Paragliding San Francisco — Attraction in San Francisco

Would give zero stars if I could. Was scheduled for a tandem ride on October 28, 2023. Mike texted the day before to ask if I could come out that day instead of the 28th because the wind would be better. Unfortunately, I couldn’t as it was a Friday and I was working. I let him know that, no response. The day of I texted and called around 9:30 am because I hadn’t received any texts and I was driving from Sacramento, so with traffic that day it was going to take 2.5 hours to get out. My appointment was at 2 pm. He told me it would be up to me. I decided to drive out. I called him around 2:45 pm to check in, asked if he could send hourly updates and he told me no, he had 30 people flying out today, so he will not be sending out personalized updates. If I don’t hear from him, the wind never picked up. Ok, fine, so I spent time around SF as waited for a text from Mike. The wind never cooperated so I never received a text. No problem. I’ve been in a hot air balloon before. I understand it all depends on the weather. The problem lies in the fact that, afterward, I never received a text, a call, email, nothing to instruct me of next steps. Do I call you, will there be an email follow up, will you be calling to reschedule? This is, in fact, a business in which a deposit has been taken, so I expect some communication. I wait until 1:15 pm the next day to call him. I say I haven’t received anything about rescheduling or refunding and ask if he planned to call or text me at all. He tells me it’s my job to call and let him know if I want to cancel or reschedule because he has 30 people that booked. Mike, you took their money, it’s YOUR job to call them, or at the very least let them know their options or how this goes on your end. The lack of communication and poor customer service is unacceptable. Then, when he refunded me has the audacity to say, “Sorry the wind didn’t cooperate.” It’s not about the wind, Mike. No one said it was. It’s about the way you run business. Paragliding is on my bucket list, but I’ll go to another establishment or even go without for however long I need to before I book...

The whole experience was just awesome, almost surreal, and Mike is just the perfect guide and pilot!

Let's start from the beginning, the booking: I texted Mike really short notice as I wanted to give my wife this flight as birthday gift. One text on Saturday, and after few minutes he got back to me and everything was arranged for Sunday! Actually, my wife wanted me flying as well, so Mike had no problems finding the way to accomodate both of us! He is really flexible when not fully booked! The day of the flight we had uncertain weather so we kept texting for last minutes updates, and no need to say he knows exactly the best flight conditions, so gave us top confidence that we'd fly on the best conditions. So my wife flew right away as we arrived. Then we had to wait a little for the conditions to get better for my flight and he had no problem waiting until they were perfect! Flying is not scary at all due to Mike's professionality: the process starts with a short overview of the equipment and explanations of what will happen. Then take off, flight and landing were flawless for both of us! We flew from Mussel Rock, and this spot is really gorgeous, the views were really stunning. Mike explains every step, and during the flight there is a lot of interaction. We had a ton of fun. Flying is relaxing and exciting at the same time, and he can modulate between the two if you ask :) The flight lasts nearly 30 minutes, but I had the feeling he kept flying for us as we never had enough! So, bottom line, we can't imagine not being 200% happy after such...

My flight person was Mike. Being up in the air was a lot of fun and we did some nice twists and such. But I went with my mom who took off about 12 minutes before I did (my instructor was with someone in the air when I arrived) and yet I still landed at about the same time as her. The website promises 20-30 minutes of flight time and I only was on the air for 17 minutes. It was also rather difficult to get a hold of someone during the week to clarify how to book with a gift certificate, we didn’t hear back until 3 attempts to contact. All in all for the cost of $180 I didn’t feel it was worth the experience for so little air time. I will say Mike was kind enough to take some selfies on his phone of me in the air and share them with me even though I didn’t choose the GoPro experience, which was appreciated.

Update: changed from 3 stars to 5 star. Mike reached out very promptly to clear a misunderstanding of communication while in the air and offered to take me up again at no charge. I ended up not being able to go before the season ended so he gave me a gift certificate for next season. Wonderful...