The first weekend of December saw the skies of Tenerife filled with colourful paragliders as the island hosted an international competition.

Several parts of the island provide perfect conditions for paragliding, with steep slopes generating warm thermal uplifts of air and a choice of safe take-off and landing locations for both experts and beginners.

The event was called the 2nd Open Taucho 2009 and the competition headquarters were at Adeje in the south west of Tenerife. On each day of the competition, which ran between the 5th and 8th of December, the paragliders took off from an inland location near Las Moraditas in Taucho at around 11am. The paragliders were challenged to complete a cross country flight before landing near the coast at Caleta. Tenerife also has other locations favoured by paragliders such as Socorro beach in the north of the island.

Earlier this year a Spanish paraglider attempted to set a new world record for a powered distance flight setting off from Tenerife heading for Jerez in Mainland Spain but weather conditions ruined the attempt. Ramon Morillas was famous for his record breaking attempts and already held the world distance record for a flight of 686 miles from Jerez, near Cadiz in Spain to Lanzarote in 2007.

He recently set a new high altitude record of 7821m breaking his own 2006 record of 6,102m. The British adventurer Bear Grylls attempted to set a powered hang glider altitude record in 2007 and claimed to have reached a height of 8990m during a flight in the Himalayas although the evidence of the record attempt was not sufficient to satisfy officials and his figure did not count as a new record.

Other favourite paragliding locations in Tenerife include the Valle de San Lorenzo, Sauzal in the north west and a route taking off from Oratava and landing on the beach at Puerto de la Cruz.

FlyThomascook.com provides a full schedule of flights to Tenerife throughout the winter period.