Aerial Adventure Parks

Welcome to our Aerial Adventure Park division. Thank you for visiting our site to learn more about our company and the services we provide, and the aerial adventure park industry. If you have further questions and would like to discuss the prospect of building an aerial adventure park on your site, please contact us. We would love to hear from you.

Adventure Más Style of Building

Aerial adventure parks are the newest evolution in commercial recreational use of ropes challenge courses in the United States. Although a fairly new concept here in the U.S., this style of commercial course has been in vogue in Europe for some years now.

Years of installing and operating these commercial recreational challenge courses have enabled the European ropes course industry to determine the best designs and operating systems to create challenging and enjoyable recreational experiences, suitable for this emerging adventure-based customer market.

Adventure Más has designed and installed courses in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Adventure Más owns and is a partner in the operation of a five-section aerial adventure park, with more than 50 elements, in Europe.

Adventure Más designs and builds courses in the tried and true style of these highly successful European aerial adventure parks. In order to provide your customers with the most bang for the buck, Adventure Más follows the European model, which we employ in our own operation, where each section of the course is designed with a basic through-route of elements that can be accomplished at reasonable levels of individual challenge and effort.

These courses are typically built in multiple sections of 10 or more elements with varying degrees of “challenge” difficulty. Difficulty levels are color coded: easiest – green; moderate – blue; difficult – red; very difficult – black.

For the more athletically-inclined, challenge seeking and even daredevil customers, each section includes “junction platforms.” In addition to the entrance to the next “normal” element, these platforms also provide access to one or more of a series of more difficult elements, providing greater challenge for those who dare.

These challenging and possibly demanding alternate routes are designed as loops. This permits the more athletically-inclined participants to test themselves at a higher level, while their participant friends watch. And it still allows them to meet at the next junction platform so that they can complete the section together. Of course, if the increased difficulty of the challenge is too much, physically or mentally, your participant almost always has the option to go back to the junction platform and return to the regular pathway.

Adventure Más designs each course and section of your aerial adventure park along these same parameters, to provide your customers with an enjoyable, challenging adventure experience. This also ensures that your participants can in all likelihood complete the full course that they paid for. Some builders simply make each section linear, with increasingly more difficult or challenging circuits, without providing a reasonable means to bypass difficult passages. This type of design can prevent many of your participants from completing the full course or, in some cases, even being able to start some sections. This results in a majority of disappointed and unhappy participants who will choose not to return to your park nor refer their friends, family or co-workers.

We believe that Adventure Más is uniquely qualified to build you a quality, handcrafted, thrill-filled, aerial adventure park!

We excel in craftsmanship, training and risk-management/safety services and are members of multiple professional organizations. At this time, we are the only company in our industry that is a member of all three industry associations. We are a board member of the Professional Ropes Course Association (PRCA) and a PRCA-accredited vendor, an associate member of the Association of Challenge Course Technol­ogy (ACCT), a member of the European Ropes Course Association (ERCA) and a former assessor for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in their Certificate Accreditation Program. As a member of these organizations, we stay current with all building and training safety practices.

We have an impeccable safety record, with no accidents since our company’s inception. Our comprehensive liability insurance policy, valued at $2 million, covers construction, equipment, training and annual safety inspections. The policy complies with all local and federal safety regulations for our industry.

Specialized Services

Adventure Más provides its clients with all the components necessary to get you up and running, from concept to operation.

  • Site Visit and Evaluation of Location
  • Feasibility Study
  • Guidance for Obtaining Permits
  • Site Layout and Design
  • Planning and Design of Reception Center
  • Park Roads and Access
  • Preparation of Building Site, such as Tree Pruning and Preparing Pathways
  • Delivery of Building Materials and Equipment
  • Business Plan and Forecasting of Revenue
  • Insurance and Liability Concerns
  • Construction of Aerial Adventure Park
  • Course Testing of Materials Installed
  • Staffing Advice
  • Staff and Guide Training
  • Operations Manual Development
  • Adventure Park Equipment Sales
  • Marketing and PR Strategies
  • Staff and Operations Evaluation
  • Use of Special Events and Team Building to Increase Attendance
  • Ongoing Maintenance Programs
  • Annual Adventure Park Inspection

Site Visit and Evaluation

A site evaluation is one of the first steps you should take when determining whether to build an aerial adventure park. A typical evaluation with Adventure Más can be completed over a period of one to two days.

Construction

Adventure Más exceeds industry standards when it comes to construction and materials. Although the aesthetics of your course and adventure park platforms are important, we take great care in the engineering of our structures. Our station-to-station platforms are installed at the beginning and end of each tree by a noninvasive system designed to protect the trees from harm. Other protective devices are carefully constructed to prevent cables from cutting into the bark.

We offer many choices in materials that are specific to your climate and usage that can also be custom-adapted. Equipment is selected to have a minimum breaking strength of 5,000 lbs., but often we exceed this standard. We work very closely with our manufacturers to custom-design equipment when the need arises. It is selected to be user-friendly, yet practical and durable.

Our design team has international experience, which has exposed them to many varieties of low and high elements not seen before in the United States. We use this knowledge to assist you in making the right choice, based on your environment, budget and goals. Aerial adventure parks can cost between $15,000 to $500,000, depending on the size and number of elements and platforms, training of staff, equipment, materials chosen and difficulty in accessing your site.

