WWW.Paragliders.com for information on learning to fly. WWW.AdventureToyStore.com to see some of our toys
12665 Minuteman Drive Suite 1
Draper, UT 84020 • USA
Here is a bit more about Cloud 9 / Adventure Toy Store and some of what makes us the largest and most recognized flight school in North America.
1. Cloud 9's biggest advantage is we have multiple instructors. We have 5 full time guys and several part time instructors. That is huge. Most other schools are one man shows, and if they get busy, can hire part time help but honestly we feel bad when we see out of town guests come and their instructor can't work one evening because he has kids, or doesn't teach on Sundays, or happens to go flying that day and just never shows up. We are the nations largest PG school by a large margin and specialize in teaching you from the ground up at your pace. With so many instructors, we can move some folks faster and if there are other students not picking things up as fast, they can be with other instructors.
2. We keep class size super small. We shoot for 2 students to one instructor. This is huge, if we have 3 students, we use 2 instructors, again, the other guys will have as many as 4 students at different levels and they are scrambling around to make it work.
3. We have a shop. We are Utah's only Paragliding Retail Shop. A place to hang out, watch video's, meet other pilots, kill time between flying. The new layout opens everything up and lets you browse our massive inventory of PG/Speed Flying gear. The upstairs is a dedicated school room for learning and open discussions.
4. We have a dedicated work truck. We shuttle you up and down the hill and on busy days we have a driver doing the driving, so as soon as you land, there is a truck to pick you up and get you back up the hill. Other schools send off their guys, then go to their truck, drive down, pick them up and drive up. We often get 2X as many flights in with Cloud 9 as others.
5. We are the US importers for some of the worlds leading brands of gear. We are the ones selling the gear to the other schools, so our students get great savings on gear. We also have a huge selection in stock and ready to demo and test fly. With so many wings, you get a chance to fly a lot of different gear. Right now Ozone is the world leader in the PG industry hands down, www.flyozone.com and we are Ozone. That's huge for us :) Also we import SupAir www.supair.com for harnesses and SOL for wings, reserves and other accessories www.solsports.com.br.
6. We are good...damn good in fact :) Steve has taught and certified more P2's than any U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding association (our governing body) than any instructor in the history of the organization, We also have many other instructors that we utilize as we can. We also have Jason and Justin White (The White Brothers) as full time instructors when they two aren’t out tearing up the sky with their acro high energy push the limits flying.
7. We are all P5, Master rated pilots, PPG Administrators, Tandem 3, Steve was on the board of directors for 7 years, president of the local club, etc... Really important so if conditions are too strong for students, we can fly you tandem.
8. We are the speed flying guys. Cloud 9 brought the sport to the USA and really the only true center for learning and demoing gear. What's special about this is we have a huge pile of "mini" wings. So if it's too strong to fly, we have smaller wings to kite. This can speed up your training and learning by leaps and bounds. Schools without these tools miss hours of quality training time. Also for those looking to merge into this exciting offshoot of our sport, we can make that happen very easily.
9. Prices. We charge a fair price. Our Express P2 Certification Courses start every Saturday and runs 10 days ($1095). This gives us time to get the training done and account for a couple bad weather days during your time here. Our NOVICE P2 Certification is a set your own schedule and come out on days that work for you ($1395). Both of our courses include your P3, P4 and P5 as you grow and develop in the sport. We encourage our students to return for more brush up's and never charge for our time at the Point after you are done with the basic P2. Once you finish the formal training (P2), there is always more to learn. We are here and encourage you to take advantage of us to work on more advanced skills, thermal flying, soaring in strong air, dealing with traffic, rides up and down the hill etc. Also our students get $500 off a new PG gear package and then receive ongoing "student prices" on gear for life. Once your part of the Cloud 9 Team, we take great care of you :) Our students also are listed in our system to receive their special "student" price on our huge webstore.
10. Mini Wing Ratings. Now with the new additional ratings of M1 and M2 that encompass all speed wings, mini paragliders and Hybrids we offer your certification here. If you have no experience on mini wings but have your P2 we can usually get you to your M1 in 2-4 lessons ($125ea +$50 for training materail). For those of you with no experience we take you from Ground Zero to P2/M1 rated pilot with our full course ($1795). This is a new an exciting off shoot of the sport that now has a rating specifically for it. We train you to go out and have fun and be safe. Learn from who brought the sport to the United States.
11. Mt. Flying. With as many instructors as we have, we do offer mountain flying trips every few days at the least if conditions are not right at the Point, are too crowded, or you just want to try something new.
12. When we are not flying (between sessions), ground school and video's are ongoing at the shop. With a full time shop staff, we can each get a break, but our students can get as much time with someone as they need.
13. Cloud 9 offers more than Paragliding. After we get you hooked on one sport, there is Powered Paragliding, Speed Flying, Mini Wings, SUP's, Kite Surfing, Snow Kiting, Long Boards, Unicycles, Go Pro camera gear, all kinds of fun toys. Cloud 9 customers get special prices on everything. We import most of the gear we sell, so can offer quite unbeatable prices on all the equipment we sell.
14. Justin is recognized around the world as the top repair technician in the sport. We fix what we sell. This is big when mistakes happen. Rips from a fence, PPG prop's, broken lines, a tear in your harness, all easy fixes for Justin. Most of the flying schools in the USA as well as many of the top PG brands use him for their repair facility as we do. Also we offer annual inspections and reserve repacks and are all factory trained and authorized.
We could go on an on about how great we are :-), but really you need to stop in, give us a call, or schedule a lesson. As a bonus you will have the pleasure of meeting Sarah, our rock star shop manager and Atlas, our security dog who is worth the trip alone just to spend some time with him. Shop is open 10-4 Monday-Saturday (we teach 7 days a week) Mountain time.