Malibu Paragliding & Paramotor

This business and Claude is very dangerous. No preparation, coaching or safety plans. You are taken up a windy Malibu road around 3,000 feet and enter into an unmarked area with satellite and cell towers. No signage. You are then guided to shimmy through a narrow gap between a fence post and cement platform onto the sandy, slanted side of a mountain. You then must walk on a thin, sandy, slanted path without any guide wires or support. (Claude had run ahead.) Finally, after about a fifty foot walk, you stop at a non-​descript, narrow, slanted spot on the side of a cliff. You’re then clipped to the parachute w/​Claude and all of sudden Claude yells to run… basically jumping off the side of a mountain. There is no platform nor insurance claims nor preparation. Not for the faint of heart. To call a spade a spade, this is base jumping… one of the most dangerous forms of parachuting.
NEGATIVE FIVE STARS

Got this paragliding flight as a gift, and was totally excited about it! Just did my flight yesterday afternoon and I must say it was quite an experience, a GOOD one. Claude was so friendly, supper relaxed, and very professional. This is to say the least. He has such a talent to make one feel at total ease when you’re actually about to throw yourself off of a mountain! Haha I mean who can do that?! Not everyone. I mean of course I freaked out a little at first, but claude assured me so well that once I took the first step into the altitude of 3000 feet off the ground I felt supper relaxed and enjoyed my view of the flight. It was a very comfortable flight, easy going, and fun all over. He knows exactly what he is doing and if you have ever considered this but are skeptical like I was at first because of safety and what not, you have nothing to worry about with claude but to enjoy your ride. I reccomend you not to eat before your flight and to have some water with you. You can also take your phone with you to record your adventure, there is a pocket on your side and once you’re in the air, it is safe to take that out and record for memories.
Thanks claude!

Went paragliding today with hubby. Got deal for tandem paragliding through Groupon. Our first time…
What I loved:
— View from Saddle Peak is amazing, beautiful, clear!!!
— 20 – 30 minute «ride»
— Smooth ride all the way down, totally feel one with nature :)
— Not scary taking off from cliff — for those who are not adrenaline junkies, this is perfect for you.
— Beach landing is awesome!!!
— Nice instructor, serious about safety
What would’ve been nice to know beforehand and some tips if going for the first time:
— Meeting expectations, address on Groupon was an apartment building address. Initially we were confused…
— We drove to take off site in our car
— Road is very winding, be prepared if you are prone to motion sickness, bring a barf bag
— Once you get to the top, you walk to take off site, be prepared to slide on sloping mountain. Grab gate if you need help balancing.
— If you have a helmet camera, bring it.
— How to properly land… when you touch down on the beach, keep moving. Do not just stand there.
— Groupon made it sound like video was included, but reality was your loved one videos you from a nearby tower
— Be sure to go with a friend, so they can pick you up at the beach
— If wind conditions are not good, you’ll most likely go paramotoring from the beach or drive to another jump site
Would definitely do this again!!!

Crazy foggy until noon so Claude suggested we fly off the canyons in Thousand Oaks. A bit of a ride but we got there and my friend (65 yr old grandma) had fun and loved it!
Then I flew after lunch from top of Malibu Canyon down to the beach, landing next to sunbathers. Great view, awesome fun! Not scary at all and low impact on the body.
I’ve done skydiving, hang gliding, scuba diving, and parasailing before. I would say, logistics notwithstanding, this is a great experience!

well i’d go 2.5 stars, claude was flexible on the day/​time for scheduling but is hard to get a hold of, has multiple numbers and looks like has two sites or changed his website. do not book it through
, they suck ripoff, just go to his site direct.
when it came to flight day he changed time a couple hours which sucked but maybe due to wind i’m not sure. anyway flight was great, smooth all the way and great location to land on beach in malibu. just be prepared for long winding road up to launch site and back up to get ur car unless someone is with u and drives it back down. plan on half a day not a couple hours. and for any paragliding u may get sick, it’s smooth but there is up and down and u lose ur sense of normal balance.

Made an appointment w/​Claude 3 days prior to «launch day». He followed up very quickly, and was very informative and helpful. I chose the Mountain Launch. Met him in Malibu at the beach entrance near the address he has posted. He explained the weather patterns and the need to be patient as the wind/​temps reached ideal levels. I think it is important to note, that for the mountain launch you should be patient and remember that you are at the mercy of mother nature. The flight was 25 minutes and was beautiful. I really enjoyed my flight. Also, be aware that you will need to drive up to the launch site which consists of a few narrow and curvy spots, so bring a car conducive to this environment. Had a blast.

