“ I have good memories of my childhood in Iran, mostly good and a lot of oopsies. I set our house on fire one time and I was scared because my mum was yelling at me. I hid behind some boxes. The smoke was intense and they saved me but they couldn’t save the house.
From the time I was 12 years old I started doing rock climbing. I did a lot of things on my own away from my house. I loved travel and camping. At 17 I felt like going up the mountains and walking all the way back down didn’t make sense to me. I decided to start paragliding so I could climb and then fly. I was the first Paragliding pilot in my state in Iran. I became an instructor when I was about 17. The government didn’t like it because it was something new and they had no information about it so they were afraid of it.
In my country you have to do soldier time so I joined the army for a year and a half. I started doing Paramotoring for them which is pretty much paragliding but it’s just a big fan behind you so basically you can take off from the ground. I never had to fight and I left when I was 19. My fight was pretty much after that as I knew a lot of information about the government and I had a club which had a lot of students who I was teaching to Paraglide. The government didn’t like it because they had no control. It was a mess and I had to leave and come to the safest place.
I had very little time to leave Iran so I went to Malaysia and someone told me they had agreed to send me to Australia. I was running out of time in Malaysia with my visa and I would have had to return to my country. I decided to go to Jakarta and do that scary trip by boat. It was a long wait in Indonesia for the boat to be ready and the trip took 34 hours. We crossed the border to Australia and then customs looked after us and took us to Christmas Island. I was lucky as I was held on Christmas Island, Curtin and Yongah hill and Perth for 2 months in total. There were a lot of flights to different detention centres. I was processed pretty fast because I had all the permissions and identity paper work needed. The people used to throw all their identity information out in the ocean. I don’t know why.
I have been here in Australia now for 4 years. I used to do a lot of abseiling down buildings for work. I got my licence about 9 years ago in Iran and worked there for a while. The school I got my licence through is internationally recognised and in Australia it is a top qualification. I work on super high sky scrapers fixing things, walking on towers, pretty busy working everywhere for different companies.
I still paraglide and in Australia I have started doing competitions and have been pretty much the youngest pilot in Australia. The first year I ranked 15th in Australia, the second year was 14th, last year was 10th and this year 9th. I’m hoping for top 5 this season.
I’m in Lismore working on a communication job at the Lismore regional Gallery and setting up links for Lismore City Council. We’ve been working here for quite a while now. We worked for ages up near Rocky Creek Dam. We will coming back on and off to work here in Lismore which is great.
When you come from a different country it’s not just the language, it’s also the culture and the people you know. Everything changes! At some point in my life I miss my friends and my family. I miss those moments, I miss that street. I would like to go there and stare at the trees and the buildings. I have no family here but I have a lot of paragliding friends which is pretty good. I feel very lucky.”
Thanks to SBS for this little doco on Pedram.
From the time I was 12 years old I started doing rock climbing. I did a lot of things on my own away from my house. I loved travel and camping. At 17 I felt like going up the mountains and walking all the way back down didn’t make sense to me. I decided to start paragliding so I could climb and then fly. I was the first Paragliding pilot in my state in Iran. I became an instructor when I was about 17. The government didn’t like it because it was something new and they had no information about it so they were afraid of it.
In my country you have to do soldier time so I joined the army for a year and a half. I started doing Paramotoring for them which is pretty much paragliding but it’s just a big fan behind you so basically you can take off from the ground. I never had to fight and I left when I was 19. My fight was pretty much after that as I knew a lot of information about the government and I had a club which had a lot of students who I was teaching to Paraglide. The government didn’t like it because they had no control. It was a mess and I had to leave and come to the safest place.
I had very little time to leave Iran so I went to Malaysia and someone told me they had agreed to send me to Australia. I was running out of time in Malaysia with my visa and I would have had to return to my country. I decided to go to Jakarta and do that scary trip by boat. It was a long wait in Indonesia for the boat to be ready and the trip took 34 hours. We crossed the border to Australia and then customs looked after us and took us to Christmas Island. I was lucky as I was held on Christmas Island, Curtin and Yongah hill and Perth for 2 months in total. There were a lot of flights to different detention centres. I was processed pretty fast because I had all the permissions and identity paper work needed. The people used to throw all their identity information out in the ocean. I don’t know why.
I have been here in Australia now for 4 years. I used to do a lot of abseiling down buildings for work. I got my licence about 9 years ago in Iran and worked there for a while. The school I got my licence through is internationally recognised and in Australia it is a top qualification. I work on super high sky scrapers fixing things, walking on towers, pretty busy working everywhere for different companies.
I still paraglide and in Australia I have started doing competitions and have been pretty much the youngest pilot in Australia. The first year I ranked 15th in Australia, the second year was 14th, last year was 10th and this year 9th. I’m hoping for top 5 this season.
I’m in Lismore working on a communication job at the Lismore regional Gallery and setting up links for Lismore City Council. We’ve been working here for quite a while now. We worked for ages up near Rocky Creek Dam. We will coming back on and off to work here in Lismore which is great.
When you come from a different country it’s not just the language, it’s also the culture and the people you know. Everything changes! At some point in my life I miss my friends and my family. I miss those moments, I miss that street. I would like to go there and stare at the trees and the buildings. I have no family here but I have a lot of paragliding friends which is pretty good. I feel very lucky.”
Thanks to SBS for this little doco on Pedram.