User:Stef Juncker Parapax/sandbox

Stef Juncker Wikipedia page Stef (Stephane) Juncker is a Belgian born entrepreneur, entertainer and sportsman, Born 11 February 1971. His mother is Flemish and father Walloon (French part of Belgium).The family immigrated to South Africa when Stef was 6 months old. He is the second of three sons, each born around a year apart.

Matriculating from Hyde Park High School in Johannesburg in 1988, he attended the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) for the next five years, graduating in 1993 with a BSc in Botany and Geology followed by studies toward BCom in Languages, Economics and Business Economics through Unisa.

Stef traveled to over 20 countries as a child, and started traveling seriously after his graduation and has currently visited around 100 countries on 6 continents. In 2019 he travelled to 26 countries, without chasing numbers!

He speaks 6 languages fluently- English, Afrikaans, French, Dutch, Spanish and German. Stef became a clown on a recommendation. He learned magic, fire juggling, unicycling, stilt walking and balloon modelling. He also got into (or out of) escapology – escaping from a straight jacket while blindfolded and hanging upside down from a burning rope above broken glass and did the famous Houdini mailbag escape which involved being blindfolded, handcuffed, locked into a mailbag and totally immersed into a barrel of water for up to 3 minutes.

Stef then started and managed the StefAndFriends entertainment agency for 10 years. The agency specialized in children’s entertainers, with 53 functions entertainment organised on its busiest day.

He then developed a Hypnosis show: “Dr Stef’s Sidesplitting Hypnosis”. His Master of Ceremony work and corporate motivational talks also developed at that stage. The hypnosis show is the top selling solo artist show at the South African National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, where he has had sucess for the last 24 years. He has also performed to record audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

His motivational talk, “The Brighter Side of Life” relates the use of hypnosis techniques (self- and others) to help executives attain success in professional spheres as well as assisting people in dealing with problems in their personal live. His skills as hypnotherapist are also used to help people give up smoking, lose weight and deal with traumas, phobias and relationship difficulties.

Parapax is Africas original and largest tandem paragliding business which Stef started in 1999, after working for a season in Austria. This today is his main source of income, employing over 10 pilots and a staff contingent of upto 30 people. Operating from Signal hill and Lions head in Cape Town, his home city. He has over 17 000 accident free flights. Podcasts ( Staying Alive in Paragliding on Spotify ) and international paragliding competitions keep him busy. He has been South African champion in paraglider pilot and features in the world circuit.

Stef is an avid Art collector, investing in South African Masters.

His interests include reading non-fiction, good films, museums of all kinds, art, healthy living, travel, paragliding, extreme kitesurfing, mountain biking and the outdoors.