Extreme Gulfshore Athletes- Hang-glider Lance Maclean

Hang-glider Lance Maclean, 46, was soaring over Collier County's beaches before he was old enough to drive. He and a friend made their own flying machines of aluminum tubing, plastic and duct tape, and rode behind cars or speedboats before cutting their tow lines loose to glide down. At 18, flying through Doctor's Pass, he came face to face with the Goodyear Blimp shuttling VIPs around the bay. "We got so close I could see the faces of the people in it," he says. The blimp did a 180-degree turn, and Maclean landed. "Everyone thought it was a stunt," he says with a laugh. Today the CEO of Skytruck, an aviation company, he's been hang-gliding all over the world. One of his favorite places is the Florida Ridge Airpark in Clewiston, where Gulf and Atlantic breezes converge to give added lift. Maclean began before there were competitions or rating systems in the sport, but he mentors younger hang-gliders and takes beginners up in tandem glides. "Everyone should give it a try," he says.