Parasail Catalina

Good place with good value for money. My birthday was on Tuesday and we decided to celebrate 3 days earlier and went there early Saturday morning. Someone checked us in real fast and asked to wait by the dock which is right across their tiny establishment. Boat was clean and had music on it and 2 guys who worked (I think one of them was named Kyle, forgot the other guy’s name) were total pro. We were out in the ocean in no time, with water slightly choppy, ride was bumpy. There were 6 of us on the boat, 2 girls who went out first, then came our turn. View from 800 feet is fun and exhilarating. Nothing to be afraid of. My BF took GoPro up there with us and fooled around the whole time, the harness didn’t budge an inch. While coming down they drag your feet through the water which was fun. Didn’t get wet at all. They charge $ 20 extra for photos and give you SD card full of pictures. Ours were nice, just wish there was little bit of sun.
Girl tip: Do not wear dress of jumpsuit or skirt etc. One of the girl on the boat was wearing a dress, and while wearing the harness her dress was lifted. How embarrassing!!!

Justin and James are two of the most professional parasailing guides one could hope for. They were efficient while also being personable. They really made the experience have a maximum fun value while also keeping everybody safe. My wife and I enjoyed our experience sailing up to 800 ft. It was incredibly peaceful once we were up. We would definitely do it again. Thanks!

Horrible customer service. Short flight time. Very rude to me and my parents. Tried to trick us into shirt flights. Look for other options for parasailing in catalina. Would have given negative stars if possible.

This was one of the best experiences my husband and I had on our honeymoon at Avalon. We had reserved the morning 10 am slot for a 600 feet Para sail along with the photo package. I was really frightened prior to the adventure. The staff at the counter was very friendly. We waited until the rest of the Para sailors arrived at the gate. The captain of the boat came to pick us up at the right time. They started playing songs on the boat. That kinda relieved the anxiety. The rest of the Para sail was very smooth. Lasted for about 8 mins with some great views. The boat ride is enjoyable too. And no, they did not ask us for tips unlike mentioned in most of the other reviews. But we still did tip them for providing us with a safe and enjoyable experience.

I had a lot of fun during my parasailing trip today.
They allowed me on the boat.
A golden retriever. Not recommended for dogs that get seasick.
My human companions had a blast.

I had an amazing experience with Dave and Ryan on my first parasailing adventure! They are funny and kind and made the nerve wracking experience a fun and easy one. They were playing music and making jokes and seem to truly love what they do. Those are the guys you want to take you parasailing… you’ll have an forgettable experience! Be sure to tip. These guys work hard and earn it!
Booking was easy. Staff is super friendly.
Thanks guys!!!

We had a wonderful experience yesterday!
We went for my husband’s birthday in January. He was free with my purchase of an 800 ft flight. We checked in about 30 minutes before and had plenty of time to figure out where we were supposed to go. The entire staff was incredibly helpful, and the two guys on our boat were great. We’ve been parasailing before so we opted out of buying the photo package. We took our own camera up with us (we didn’t get wet at all– totally worth it!) and got some great selfies from the air!
We decided to go just one day before. I called the two major parasailing companies in Avalon on Friday night (we went Saturday), hoping to catch someone. Both were closed and didn’t have the option to leave a voicemail. This company called us back about an hour later (7pm) because they saw our missed call. We were impressed with their customer service and were excited to book!

If there was a chance for zero stars, that is what I would rate. First, I booked my reservation online and received a confirmation email with the price and location. One hour prior to the trip, I received a call from the company. An in rude rude woman told me that since I input multiple discount codes, I have to choose only one promotion. I asked her why the system allowed multiple codes to be input if this is a problem. Her statement was that it is stated on the site that you cannot use multiple discount codes. I checked, in a bright orange font, nearly impossible to read from a phone, it is stated. I asked her to meet me halfway, since they contacted me last minute about the change in reservations. She refused, told me that the confirmation email also stated that multiple discount codes were subject to change. Who reads the confirmation email? I get an email that says on the subject that tickets are confirmed, I feel confident that my plans are on track. At this point she is becoming verbally abusive over the phone, so I decide to walk over to her location. As I walk there, I get an email stating that my total went from 155 dollars to 321 dollars. She removed all discounts, even the birthday discount for my sister in law. I tell her that I do not like her business practices, and that I intend to cancel. She informs me that I will be hit with a charge for last minute cancellation. I informed her that I will be contacting the chamber of commerce, she told me that it will not go anywhere. She then told me «if you can not afford Catalina island, you should go home». She was a stout, rude, overtanned woman. I will not ever recommend or give my business to this company.

