Hi all, My name is Elisa and you can find me in https://www.instagram.com/rio.from.above/. I have been paragliding for more than a decade and I am the current state champion in Rio de Janeiro. The podium is not a stranger to me. Since my early days in paragliding I have made it to the podium several times, but usually in the female category. I have made it to the top in the world rankings in cross country flying. This season, I nailed the 1st place overall (among men and women) in the serial category, which made me pretty happy.

And I want more! I want to crush records in the Brazilian Sertão and spread the word about Gnars.
Some of my achievements in paragliding:
I’m passionate about all outdoor sports. On top of paragliding, I love kitesurfing, Va’a paddling and I have been recently learning how to surf. I’m also a mother of an 8-year-old skater and a 6-year-old ballerina and they both love flying with me. Moms rock!
Music and technology are part of my life. My expertise is in how musicians make money from music royalties. I help develop softwares as a product owner and I participate in other DAOs, focused in the music business, such as “Water & Music” and “Música, Copyright e Tecnologia” (a Brazilian DAO about Music, Copyrights and Technology). I am also a journalist and I have lead as editor a music magazine for 11 years, organized events and social media growth for a not-for-profit music association. I write regularly for the largest Paragliding magazine in the world (Cross Country or @xcmag).
I have founded a community called Saia Para Voar (translated from Portuguese, it means both ‘get out and fly’ and ‘use a skirt to fly’). It became a very strong decentralized community and movement that helped women learn how to fly a paraglider, develop their skills or just socialize. We were able to gather funds and offer sponsorship for competition pilots and also made a documentary that was aired in a Brazilian TV channel called OFF (https://vimeo.com/464824633).
During the pandemic, in the Music NGO I contributed for, I created a fund called ‘Juntos Pela Música’ and we were able to get a partnership with Spotify to double whatever funds we raised. The fund grew up to BRL 1,7 million with the help of many musicians like Alceu Valença, Djavan, Erasmo Carlos and many others. The fund was distributed among struggling musicians with periodic payments during the pandemic. To learn more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXgUr5eD2uI&t=50s
I would be honored to receive 1 ETH to cover part of the costs for a distance-record-breaking expedition to the northeast of Brazil (Assú - RN) and move to Level 3 to become an official Sponsored Athlete.
I’m in a hybrid position as the Gnars Athlete Sponsorship Protocol has recently changed. I have been already granted with 1 Gnar to be onboarded in the community. So I assume I’m level 2 now, so the proposal would be to land on level 3 according to this protocol
Fly 400 km in a paraglider during the trade winds season (from September to November)
1 ETH to cover costs and become level 3 athlete
Video editing for media content
Spend 12 days in the Sertão and fly as much as possible to cross the 400km barrier in a paraglider.
| Item | Description | Cost | Units | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Towing and retrieve | The glider is towed up at 6-7 AM and the flight is done in a straight line until the sunset. This item includes the towing operation, the car with a driver that follows the athlete for over 300km and the way back to Assú. | BRL 600 | 12 days | BRL 7,200 |
| Accomodation | Single room with air conditioning in Assú (RN) | BRL 150 | 12 days | BRL 1,800 |
| Flight | Two-way flight from Rio de Janeiro to Natal (RN) | BRL 2,500 | 1 | BRL 2,500 |
| Training | 10+ hours of flying requires physical preparation. I’m already training 5 times a week. | BRL 800 | 6 months | BRL 4,800 |
| Specific training | The sertão is comparable to “Nazaré” for surfers. It’s a place with very strong thermals and extreme flying conditions. For safety reasons, I need to do an incident simulation course before going to better understand the reactions of my wing when an incident happens. | BRL 2,000 | 1 | BRL 2,000 |
| Other costs | Satellite tracker subscription /Food and beverage / Airplane ticket for my mother-in-law to come to Rio and help with my kids during the expedition / Spare equipment (spare lines for the glider in case of damage, reserve chute case etc)/ Other costs. | BRL 5,000 | 1 | BRL 5,000 |
| Total | BRL 23,300 |
*equipment not included as I intend to fly with the competition equipment I already have.
Brazilians are blessed to be in the country where most of the paragliding world records were broken. The Sertão is the Meca of cross country pilots throughout the world during the season (from September to November).
I went there in 2021 and 2022 and this is where I flew my longests flights. In 2022, I was very few kilometers away from the South American record.
Watch me crossing the skies above both Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará states in one 280+ Km flight in the Brazilian sertão.
My personal best is 320 km in a 10-hour flight.




