Yolo Parasailing Adventure: A First-Hand Account

When I contacted to inquire about writing a business feature, I had no idea what to expect. I had observed the activity from a distance on numerous occasions and always thought it looked like it could be fun. When Yolo presented me with the offer of a free ride, I knew that it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up — even though I am secretly afraid of heights.

It was a windy day and the water was choppier than usual. Captains Ryan Davis and Scott Flinn were right at home on the rocking boat, but I had a little trouble at first gathering my sea legs. As Flinn helped me get into my life vest and harness, Davis assured me that the winds were safe enough to fly in, but that I would be in for a “more dramatic ride that usual.”

I realized, as I began to drift upward and away from the boat, dangling from a parachute attached to 800 feet of rope, that there would be no time like the present to conquer that fear of heights. I closed my eyes for a moment as I ascended to soothe the nervousness and excitement coursing through my veins, and when I opened them, the view I encountered took my breath away.

I am rarely at a loss for words — and in this line of work, that is definitely a good thing. However, while I was suspended from a parachute 500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, I began to get a little worried.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t the height that concerned me. Looking down at the boat to which I was tethered, I knew that I was in perfectly safe and capable hands, with Davis at the helm and Flinn minding the ropes.

Between the spectacular view of Anna Maria Island and the coast, the breathtaking blueness of the sky around me and the water below me, and the unparalleled sensation of literally floating through the air, I suddenly realized that I had been rendered completely speechless — well, almost.

In that moment, only one, singular word remained in my vocabulary, and I could not stop repeating it aloud to myself and the sky around me: “Wow.”

That’s why the worrying began to set in. It dawned on me that my editor would be expecting me to submit an article longer than one word, and that “wow” just was not going to cut it.

However, as I spread out my arms and leaned back into the wind hoping conjure up a few synonyms for “wow,” my worries melted away as quickly as they came on. I realized that legitimate concerns simply cannot exist when you’re floating on cloud nine.

Bradenton native Ryan Davis has been manning parasailing excursions since 1999. His business, Yolo Parasailing, has been in operation in Cortez since 2005, making it the longest-running owned and operated parasailing business in the area.

Since he started out, Davis estimates that he’s flown upward of 30,000 people on parasailing trips, locally and in Key West, where he initially started his own business in 2004 before moving to the current Cortez location the following year.

“Over the 12 years that I’ve been doing this, and out of the 30,000 or so people I’ve flown, I can honestly only think of two or three who said they hated it,” Davis said. “Overall, 99.9 percent of the time, people absolutely love it.”

According to Davis, the majority of his customers are vacationing families. Children as young as five years old are welcome to parasail, as long as they are accompanied by an adult. Parasailing isn’t just for family fun, though.

Davis said that he’s flown a number of couples who have gotten engaged in the air. He also recently took out a couple who was celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. His oldest customer celebrated a 98th birthday while suspended from a parachute hundreds of feet above the Gulf.

The price is $70 per person to parasail, and up to three people can go up at a time depending on weight limitations. The entire trip is generally about an hour long, with a 15-minute boat ride to and from the fly zone and fifteen minutes of airtime.

Davis said that the company’s busy season is actually the exact opposite from typical Florida business’ busy seasons. Yolo’s busiest month is April, due to families travelling during spring break, with March, June, July, and August being the other busy months.

During the spring and summer months, Yolo flies upward of 30 or more people on a busy day. In the winter, however, Davis said that they average only 15 customers per week.

Although being in the sun all day can occasionally be tiring, Davis has no complaints about his job.

“Doing this for a living is just so awesome,” he said. “The best part is that everyone is just out here to have a good time – no one is ever upset. People tell me that parasailing was the highlight of their whole vacation all the time, and that is just so cool.”

Aside from parasailing excursions, Yolo also offers two-hour daytime sightseeing cruises in which passengers can see dolphins, sea turtles, stingrays and other marine life, depending on the season. Yolo’s evening cruises are popular as well, with the highlight being the stunning Gulf Coast sunsets.

Davis said that he also hopes to eventually collaborate with local schools and take elementary school students on eco-tours.

As a Bradenton native, I have seen my share of dolphins, sea turtles, stingrays and sunsets over the course of my lifetime. However, the parasailing experience that Yolo granted me with was a one-of-a-kind sightseeing trip that I will never forget.

Suspended from a parachute 500 feet in the air and looking down toward my hometown, I was awestruck by the beauty that surrounded me. That beauty, I realized as I gazed upon it from an entirely new perspective, is something that I have frequently taken for granted.

And so, even now, despite the rich vocabulary at my disposal, I have but one word to describe the experience that Yolo Parasailing shared with me today:

“Wow.”