bill shatner and grant romundt

Editor's Note: The outing on which this report is based took place prior to the death of William Shatner's wife, Nerine Kidd Shatner.

By Melissa Grego

"I'm trying so hard, and I was so good at it a month ago. I don't know why I can't
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get it up," says actor William Shatner early one July morning during a break from attempting his new sport of choice.

On this day, the Rocketman himself is on a beach in Ventura, Calif., trying mightily to master the fine points of paramotoring, an untethered version of parasailing in which flight is powered by a motor harnessed to the pilot's back. The day before at a Camarillo Airport hanger, the wind was too strong for flying.

As "Star Trek's" Capt. James T. Kirk, transporting his particles into the air was simply a matter of saying, "Beam me up, Scotty." Now, being the captain of his own ship means steadying a 30-foot-long sail in the wind, then reversing course and running while wearing some 50 pounds of equipment.

Shatner wears a helmet to paramotor, and a circular bar is mounted to the backpack engine he's wearing in order to accommodate the propeller that spins across his back. It looks strangely angelic.

It's difficult to hear Shatner speak over the whirring of the motor, which sounds like a cross between a lawn mower and a helicopter. "It's a lot harder than it looks," he says. Not that it looks easy. The starting position, where a paramotorer locks in the many straps of the harness over the chest, shoulders and legs, is an extreme squat. Although it seems next to impossible to stand up without help, the 68-year-old Shatner continues to hoist himself into preflight position, one attempt after another.

"I should be horribly disappointed if I don't go up," Shatner says during the break on a small nearby hill. It's prime spectator seating for a demonstration being given by Shatner's paramotoring instructor, Grant Romundt of Florida-based Paramotor Aviation America.

Three previous successful outings place Shatner in an elite group. Romundt and local pilot Greg Anderson, who are on site to guide Shatner's mission, estimate that there are only about 15 active pilots in Southern California, where locations and conditions are among the most ideal. The decade-old sport requires open, desolate spaces like the desert or an unoccupied beach, with winds below 10 mph.

Among Southern California's pilots is Larry Hagman, with whom Shatner says he and his late wife Nerine "bonded in a trial by wind" after the two actors responded to the same Paramotor Aviation America ad in a magazine.

"Bill was very serious-minded about learning the correct techniques and showed a great deal of intensity and never gave up," Anderson says. "I think he really thoroughly enjoys the training aspect of it and was very excited to do his first solo."

Training begins with learning to steady the sail, which must be controlled by ropes in both hands as it fills with air. Once balancing the sail is mastered, a paramotorer adds to one hand a handle bearing the ignition, accelerator and kill switch for the motor. Gas tank levels are periodically checked with a mirror. Typically, paramotorers go up for about 20 minutes and can reach heights of up to 1,000 feet.

"The thrill is beyond comparison, actually stepping off the ground and flying," Shatner says. "That transition is like walking on water, and the transition back to Earth is equally startling."

As he calls it quits for the day, Shatner is able to maintain his sense of humor about how rarely he gets to fly: "I have very little down time - and very little up time, apparently."

As the group begins to stow their gear, Shatner has one of his first chances to talk without the distraction of the noisy motor or the difficult challenge of flying. This is when the aborted flying mission suddenly appears not to be a lost cause after all. Since the adventure started early in the morning, Shatner doesn't reveal the big news of the day until the noon sun shines overhead: He had received his first Emmy nomination that morning for a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun."

"How does it feel to be nominated?" he says. "Like flying."
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