As a student of Claude, with only four lessons under my belt I have to say I’m quite surprised about some of Claude’s negative reviews.
From my experience Claude is an amazing and professional instructor. He is big on safety, a good communicator and unlike me, he has always been on time. Being a kitesurfer, i understand that winds constantly change and that in order to safely paraglide, you are at the mercy of these conditions. Therefore the one time we were unable to fly at the specified location, Claude volunteered to drive around to the north side of Malibu and try to fly there. After 1 hour of exploring different hills and waiting for the wind, it was deemed ultimately impossible for our own safety and we aborted the mission.
One has to understand that those days spent chasing the right wind and launch spot are not only part of the sport and experience, but also cost Claude time and $ so my advice is to those that are serious about learning to paraglide do not hesitate to use him. To those that expect a concrete launch time, with a concrete flight time over a concrete spot please understand that paragliding is not golf with set tee-​times and courses.
As far as the crash landing guy, and not to defend anyone, that must have been the most exciting thing of your life. Emergency landing a paraglider into a field?! how many times have you told that story?! Awesome!!! haha. ;-)

My friend and I surprised another friend with a day of powered paragliding. Claude was laid back and fun to be with. He made you feel 100% safe about the whole experience. I plan on taking friends and family back to him soon. We did have to do a little bit of waiting due to the wind conditions, but I appreciate that Claude waited instead of trying to force something. It was a fun experience.

A friend treated me to a flight for my birthday and it was spectacular. Claude met us in Malibu, explained the routine and we were off! The flight was easy and the view was memorable; it seemed as if it lasted forever. We glided across two beaches and over amazing houses. After the flight we learned that Claude was actually the engineer for the motor device which made me feel even safer. I’d highly recommend Malibu Powered Paragliding to anyone!

Awesome Experience. Was well taken care of with friendly service. My mom took flight as well. She had a blast!!! An adventure she’ll never forget.
I look forward to my next ride!

So I’m not sure why I couldn’t find this review on Unilocal when I was looking awhile back. Somehow through googling this company I was able to find it. You can’t just search for it on Unilocal — sketchy.
HORRIBLE! I have never experience such awful customer service! When I sent him an e-​mail asking how to go about redeeming a gift certificate he replied «pick a date». That was the WHOLE e-​mail. It was a little concerning but I didn’t give up since my friends pay for me already. I finally was able to work out a day to come and was surprised to find that the night before my FRIEND e-​mails to tell me that the winds are rough and we can’t go. Hmmm… why is Claude e-​mailing my friend and not me… considering I set up the appointment I feel that I should also be e-​mail regarding what is happening. Anyway, I called Claude the next day and we set up an appointment for the day after. In the morning of out new appointment day I left him a message checking on the weather to make sure we were good. He TEXTED back and said «how about 2pm?». We had agreed on 12:30pm the day before so I was surprised at him changing my time AND because the winds pick up later in the day I was worried we wouldn’t get to go. I said we would be at the beach at 12:30 to hang out and to find us when he got there. We wait until 2:45 when he lands with another customer and then says the winds are too bad so it’s not safe to go. At this point I’m fine with that because I don’t want him to get any money from us. He NEVER ONCE apologized for any of the inconvenience of him changing our time or being late. I’m amazed that this guy is still in business!!!

This guy is incredibly irresponsible, and on the edge of almost being a con artist, in my opinion.
SHORT VERSION: Claude made me wait through other people even though we made an appointment, and RAN OUT OF GAS MID-​AIR, had to do a crash emergency landing and made me walk 2 miles back to the beach. Then demanded that I pay full price.
LONG VERSION: my friend and I showed up when/​where Claude asked us to, only to find out that he was meeting 2 other people at the same time, so we had to wait TWO hours while he sailed off with them first.
Eventually when it was my turn, it was dusk and he had sailed with three other people. MID-​AIR, we have this conversation:
C: Uh-​oh.
Me: What?
C: We ran out of gas.
Me: Uh, what?
C: We’re gonna have to make an emergency landing.
I kept thinking he was kidding, but he wasn’t. We had to land in a dirt field, 2 miles from where my friend was waiting for me. He made me drag his huge engine and the parachute halfway across this field to hide it. He got mad at me when I didn’t have my phone on me to call my friend, and then made me WALK BACK to the beach. When I asked for a discount since he 1) cut my trip in half 2) made me walk 1 – 2 miles 3) made me land in a hard, dirt field and 4) gave me an overall bad experience, he could not understand the reason I was asking for one. Never once apologized.
Don’t ever do business with this guy.

Claude was a great instructor. He was good with answering my questions via email and by phone. I was upset that I had paid for 30 mins airtime and my bf only ended up getting 8?
Uh, yeah not cool. He should have offered to return some money back. We didn’t even get the 15 min fly time since the winds were not cooperating.

RUINED BIRTHDAY!!! I had planned WEEKS in advance for my bf’s birthday and repeatedly called to confirm our 1pm appointment– the day before our scheduled flight he basically was clueless and didnt remember our appointment and then asked that i come 3 hours later. Although i was pissed i also wanted this to be my bfs birthday gift so we arrived at 3pm on his birthday in malibu (over an hour away from where we live) we got there and waited around for another 1 ½ hours as he «finished» with his class– 2 ½ hour later he says we’re driving to another location– when we get there he bullshits us and is talking about wind and crap and i tell him I KNEW this would happen becuase ive paraglided before– SO 3 hours later and another hour drive back all on my boyfriends birthday and NO paragliding and he didnt even make an attempt to remedy the situation by offering a discount if i wanted to come back. SO SCREW CLAUDE!!! HE SUCKS!!! PAY the extra $ 20 and go to a better company this was a horrible experience!!!
just thought i’d supplement someone elses review with this proof of his shotty buisness– SCARY stuff! and yes– this guy deserves a 0 rating (or a negative rating better yet)