-I guess so.
-It's really simple.
You walk and run only if I say "run."
-I saw a mention of a death.
-I haven't lost anyone yet this year.
You ready? -Yep.
-Go forward. A little faster.
Alright. Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Run as fast as you can.
♪♪
-So, lately, I've been feeling quite bored and uninspired
and almost like there's something missing from my life.
Especially because, you know, in the past,
you might have seen, you know,
I have done some quite exciting things,
things that take me to different altitudes.
So, today, paragliding.
♪♪ [ Computer keys clacking ]
Oh! So, I just came across Malibu Paragliding,
and they seem to have quite a few one-star reviews.
What the fuck?
That sounds pretty sketchy.
And it looks like Claude responds
to every single one-star review.
Well, if I know anything about running a business,
it's that you do not want to call people "little biatches."
Let's get out there and jump off a cliff
with a big paragliding device attached to us
and a quite-unliked man by the name of Claude.
♪♪
Paragliding is certainly a high-risk sport,
and after reading some of the reviews of
Malibu Paragliding, I was starting to get nervous,
so I gave my mom a call.
But, no, I was just calling to tell you I love you
and just to say "hi" and hear your voice.
-I love you, sweetheart. That was sweet.
You made my day just to hear your voice.
-Because there's nothing like the sweet voice of motherhood
to help calm my one-star paragliding nerves.
♪♪
Claude said he would meet us on the side of this road,
and even though we were early, I started to wonder
if this flight was doomed before we even took off.
This it?
But, sure enough, Claude was right on time.
Hi, Claude. I'm Taji. So nice to meet you.
And I also met some of my fellow gliders.
So, are you guys excited for today's flight?
-Yeah. It seems nice out. -Yeah.
-Don't bring two trucks up.
You know, just try to bring just one car.
Yeah, yeah.
-Seems pretty legit...hopefully.
♪♪
Is this the parachute? -Yep.
We can leave now if you want.
-Right on.
I'm excited.
I'm a little nervous.
Next, we loaded Claude into the back of our production vehicle
and drove to the takeoff point.
And the higher our car climbed,
the more scared I seemed to feel.
Well, my ears have certainly popped,
indicating we are very high up in the sky.
How many feet again, Claude?
-Exactly 2,800.
-2,800. -Yep.
-2,800.
-And we stop going up, because, you know,
you get into the air space where passenger jets are.
-[ Whistles ]
-Yeah.
♪♪
-Yeah, I'm very excited.
Definitely my first time.
Nice.
With a dozen different potential takeoff points,
Claude and I started searching for the best one,
given today's conditions.
-You can feel wind coming this way right now,
so we may have to go up to this side.
If we had clouds here, then we would fly below them,
take off below them so we have, always, visibility.
-So it's definitely a bit of a process, though, right?
Like, getting everything kind of lined up seems --
-Drive up and fly.
You know, simple.
Ready? -Kind of hot.
You know what I mean? -Yeah, take it off.
Yeah, I think I'm just gonna leave this.
It's, like, hot as hell. What do you think?
Shit. Sorry.
I might need to just check one thing. Sorry.
Maybe I'll bring the jacket. I can't really decide.
It's one of those days.
At least leave the hat, maybe.
Yeah.
-So, what's your ethnicity? -I'm Lebanese.
-Lebanese. -Yes.
-Go up to the top.
I think the wind will be perfect up there.
Let me get my sunglasses.
-In a way, I kind of like this constant searching
for spots, because it's kind of, like, taking my mind off of,
you know, the dangers behind all of this.
How's it looking over there?
-There's no wind here, so the other one is better
because there's a slope.
-Nice.
-Let's go back to the other spot.
You can feel there's no wind at all.
-So that would be a good spot. -It's not good.
-Oh, it's not good. -No, no.
-Oh, you
This is incredibly steep.
So we'll just kind of very carefully walk down this cliff.
You okay, Ben?
-Here we are. -So, is this the spot?
-This is one of them.
-But is this
-One of them. We use this one a lot, yeah.
-Awesome. But for today, probably, like, the spot.
-I think it will be good, yeah. -Yeah, it's fascinating.
I can feel this is definitely windier in this area.
-Yeah, there's more air. It's not wind.
It's just heat flowing.
-Just more air. -Yeah, there's no wind today.
You can feel there's no wind at all.
-So that would be a good spot. -It's not good.
Ready?
-In addition to the fact that there was no wind,
Claude's resistance to talking about safety
was making me even more scared.
Is there, like, some sort of safety plan?
-I don't like to explain too much long time before.
There's two or four things. That's it.
-Okay, cool. So I'll wait.
Yeah, we'll wait for those for sure.
And this thing's on pretty good, you felt?
It seems pretty secure. -[ Laughs ]
-Do you think I'm gonna do okay on this or what do you think?
I'm getting a little nervous -- -You? It's really simple.
You walk and run only if I say "run."
-Okay.
-And depending on how it goes, I rarely abort, but, you know,
there's a chance.
I haven't lost anyone yet this year.
