Everything started in 2011 when our founder, Renato Granzoti, was exposed to paragliding for the first time in his hometown city of Campo Grande, Brazil. He saw some people running down a grassy field strapped to an oversized backpack that was tied to thin lines connected to a colorful, soft, huge parachute-looking kite, and that was such an intriguing sight that he couldn’t resist asking what that was and how he could learn it.
At the time he was struggling with anxiety and stress, and he quickly discovered that being up in the air for hours made his anxiety disappear, with the effect lasting for as long as his flights were still fresh in his mind, which usually meant between a few days, to a week. Whether attracted by this therapeutic effect of flying or by the new friendships, adventure, and the unique connection to nature that flying a paraglider offers, he started flying as often as he could, and he just couldn’t get enough.
During the following years he honed his flying skills logging hundreds of hours of paragliding experience, and later moving to Florida in 2014. In March 2015 he decided to share his passion for paragliding and for helping others by becoming a certified USHPA instructor and by creating Cloudbase Therapy Paragliding Academy, the country’s first nonprofit paragliding school focused on teaching disabled Veterans how to fly.
We know the healing powers of the sky and of being part of a community that cares, and will do our best to help others find balance, peace, a sense of awe for the beauty of the nature, and true joy of living through the sport of paragliding.
This mission cannot possibly be achieved on our own, so if you feel like helping us, please do so through one of the links below:
Submit ideas and feedback through our contact form (we welcome all input)
Volunteer through your natural gifts (includes an awesome Personality Type assessment and report)