When you ask him about the Red Bull Air Force, Chris Santacroce always smiles. "We were the bandito marketing group for Red Bull long before [the company] had other teams - soccer and racing and such," he grins.

Chris is one of the Red Bull Air Force's founding members. He's one of the original "chosen," pulling off Red Bull's signature feats since its earliest days (as a paraglider, BASE jumper, paragliding paramotor pilot, and ultralight trike pilot among other pursuits), promoting the drink to near-mythical status and forever changing the landscape of airsports.

Chris and a few of the other originals are coming up on ten incredible years with the RBAF. In that decade, they've logged a couple dozen Red Bull events per year as well as a full contingent of special projects (like this year's paramotor distance record in Texas). They've hiked and flown across the Andes, flown a paraglider across the Grand Canyon - pretty much anything you can think of doing under a wing, they've done. (Sometimes, if they're feeling daring, they'll even brave the insanity of a Flugtag event.) That all-out pace is perfect for an athlete of Chris's sensibilities - he's committed to the history he's making. Paragliding will never be the same.