Have you ever been suspended more than 100 feet in the air, attached to a giant parachute while a boat pulls you around the Virgin Islands?
Starting Saturday, visitors and residents will have the option to have that experience when Paradize Water Sports: Parasailing BVI officially opens in Cane Garden Bay.
Mr. Hodge explained that during his 20-plus years of working in the tourism industry, he often found himself booking parasailing companies in St. Thomas to come here and fly visitors.
Expecting that the demand for the experience will grow as more visitors come to the territory, Mr. Hodge decided to cut out the middleman and offer the service himself.
He has big plans for his new company.
So far, he said, he’s invested about $100,000 in buying a boat, hiring a captain with experience in parasailing, and being trained himself.
For the last several weeks, Flycatcher captain Josh Ackerman — who has offered parasailing tours for more than 10 years in places such as St. Thomas, Florida and Hawaii — and first mate Vernon Walters have been practising offering the tours in preparation for Saturday’s official launch.
More boats
By the time the tourism season starts in the fall, Mr. Hodge said, he hopes to have three parasailing boats: one in Road Town, one in Cane Garden Bay, and one that rotates between different resorts such as Peter Island Resort, Oil Nut Bay and Necker Island.
The Paradize Water Sports owner said he has applied to Tortola Pier Park to have a location there to meet cruise passengers entering the VI.
Mr. Hodge said that location would be ideal, especially now that Tortola Pier Park has installed its roughly $500,000 floating dock.
“We could collect people from there, fly them, and take them back,” he said.
While Mr. Hodge said he hopes his business will thrive off the one million cruise ship passengers who are expected to come here annually within the next five years, he also hopes that he will get a fair amount of business from the local population.
However, one of the challenges he expects in attracting residents is that “we as Caribbean people are afraid of heights.”
Mr. Hodge stressed that his crew follows strict safety guidelines when conducting tours.
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“Any time wind’s gusting more than 12 miles per hour, we can’t parasail,” he explained. “We also can’t do it in rain.”