SNOQUALMIE – It may be hard for some to find a direct link between paragliding and massage therapy, but John Kraske sees a connection.

To him, both are responses to changes in nature. Whether it’s catching a temporal wind to gain altitude in a paragliding wing or finding the tension in the muscle tissue of a patient, the massage therapist and paragliding instructor makes his living finding the nuances in the natural world.

Kraske’s response to nature was fostered as a boy growing up in the Northwest. He became a fan of the water and the outdoors and has many stories involving rivers and oceans. Kraske joined the Navy and later the Coast Guard, where he became trained in SCUBA diving.

While in the Coast Guard, Kraske had an experience camping that he would later think of often. He and some friends met a couple who lived in the woods and he received a therapeutic massage from the wife. Kraske said the massage gave him more than just relief for a sore back, but a whole perspective on what he could do with massage.

“She [the wife] said I should get into healing work,” Kraske said. “It was quite an experience.”

Kraske especially remembered the experience after he left the Coast Guard and got a job at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office in Seattle. Although he would eventually spend 10 years at NOAA and become a top administrator, Kraske said he could have left the job after two years. It was too institutional for Kraske and he spent a lot of time on the road.

“It wasn’t satisfying,” he said. “There was nothing to inspire me.”

His friends encouraged Kraske to look into massage therapy. Ever since his experience camping, Kraske had learned more about body work and healing. He went to massage school, became certified and joined a practice in Kirkland. The practice went out of business, but Kraske kept all his clients and opened his own office in 1992. A lover of the outdoors, Kraske was a frequent visitor to the Valley and watched its growth over the years. Seeing the potential to expand his client base, he rented a space at the new River Street office building in Snoqualmie and opened his business in January.

“There can be a lot of patients here for me to apply my trade,” he said.

In addition to encouraging Kraske’s own business, one of Kraske’s friends also introduced him to paragliding, a kind of free flight with a wing that looks like a parachute but is not to be confused with parasailing or hang gliding. Kraske had resisted trying out paragliding (he didn’t want another hobby) but accepted a lesson in Eastern Washington his girlfriend got for him. There was a lot to learn, but the feeling of flying was enough to bring Kraske eagerly back.

“One weekend I was up when the Blue Angels [Navy air show jet squad] were in town and these swallows flew around me,” he said. “I told myself, ‘The Blue Angels got nothing on this.'”

Kraske is now a licensed instructor who started his paragliding business Wind Dancer Tandem Paragliding three years ago. He said one of the joys he has is taking up beginners. While some new paragliders get so scared they become ill, others literally scream with excitement. He has taken up people of all ages, including an 87-year-woman who came with a walker.

“It’s gratifying to be able to share the passion of free flight,” he said.

Kraske can fly two ways. One is ridge lift, where he can take flight off a cliff with a good wind. The other, which Kraske does more often and said is more challenging, is thermal. Thermal flights rely on hot air rising from a space surrounded by cooler air. Tiger Mountain outside Issaquah is a prime spot and where Kraske does many of his lessons. While finding a temporal wind can be tricky, he said one can ride a temporal wind from Tiger Mountain as far south as Crystal Mountain, or even over the Snoqualmie Pass. It’s an exciting way to spend the day, but Kraske said paragliding is not about the rush.

“I’m not an adrenaline junkie,” he said. “It’s very relaxing and awe inspiring.”

Inspired is a good word for Kraske’s work. He said he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

“My life is kind of a vacation,” he said.

* John Kraske, LMP and paragliding instructor, can be reached at (425) 890-1312 or by e-mail at wdancertpg@earthlink.net.