Have a look up in the sky! It’s a bird? It’s a plane? It’s a samoyed that paraglides!
Ouka is a new character in the scene. He’s a 3-year-old Samoyed who lives with his filmmaker human, Shams, in France. As a self-proclaimed global traveler, he and Ouka visit some genuinely breathtaking locations, as captured on both their Instagram sites. Shams and Ouka, in addition to hiking and camping together, have a very unique bonding activity: they jump off cliffs and paraglide effortlessly through the air, floofy feet dangling over the rest of the dog- and humankind, defying Newtonian physics.
Shams stated to the BBC in a video interview that the idea for paragliding with Ouka developed gradually.
“The first thing that struck me was Ouka’s lack of fear of heights,” Shams added. “For example, when we were trekking, he was super close to the cliff’s edge.”
Shams then began flying around the pupper with his glider, trying to adjust Ouka to the idea of the large, flapping canopy. Shams had a specifically built harness made to carry Ouka’s weight safely and comfortably once she became familiar with the glider. Ouka was fully trained to fly in approximately a month and a half, according to Shams. Since then, the two have shared roughly a dozen flights.
Ouka and Shams are more than simply a paragliding combo; they’re a family who met at the perfect time.
“I wasn’t in the finest moment of my life before I acquired Ouka,” Shams told the BBC. “Because of the pandemic, I wasn’t working as much, and I was dealing with some personal challenges in my life.” I was in a deep depression.”
Ouka, on the other hand, was going through a difficult time. Before Shams found him, he’d been adopted and abandoned twice, and Shams said Ouka’s filthy, matted fur was covered in parasites and fleas following the last abandonment. However, the couple now spends their days together, hiking, camping, and flying above the treetops, and they are as happy as can be.
Shams stated, “He pushes me to find inspiration to get up in the morning and do everything.” “As a result, I’d like to express my gratitude to him.”