My daughter’s and I (12 and 14) went parasailing on our last day before we left to go home. We had a great experience. We all went together and ended up being first. We didn’t really know what to expect because we didn’t watch anyone else, but it was nice to go first because we didn’t have time to get nervous. The guys were very professional and did a great job on the boat. We got one flight for free because we were celebrating my daughter’s birthday. It was our favorite experience on the island! We’d love to do it again sometime.

such an amazing and beautiful experience. I was nervous about going up so high at first but Dave and Ryan made me and my family feel comfortable and have a fun experience. Dave especially was funny. I will definitely come back when I am back on the island! Go Go Go!

Let me start off by saying that this was my first experience parasailing, and the flight itself is incredible, exhilarating, and if you come to Catalina, shouldn’t be missed. Then why the 1-​star review? The company is run by shady people who care about nothing more than scamming a few bucks off of unsuspecting tourists, knowing they don’t have much recourse as they’ll be leaving the island within a couple of days. To summarize my long review, they charge full price and don’t even give you half of what you pay for. If you’re interested in the whole story, continue reading.
I had read multiple reviews about the company before going to Catalina, and thought I’d avoid it since the reviews were peppered with negative comments and the gripes were consistently about the same thing — false advertising and shortchanging their customers.
But we ran out of things to do on our last day there, so decided to just go for it. $ 75 per person? Seems steep. But they offered their $ 10 «discount» for the 800′ flight, making it equivalent to the 600′ cost. Keep in mind, you have absolutely no way of knowing the difference between 600′ and 800′, so this «discount» is a gimmick as well. I made certain to ask the proprietor (can’t remember her name, but she’s a surly, self-​absorbed middle-​aged woman, or perhaps an early-30’s woman who’s seen a few too many hours in the sun) exactly how long the flight would be before purchasing. She assured me that it would be 10 minutes. TEN. As in, one more than 9. X in Roman numerals, 1010, if you speak binary, diez in Spanish. I asked her twice, just to be sure.
Feeling comfortable that we’d get a good value for our money, we said «screw you, negative Unilocal reviews and our better judgment — let’s do it.»
The crew handled the flights smoothly, the playlist was great, and the weather and water were picture-​perfect. But as others had mentioned, the constant fluttering of the dollar bills that was unabashedly and shamelessly taped to the boat right above one of their multiple «tips welcomed :)» signs served as a classless reminder of the unscrupulous nature of the enterprise you’re supporting.
Our gopro died 30 seconds before it was our turn to take flight. Sucks. But the crew offered a photo package where they’d take pictures from the boat. Cool. For $ 30. What? Oh, but don’t worry — for that price, you get your pictures and an ancient historical artifact — a 128MB SD card.
Our turn came up, we took off, and I glanced at my watch. There’s no way to describe the feeling of being up there — there’s nothing else like it. Upon descent, the captain lowered our feet into the water before reeling us in — that was fun. They removed our harnesses and we settled back into our seats. I checked my watch again — 4 minutes, 48 seconds. Including the time it took get us unhooked. Wow.
When we docked, the crew again unapologetically reminded us that $ 65 for 4 minutes of flight wasn’t enough, and that we should give them more money. Thankfully, everyone ignored them. Then it came time to pay the extra money for the photo package. I had two 20s in my wallet and handed it to one of the guys, expecting $ 10 change. Instead I got an «uh, thanks» in a sarcastic tone. He put the $ 40 in his pocket and turned to talk to the captain.
We decided to take it up with the woman at the office, who had been pretty nice up until this point. I complained that the flight was only 4 minutes long when she promised us 10 minutes. She called the captain over and asked him how long we were in flight, as they claim to record the times. He said 5 minutes. The dismissive, condescending look she gave me as if she had proven something coupled with «You said it was 4 minutes. Well, it wasn’t», says everything you need to know about this company. The captain sits down in a chair, kicks his feet up on a table and watches tv, as if rewarding himself for a job well done.
After a few minutes of politely restrained arguing as you would with a painfully uninformed 5 year old, we were offered a go-​away prize of a buy 1 get 1 free coupon for our next flight, with an expiration date of two months. Seeing as we weren’t getting anywhere beyond that, we left. Thank goodness for Unilocal.
As stated at the beginning, the flight was amazing. There’s no feeling like it, and if you haven’t done it before, do it. Just not with this company.

