Hey, thanks for the reply.
It seems like if I go with paramotoring then I'll go with Blackhawk for lessons, probably for the gear too since it does seem valuable to be fairly close to the dealer. My understanding is that engine problems are common. I could ship the gear to get it fixed if necessary I guess, but it seems better that Blackhawk's about 2-2.5 hours away.
If I want to go with paragliding, then I'll probably go with Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara. They seem very highly rated. I talked to Rob on the phone earlier. He seems cool, and he gave me his take on it. He actually prefers gliding to motoring, and so does the other gliding instructor I spoke to over the weekend. So I'm getting different points of view from different people.
It does seem cool to be able to launch from anywhere though, and flying the coast seems awesome! Maybe it would work to get a noise canceling headset to deal with the engine noise.
Blackhawk has a new 8.5 pound frame design. Looks nice!
My thought was that if I go with motoring, then I'd want the dealer to be close, and I'd buy from them for now. If I'm still doing it in a few years, I could go for a different brand if I want to once I'm not a beginner anymore.
Right now I'm about 190 pounds. I think my target weight is about 175-180, but I'm not positive.
I have a tandem ride scheduled with Blackhawk for Sunday. If I'm still not sure what I want to do after the ride, I may go down to Eagle and take a day or two class with them.