A PARAGLIDING company which lost £70,000 after the foot-and-mouth crisis is bouncing back with a new idea.

Paraventure Extreme Sports, which is based in Abergavenny, is starting a new business - that of tethered flying which does not have to rely on wind, unlike paragliding.

"It is called SKYFLY for short and is a kite-based sport which can be used in any conditions as well as being used as a paraglide simulator," said owner Paul Williams. "We are the first in Britain to have this and we hope to have it up and running soon."

The Station Road firm has been established for the past ten years, but since the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001, business has been slow. Only a month ago former British Aerospace engineer Mr Williams was seriously thinking of quitting the company's offices and working from home.

But he decided to carry on there after a surge of interest from his clients. Mr Williams said: "Business had really taken off and then came foot-and-mouth and stopped us in our tracks.

"We are trying to recover from a loss of more than £70,000 and to be fair our landlords and the bank have been marvellous.

"We used to sell a lot of equipment, up to forty packages a year each costing upwards of £3,000.

"Last year we sold only four. We don't make any money from the actual training packages so when we virtually had to close down because of the ban on our movements it hit us really hard and I had to lay off six people."