driver, and he says, `Heres a lineup. I finally just said to Tiger, `Are we playing them or are we sitting them? He said, `No, you have to send them back out there.Good thing, to

The last word Kari Castle would use to describe herself is fearless. She claims shes no daredevil.Ive always said Im a gutless coward, she says, laughing.In fact, the first time she took hang gliding lessons back in 1981, she was too terrified to leave the ground. Shed get strapped into the glider, get a running start at the top of a 200-foot hill and then crash, time after time. Shed abort the moment she felt the wing lift.It scared the crap out of me, she says. So I pulled the bar in to make it stop, and Id crash. I did that all day. I couldnt allow myself. I couldnt trust it. At the end of the day I was so sore and beat up and tired. Humiliated.Yet somehow she still wanted to soar like an eagle. She went back the next day, started with a crash, got up, charged down the hill again ... and lifted off. When I finally got in the air I was like, Oh, that was easy, she recalls. I couldnt believe how easy it was once I just let it do its thing. Then you couldnt stop me.Over the 35 years since, Castle has made her home in the clouds.At 55, shes one of the all-time greats in her sport. She continues to fly both hang gliders and paragliders while working as a teacher and coach in Bishop, California, and doing stunt-double work in movies and television. Shes won three womens world hang gliding championships (and been second twice). Shes had 20 national championships and was selected to the six-person (usually all-male) national team three times. She also won seven paragliding national championships.She has traveled the world, seen gorgeous sights and flown over the Alps and Andes. Plus, shes set five womens world records in hang gliding, three of which still stand: longest-distance flight (250.7 miles), longest straight flight to a declared goal (219.6 miles) and longest dogleg (one-turn) flight (181.5 miles).After thousands of hours in the air, suspended only by straps and wind, Castle feels completely comfortable in the sky yet still cant quite explain how she can step off a high, rocky ledge and trust shell fly. She trusts her equipment and takes every safety precaution. And she also surmises its just too fun and too beautiful for her not to.I cant even climb a ladder without being afraid, but I can be 10,000 feet above the ground and look down and feel like thats normal, and it feels good, she says. It is too good to be true. Its a dream just to float away from a mountain.When Castle moved to California in 1982 from her native Michigan, it was to go to community college. Hang gliding wasnt a priority, ranking behind school and becoming a lifeguard. She did lifeguarding and was an aerobics instructor before eventually graduating to a 9-to-5 job for a technology marketing research firm in the Bay Area. In the interim she found one of the states best hang gliding schools just minutes away from her home in Fremont.She couldnt afford it, so the school cut a deal with her: work for lessons. She did whatever was needed, including setting up a simulator in malls and selling lessons to others. So, she was flying, working at the school and having a great time. One time, a local hang gliding club needed a woman for a competition. They said, Kari, we need you to enter. We need a chick, she recalls. She won the womens division.She remembers she couldnt do a 360-turn that was required, but she nailed her takeoff and landing and stayed up for hours, longer than any other woman.Thats what I was good at.The victory set the competitive hook in her. In 1988 she moved to Bishop, one of the hot spots for the sport. Nestled in the Owens Valley between the Sierra Nevada and White mountains, the Bishop area has the right combination of wind and peaks to be a hang gliding magnet.That year she found her perfect home -- one where she can be perpetually outside and active, hang gliding, hiking, climbing, mountain biking and skiing (downhill and Nordic). She also won her first womens national hang gliding title.Her new home was the catalyst for her new career as a teacher, coach and guide as well. She saw so many people who had taken lessons but couldnt progress -- and still really didnt know what they were doing.They learn just enough where their instructor says, You can go out and fly, these are the restrictions, be careful, dont fly in these conditions, dont do this, and the idea is they go out and hopefully get taken under someone elses wings, who help them along in the next part of their journey, she says. But many didnt know where to go to get that mentor. She filled that niche.Now, too, she coaches top-echelon hang gliders, passing on what shes learned over 35 years. Castle is no longer driven to compete in hang gliding, though she says shes not officially retired. And, she continues to enter some paragliding competitions. But at this point, its not all the championships shes won or the records shes set that are most dear to her.Whats most important, she says, is the life shes been able to lead. Today, shes engaged to be married, still flying and giving back to the sport as an official (she helped organize the 2015 national championships) and able to split time between Bishop, Baja California and the Hood River in Oregon (where she kite boards).Also, now, shes giving back to others. Shes part of The Cloudbase Foundation, an organization of free-flight pilots that raises money and does projects in communities across the U.S., South America, Africa and Asia where competitions are held. Shes doing similar work with another hang gliding/paragliding group, Wings of Kilimanjaro, in Africa.Hang gliding is predominantly a mental and skill sport. Elite competitions last from four to 12 days. The pilot who takes his or her glider over a set course -- around designated turn points -- the fastest is the winner of each days route. Daily results are averaged for an overall champion.You have to be accurate, she says. These turn points, you have to be within a 400-meter radius.When she first started competing, pilots would wrap maps around their base bars (the bars held by the pilots to control the craft, along with weight shifts) and use them for navigation. To prove theyd flown over a turn point, they had to take pictures. Then race