“I got into paragliding 16 years ago. I always knew I wanted to fly something, but planes and skydiving weren’t practical and very expensive,” Hudson says. “I ended up buying a one-way ticket to Hawaii and saw them paragliding in the mountains there, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

One of the benefits of paragliding, she says, is that it’s “very calming and sort of meditative, and you don’t really think of other problems or stress while you’re up there. You’re very focused on being up there. … I started doing tandems 8 years ago and love spreading the feeling of flight with others!”

Mussel Rock Park is one of the most popular paragliding sites in Northern California; it offers breathtaking views of the ocean, especially at sunset, the cliffs, and the city of San Francisco if the day is clear.

Hikers and visitors to Mussel Rock Park, which was built on an old landfill that operated from 1957 to 1978, enjoy the park, the nature — and the colorful flying paragliders.

Check another Bay Area paragliding site in Milpitas.