So I’m changing my 3 star review to a 4 star review. Gracie tried REALLY hard to get my SD card back from whoever received it but was unsuccessful. I’m adding the star because I really really appreciate how hard she tried & she was able to give me a refund for the photopackage. I completely understand how easy a mix up can happen and I don’t want to give them a bad review because of one small (but admittedly easily preventable mistake) because the rest of the experience was amazing! So thank you again for trying Gracie, and thank you for the quick refund!

We loved our experience with Parasail Catalina. We stopped at Avalon, Catalina during one of the days of our Carnival Cruise and booked this in advance.
Our cruise had some delays with one of the boats that takes you from the ship to the island and we were worried we were going to miss our reservation for parasailing. We explained our conundrum to the people we booked the parasailing with and they still honored our reservation and were really nice about it. No problems at all.
Neither myself nor my boyfriend had ever been parasailing and we had the most amazing time. It was such a cool experience flying off the boat and being so high up in the air. We had such an incredible view and it is so quiet once you are high up in the sky, which I didn’t expect!
The guys who worked on the boat did a great job and they were super fun. They also offered a photo package for $ 30 which we took advantage of. I’m so glad we did, the pictures turned out great.
This is definitely something that will help make your vacation even more memorable.

We had a blast parasailing off the coast of Avalon on Catalina Island!
Reserving our trip was easy. Note: They do not charge your card until you arrive. You should check-​in about 30 mins ahead of time. We opted for the 800 foot one. There’s also a 600 foot one, which is cheaper. Tip: You get a free flight, with a purchase of another one, for your birthday. And, bonus, they don’t require it to be your actual birthday. As my bday is the day after labor day weekend, it, of course, wasn’t my actual bday — but it was my bday vacation trip.
We checked in and filled out the waivers easily. Staff were friendly and nice. We were told to be back 15 mins before our departure. We arrived back right on time, but were informed by another staffer that the group had already left for the dock. This made me extremely anxious an nervous. We literally ran for the dock. If you miss your boat, you do NOT get a refund. But, thankfully, we arrived with plenty of time — our group hadn’t even boarded the boat yet. But really wish the staffer had told us we were ok and didn’t need to run for it.
Tip: Do not believe the website — you WILL get wet. Now, you do not have to get wet during the actual parasail if you don’t want to (they will dip your feet — and possibly splash your legs — if you want to on your landing). However, the boat trip itself can cause a lot of spray and splash. Be prepared and ok with getting wet while out there. (Personally, we didn’t care as we had just come from snorkeling. And it was fun!)
There were 4 other groups of 2 – 3 people with us on our trip. They take you out in groups according to the foot level you purchased (600 or 800). I don’t know if the height made much of a difference, but as I’d been parasailing before at a shorter height, I wanted to go as high was possible.
Our two guides /​drivers /​staff were wonderful. Good instruction and assistance. Good convo with the passengers. And good warning for when we would get wet. They even took the expensive purses and put them in a cupboard so they wouldn’t get wet.
The boat ride itself was quite exciting. Speed and splashing! I enjoyed it a lot. The parasailing itself is easy. I got a bit of a stomach drop on take off, but it was smooth and easy after. And beautiful — not scary at all. The boat ride is much more intense than being up in the air. You don’t feel the speed at all when you are up there. It’s a pretty ocean view. I’m def glad we did it.
You can do up to 3 people at a time on one parasail. There were 2 groups with a kid on the boat with us. The kids loved it. One was scared at first and didn’t want to go, but upon landing, he demanded to go again. Definitely a fun thing to do for the entire family.
It was relatively quick, but we didn’t feel shortchanged or anything. It was adequate time and a great experience. All in all, you should do this!