organizers would have to develop the film to check. Now the pilots use GPS, and race officials track their flights in detail.She says the evolution of the sport has been amazing. These days, too, hang gliders can soar over flat lands such as Arkansas or Texas. A place like Bishop isnt necessary. Pilots and their craft can be towed skyward, then catch the winds.But whether its 2016 or 1988, two things have remained constant: the thrills and dangers of the sport. Castle has had just enough of the dangers to always make her cautious. She takes no extra risks.Twice shes had to deploy her reserve parachute, once in the Owens Valley in 1988 from 15,500 feet and the other in the Alps just a few years ago. In both cases, her glider got caught in dangerous wind shifts and tumbled out of control.Both times, she thought she would die. The first time she had a hard landing, injured a foot, cracked her tailbone and vertebrae and lost a tooth. The second time, she had a soft landing with no injuries, but it helped her to decide to cut back her competition schedule.I was tumbling just like a leaf out of the tree, flipping, tumbling, she recalls. When she finally was able to deploy her chute, she felt lucky. After that it was like, I dont want to play anymore.But she cant imagine not flying for fun.Almost every flight, I look around and Im like, Holy moly, Im still doing this. Im still in one piece. I mean, I know way too many people that arent. But yeah, just the simple act of running off a mountain and flying -- how many people really do that? Not very many.As she describes her life, she gets emotional. The champion who laughs often and pokes fun at herself feels blessed. The fact Ive been able to live my dream, I feel like thats an accomplishment, she says. Without even realizing it. Because all along Ive been like, Oh, gosh, what am I going to be when I grow up? Ive got to do something.But its taken me a long time to accept that what Ive done is OK. I keep thinking I should be doing something with my life ... but so many people have led that serious working life and then I see them and they say, Damn, I wish I would have followed my passion or what I was meant to do.Which is what Castle is doing -- and finally appreciating.I remember my friend a few years ago, she said, Gosh, Kari, you live the life of a millionaire, but you have no money, she says, laughing. Best Cheapest Jordan 1 . Anthony Davis had 31 points and 17 rebounds in his seventh straight game with more than 20 points, but that was only enough to keep the Pelicans competitive into the final minutes. Andrew Bogut had 10 points and 15 rebounds for Golden State, which rebounded from a loss a night earlier in Oklahoma City and snapped a two-game skid. Yeezy 350 V3 Store . "I dont know that were close," said general manager Alex Anthopoulos. "I just think, right now, the acquisition cost just doesnt work for us right now. 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CHASKA, Minn. -- Patrick Reed wasnt part of the task force put together by U.S. Ryder Cup officials to reverse Europes two decade-long domination.But in the span of a few hours Sunday, he proved that grit on the greens and smarts off the tee can close that gap faster than all the committee meetings and long-term planning in the world.Playing in only his second Ryder Cup, Reed drew Rory McIlroy in the critical opening match. McIlroy is Europes unquestioned leader, a three-time major winner who is ranked third in the world and one of the best drivers of the ball in golf. Reed, who is ranked No. 8 but isnt nearly as long off the tee, was featured on the front of this months Golf Digest under the title How to Dominate With Your Driver.And on this day he was every bit as good as his press. The two traded birdies and stares all afternoon, with McIlroy turning to the crowd after rolling in a tough 40-footer at No. 8, pumping both fists and practically daring the gallery to boo.When Reed responded by sinking his own birdie from 20 feet, he pulled the ball out of the cup and turned to face McIlroy, then wagged his index finger in a show of defiance. But to prove that sportsmanship was as much a part of the bargain as gamesmanship, the two exchanged fist bumps before they resumed the battle on the next tee.I consider everybody, whether its the European side, captains, vice captains ... a big Ryder Cup family, Reed said, said just moments after his 1-up victory set the tone for the Americans 17-11 win, their first since 2008 and only their third dating to 1993.We want to beat them at their best, he added, and they want to beat us at our best.Reed came to Hazeltine after posting a 3-0-1 mark in his only previous appearance, at Gleneagles in 2014, and forged a partnership with Jordan Spieth that was something to see.dddddddddddd They played all four sessions in the first two days, taking on Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson -- the Olympic gold and silver medalist, respectively -- in three of those matches and winning twice.But they were almost denied that fourth match, when Reed made seven birdies and an eagle on his own ball -- arguably his finest moment amid a handful of great ones here. Days earlier, Tiger Woods, serving as a U.S. vice captain in these matches, had told Reed hed likely have to sit out one of the foursomes or four-ball sessions. Reed listened dutifully, then simply told Woods, You are not sitting me on any matches.That bit of defiance hinted at why Reeds teammates dubbed him Captain America. It also put Woods squarely in his corner. So when captain Davis Love thought about sitting Reed and Spieth for the second session Saturday, it was Woods who went to bat for the pair.We all kind of had a little bit different idea, Love recalled. Even my son threw a lineup out. Hes my cart driver, and he says, `Heres a lineup. I finally just said to Tiger, `Are we playing them or are we sitting them? He said, `No, you have to send them back out there.Good thing, too.I knew today was going to be tough, going against a guy like Rory, especially how he was playing earlier this week, Reed said. To come out and play as well as we both did, especially on that front nine, was definitely something fun to be part of.Pretty sure, he added a moment later, it was fun to watch, too.And for members of the U.S. Ryder Cup task force, it was must-see TV. ' ' '