-The way Claude was handling himself
certainly did not put my nerves at ease.
-Shit! Exactly what I don't want.
-And watching my fellow gliders take off
just added more fuel to the fire.
-I don't think there's any wind.
-So he's eventually going to go down to the beach.
-Yeah. It works every day. Usually, we always land.
[ Laughs ] -Sounds good.
After watching everyone else take off, it was now our turn.
-By the way, the Vice channel is on my Apple TV.
It connects us here together.
-So we're definitely hooked in together, right?
-Yep. -Alrighty.
-Happy couple. -Yes, sir.
Happy wife, happy life.
-Alright.
Let's fly. -You're good.
-Holy shit.
With the time of my takeoff fast approaching,
I couldn't stop thinking about all of
Claude's negative reviews.
Yeah, I think the crows are the only bird species
that have two different ways to communicate.
They have their... [ Squawks ]
...and then their... [ Clicks tongue ]
-Well, there's no way to truly understand Claude's
negative reviews without taking the plunge myself,
so here it goes.
-You ready? -Yep.
-Go forward. Perfect.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Run as fast as you you can.
Yeah, baby! Whoo-hoo!
-Holy shit. -Good job, man.
You did absolutely fantastic. -Thank you.
As we were floating above the canyons of Malibu,
the breathtaking beauty made me momentarily
forget all of Claude's negative reviews.
But this brief escape from reality
could only last for so long.
I was on a mission.
Before we got to the bottom of this jump,
I had to get to the bottom of these negative reviews.
To be honest with you, I was even, like, looking online
before coming in here and I saw some of the reviews
and I was a little scared.
But would you like to clear up
any of those things people are writing?
Like, what do you think of all that?
Like, someone was even trying to say
you're irresponsible, pompous, all sorts of stuff.
-Some people should go to Disneyland
and go on those rides, you know?
Sometimes, the Mother Nature is gonna have us,
you know, change site.
There's some delays.
There's -- You know, people just -- I don't know.
I have more experience than anybody around.
You know, 33 years with a perfect safety record.
I challenge you to find another guy like me.
-People were mentioning, I guess, like, they had to do
an emergency landing and walk like 2 miles and carry stuff
and then they still had to pay or something.
-We landed on a perfectly fine site.
You know, whenever we land somewhere else than the beach,
you may have to walk for 10 minutes.
Once a year, it happens, maybe.
So, it's better than, you know, landing on top of a tree.
-Totally.
And what about the person -- One woman --
One person said you mentioned a "little biatch" or something.
They screamed at the conversation.
-That girl canceled on me same day,
and I normally don't even bother taking them
if they cancel last minute.
I was nice enough to say,
"Alright, I'll give you a chance.
You can come another day."
So, she shows up and she started --
You know, she parked like 2 miles away,
so we had to wait 20 minutes for her to get there.
Everything with that girl was a nightmare.
I do my best to make everybody happy,
but when I give a chance to someone like her
and then she just makes everything difficult for me --
And I prefer people like you than people like her.
-I totally feel you.
And the last one I have to ask about,
just 'cause it's, you know, such a controversial one
and so heavy is, I saw a mention of a death.
♪♪
-He's a great guy. I love that guy.
Jake. He's a sweet guy.
We had a good experience together,
and he took off, made a left turn,
and he never turned away from the hill.
He just went straight in like he wasn't conscious.
The first reporter that showed up on the site
said he must have had a stroke.
And I didn't even think of that.
You know, I was trying to analyze everything --
"Why did he do that?"
It made no sense at all.
Anyway, that was a sad day.
-You can accuse Claude of a lot of things,
but you cannot accuse him
of not living and breathing paragliding.
As he cleared us for landing, he also successfully cleared up
the reasons for these negative reviews.
-So, lean forward, stand up,
and then just run with me a little bit.
Yeah. Come on. Keep moving, keep moving.
Excellent.
Now we can stop and relax.
-Alright. -Good job, man.
-Wow. Thank you, Claude.
That was -- I basically blacked out the entire time,
and now I'm here.
♪♪
"When I arrived at the meeting point,
I didn't know what to expect,
other than a mix-up, miscommunication,
and/or a potentially very angry Claude.
After meeting Claude, we swiftly picked up
our paragliding gear, loaded it into the trunk,
and made our way to the jumping point.
To my comfort, I soon learned just how calm
and in tune with nature,
in particular the winds, Claude truly is.
But that said, he does not have much of a threshold
for any sort of outside B.S.
While airborne, I felt totally free,
and Claude seemed to feel the same way.
In fact, he seemed very at ease in the sky,
like it was his happy place.
Claude runs his business unconventionally,
and I respect that.
He was not afraid to speak on any one-star review
that I threw his way and put things into his own perspective.
And I have to say, being strapped into Claude
was an absolute pleasure,
and I was more than happy to be his 'little biatch.'"
Probably, if I told my mom or dad what I'm doing right now,
they'd probably try everything in their power to stop it.
But hopefully it all goes well,
and then, you know, it'll be a fun video.