A bit peeved with the reservation process, booked a 3:30 slot but was called about an hour prior to ask if I can make the 3pm instead, otherwise, i’ll have to take the 5pm. Didn’t really give me a clear answer as to why the sudden gap. But since we were free and was able to make it there in time, we took the 3pm slot.
Just like everyone else said, you are only up in the air for about 5 minutes and the overall boat time will vary depending on the number of groups you have with you. I must say that the experience was much better because of the group that we were a part of, which is out of your control. We had a rowdy and fun group so the entire ride out and back was fun and exciting as we cheered each other on and took pictures and video for each other.
For someone who has never been parasailing and would like a nice quiet and serene view of Catalina Island, I would highly recommend doing this at least once.

Do not buy the photo package!!! We purchased the photos expecting high quality pictures like they have mentioned on their website, but got extremely small and pixelated photos. When we contacted them about this, they were very helpful and said we would receive a refund once we sent it back, BUT once they received the card they called and refused to give us a refund. This employee was very rude and disregarded what we had already been told. It was very upsetting that the employees were on different pages.
The actual parasailing was very fun, it was shorter than what we were told when we called (only about 5 minutes in the air), but the guys on the boat were very nice and professional.
If I hadn’t bought the photo package I would be a lot happier.

It was my first time parasailing with my hubby and it was a great experience!
Sadly, my gopro battery died right before we headed out so we purchased the photo package. For $ 30, the quality wasn’t that great. about 9 out of 20 pics were out of focus and the parasail was cut off in half of the pics. The flight time was extremely short, it would’ve been nice to stay up longer and enjoy the awesome view.
Reserve online and get $ 10 off the 800ft flight!

I chose them to parasail with for my birthday and it was the best decision I have ever made. For starters they offered a buy one, get one free on your birthday and it worked out perfectly. We did the 800 ft. and bought the Go Pro package. Which I highly recommend, you can take awesome videos then crop still images after. Our instructors were amazing too. I was a little worried due to the other reviews on «tip pushers» but our guys only said it once and at the end. Which was rightfully so, they did a good job and new it! The ladies at the business front were also very accommodating and polite. Everyone just made our experience fun and exciting. I will definitely be coming back just to parasail with this company!

Check in went smooth.
Boat ride out was rough! Lots of movement and of course my nerves. I had actually chickened out and was just going to sit it out. BUT after seeing the first couple come back calm as a bomb and confirming with them that it wasn’t scary, then seeing the next pre-​teens leave shaky and come back equally as calm… I said screw it.
I had an amazing time and the moment we were lifted off the boat, I immediately realized how bad ass and un-​scary it was! I swear it was less scary and less cold than being on the rough boat ride.
We all had a blast & can’t wait to do it again.
I seriously could have done without the constant «tip us» reminder from the guys on the boat though. They couldn’t have been any more obvious, times 4! I had noticed the big script saying gratuity appreciated right beneath the steering where the driver gives you tips and instructions (you’re reading it the whole time!) Then there’s twenties taped above that (suggested tip? amirite?!) then finally as we are driving back into the harbor the loud question, did you all have fun?! YEAH! Did we do a good job?! Sure! Well tips are very welcome then!
Come on guys. Not very tactful.
Then come the tshirt sales pitch…$ 10 ea, so not bad, right? So I tell the driver I’ll take one in a small. When we arrive I walk towards him with a $ 20…he snatches that sh*t so quickly from me and says thanks! Umm, that was for the tee presumptuous… not gonna cuss here… but yea. I had to tell him it was for the tee and he could keep the rest.
I had my $ 20 ready to tip before the tshirts but I don’t like being told, pushed and pressed in numerous ways. So I got my son the tee and dropped their tip to $ 10.
Other than that, loved this adventure and doing business with em.

I came here with few family members. The staff was courteous enough to bring to our attention that there was a special $ 50 per person for the 800ft.
They were all very helpful explaining the process and they have Tv’s with videos showing how they do it. The two gentlemen on the boat were polite and they made sure we felt safe at all times.
Parasailing was amazing, so relaxing and really fun! They have good music going on, which puts us on the island move.
You can do the optional dip in the water, which I recommend. We opt to have our feet dipped in the water at the end of our parasail. We had a blast!
The water wasn’t as cold as I imagined.
We purchase the photo package and they were able to capture our entire group in one sd card.
I highly recommend parasailing in Catalina and Parasail Catalina made the experience worth coming back once more for sure.