Along the south side of the dunes in Sand City, on a property that has been under development for decades, there are ideal flying conditions for paragliding instructor and owner of Raven Wolf Sky Sports, Cynthia “Cyn” Currie.
“Because of the Salinas Valley behind us, the wind turns on every day at about noon and so Monterey is a place where people travel from all over the world to come and fly here,” Currie says. “It’s a very consistent and beautiful place to fly.”
Currie moved to Monterey in 2012 as a skydiving instructor and paraglider. In 2016, she opened her own school, which offers tandem paragliding, among other experiences such as parakiting.
The areas where Currie can operate in Monterey County are limited, as Marina State Beach is a regulated site, where only more advanced pilots are allowed to paraglide and must follow strict rules to protect the environment. Another rule bans anyone from accepting compensation for tandem paragliding instruction.
Because of this, Currie has been launching with permission for the past decade from a property owned by developer Ed Ghandour, who has long had plans to develop an eco-resort on the site. While that project was mired by legal and regulatory obstacles over the years, it allowed Currie and others to paraglide there. Now, it is back under development.
(Ghandour did not respond to a request for comment by the Weekly’s deadline.)
“It seems like he is building again and he has asked us not to fly,” Currie says. “I am not able to take people tandem or teach them to fly anymore.”
Sand City City Manager Vibeke Norgaard says the development is fully entitled by the city and the California Coastal Commission, but she does not yet know when construction will begin.
Currie says the cease-and-desist letter from her landlord came as a shock, but she understands that business is business. She says she is in talks to potentially purchase a portion of the property not under development. But the sale would take time, and to continue operating her business, she has to travel elsewhere, likely to Chile. She says she would like to return to Monterey County but isn’t sure when or where.
“I am going to have to figure out a new path,” she says of her business, “and so I am.”
(4) comments
I first took lessons with Cyn as my instructor in 2023. Learning to paraglide here has been a truly life changing experience for me. It is an incredible sport, and having access to local instruction made it possible.
With Marina now being the only nearby site and one that is suitable for more intermediate pilots, it is really disappointing to see beginner instruction at Sand City effectively shut down for the foreseeable future. While there are other schools over the hill, increasing the distance and time commitment makes it much harder for people to take that first step into the sport.
I feel very fortunate to have learned locally, and I hope that opportunity is not lost for others. It would be great to see Sand City once again support beginner instruction so new pilots can safely enter the sport and the local flying community can continue to grow.
For now, its disheartening to see that pathway disappear. I really hope things change.
This situation is incredibly disappointing...
The Sand City Dunes have been a cornerstone of the paragliding community here in Monterey County for years. This isn’t some niche activity, paragliding is a real part of the identity and tourism of this area. People travel from all over the country (and beyond) specifically to fly here because of how unique and consistent the conditions are. You’ll even see paragliding featured in Monterey tourism materials and now the very community that helped build that image is being pushed out. That kind of culture doesn’t just relocate somewhere else, it disappears.
Practically speaking, this closure shuts the door on the future of the sport here. The only remaining nearby site, Marina State Beach, is restricted to advanced pilots. That means no real pathway for beginners, no way for new people to safely learn, and no way to sustainably grow the sport locally. It effectively turns paragliding in Monterey into something inaccessible and unsustainable.
It’s also hard to ignore the contradiction of building an “eco” resort on sensitive coastal land while removing long-standing, low-impact public use of that same space. Especially when imagery of paragliders has reportedly already been used to market the very development replacing them.
Development is one thing—but removing access to a long-established, community-driven use of this coastline is another. Once access like this is gone, it’s almost impossible to get back.
I really hope the city, the Coastal Commission, and the developer can find a solution that preserves public access and protects what has made this place so special for so many people.
I feel for Cyn and her loss of business, but this story is much bigger than that.
This closure has affected our entire community. There is a huge group of local pilots that met here every day and flew. It was a beautiful group of supportive individuals from all walks of life. This site was also a monument to and named after Scott Hunter, a local pilot who had been flying the site for decades and passed away in 2025.
People came from all over the country to fly this site every year. Monterey has paragliding in half of it's tourism ads. This developer even used photos of us flying in advertisements for the hotel he is trying to build.
We can still fly the Marina sites, but only advanced pilots are allowed to fly there. This closure has made it impossible for beginner pilots to fly locally and has made it impossible for new people to experience our sport and get into flying. Paragliding in Monterey is going to become a thing of the past unless we can find some way to re-open this launch.
I feel for Cyn and her loss of business, but this story is much bigger than that.
This closure has affected our entire community. There is a huge group of local pilots that met here every day and flew. It was a beautiful group of supportive individuals from all walks of life. This site was also a monument to and named after Scott Hunter, a local pilot who had been flying the site for decades and passed away in 2025.
People came from all over the country to fly this site every year. Monterey has paragliding in half of it's tourism ads. Hell, this developer even used photos of us flying in advertisements for the hotel he is trying to build.
We can still fly the Marina sites, but only advanced pilots are allowed to fly there. This closure has made it impossible for beginner pilots to fly locally and has made it impossible for new people to experience our sport and get into flying.
My heart is broken for what this is doing to our paragliding community.
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