Red Bull.com

Chris “Santa” Santacroce is one of the best paraglider pilots the world has known, winning major championships in aerobatics and cross-country events and inventing new tricks that remain the benchmark for other pilots. Chris is renowned for his signature “death spiral,” in which, like the endmost person in an airborne game of crack the whip, he spirals closer and closer to the earth, eventually dragging his wing tip on the ground before straightening upright for landing.

An expert paramotor pilot as well, in 2010 Chris (accompanied by fellow Red Bull Air Force member Othar Lawrence) set a new North American distance record for limited fuel flight in a paramotor, covering 121 miles over Texas using only 2.5 gallons of fuel. He is also the first person to use a paramotor as a weather station platform, to help university researchers gather data. But what he loves most is “spreading the love” about flying, whether that involves demonstrations, teaching and coaching, or taking first-time fliers, including those with disabilities, on tandem flights.

Chris’s talent for instruction, innovation, and advocacy is legendary. He became a full-time paragliding professional at age 17. A natural at cross-country events (ranking in North America’s top ten for a decade and winning the continent’s championship), he proved to be equally adept at paraglider aerobatics, eventually adding BASE jumping and skydiving to his repertoire.

Chris organizes North America’s premier paragliding aerobatics event (Wings over Bear Lake), and he’s an examiner for the US Powered Paragliding Association and Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, the latter of which has honored him with its Presidential Citation and Paragliding Instructor of the Year awards.