For more information regarding our construction standards, please review our Construction/Materials/Equipment Standards PDF.

Innovative Equipment

Adventure Más prides itself on using the newest, safest cutting-edge devices:

  • Gripple Movable Connection Device: 94% of full cable strength when applied.
  • Spike Grid Timber Connectors: Helps with the connection and shear loading of the wood platforms. It reduces the shear load of the platforms by increasing friction, preventing platform supports from sagging over time.
  • The RodeoStop: A vertical ascent, self-belay fall arrest, with state-of-the-art materials and practices for use in the design, construction and installation of your aerial adventure park course. Adventure Más is the Exclusive Distributorship agent for sales of the RodeoStop device and all materials necessary for its operations in the whole of North America (Canada, United States and Mexico). Anyone in North America constructing a European style aerial adventure park who wants to purchase the RodeoStop, can purchase this device at retail rates from Adventure Más.

All aerial adventure park platforms, constructed by Adventure Más, have been approved by and stamped by a licensed structural engineer.

Our staff constantly keeps abreast of the newest innovations for the industry and includes experts in:

  • Usable and marketable adventure course design
  • The building, installation and maintenance of European style adventure courses
  • Fall protection
  • Risk-management
  • Research and the coordinated development of safety devices for the industry

Green Materials and Practices

We believe that “being green” is more than providing our clients with environmentally sound materials. It is also about superior construction practices and careful planning in order to minimize waste. As a practice, Adventure Más offers the following:

  • Lumber and utility poles purchased from certified, sustainable forests
  • Specialty hardware of the highest environmental standard
  • Environmentally beneficial and durable building materials
  • Metal materials recycled
  • Sites designed to minimize environmental impact
  • Low-maintenance, low water, ecologically balanced landscape design if possible

The Adventure Más Ecological Goal

Our ecological goal is to operate in a fashion that has a low impact on the land, to support and participate in conservation efforts, and to contribute in financially meaningful ways to the preservation of the natural environment and our local community.

Inspections

Adventure Más offers annual safety inspections to satisfy your risk-management and liability concerns. We also teach four levels of safety inspection that meet Adventure Más Operations Standards.

  1. Annual or Bi-Annual Complete Aerial Adventure Park Inspection: The entire course and equipment are inspected by Adventure Más.  The cost of an annual inspection varies depending on the number of days onsite and how many minor repairs are needed.
  2. Weekly Complete Aerial Adventure Park Inspection: The entire course and equipment are inspected by the course manager. This is part of the training curriculum provided by Adventure Más and part of the periodic ongoing training.
  3. Daily Complete Aerial Adventure Park Inspection: The courses and equipment to be used are inspected at the beginning of each day by the instructors. This is part of the training curriculum provided by Adventure Más and part of the periodic ongoing training.
  4. Ongoing Aerial Adventure Park Inspection: As the instructors begin the process with the clients, they are constantly inspecting and monitoring the course as they traverse it. This is part of the training curriculum provided by Adventure Más and part of the periodic ongoing training.

Safety Training Program

A safe and successful Aerial Adventure Park business is only as good as the people that operate it.

Although a minimum of 40 hours in safety training is required by the industry, Adventure Más offers its clients the option of a comprehensive 80-hour training program. It’s one of the many ways we invest in the success of your company. Other ways we can support your business are by customizing our safety trainings to meet the specific goals of your adventure park, environment and budget. We use effective hands-on experiential education techniques, which we have taught for more than 35 years, to teach your staff problem-solving, competence, and intrapersonal and communication skills. Our in-the-field years as practitioners in education, psychiatric and mental healthcare have given us a unique set of skills that we are able to share with your staff. In addition, our experience in risk-management will be of great use when considering the liability of building and operating your course.

Adventure Más Aerial Adventure Park, Training Program Includes:

  • Adventure and Experiential Education Philosophy
  • Personal Equipment, such as Helmets, Hardware and Harnesses
  • Adventure Park Materials, such as Cables, Fixed Hardware and Pulleys
  • Instructor, Guide, and Facilitation Skills
  • Guide Training Techniques, which include Shadowing, Co-Instructing,
    and 360 degree Feedback Survey, and Instructor Skills Verification
  • Eco-Goals; Stewardship of the Land and Environment
  • Forestry Skills
  • Standard Operations Procedures
  • Risk-Management, Liability Concerns
  • Emergency Plans
  • Accident Prevention
  • Safety Briefings and Instructor Presentation Skills
  • Ropes Skills, such as Belaying, Rappelling, Knots and Climbing Techniques
  • Procedures for Different Populations such as Youth-Adult, Groups and Special Needs
  • Rescue Techniques on Adventure Park Cables and Structures
  • Adventure Park Inspections
  • Course Record Keeping and Equipment
  • Effective Group Leadership Skills
  • Staff Hospitality Skills
  • Adventure Park Sequencing, Time Management and Program Delivery
  • Adventure Park Daily Maintenance and Ongoing Maintenance
  • Ongoing Quality Assurance Tools

What is an Aerial Adventure Park?

Aerial adventure parks feature great big obstacle courses high up in the trees, which typically consist of four to eight courses/circuits, each one with up to 20 challenges, installed up to 50 feet above ground level between trees. The courses are usually designed with graded difficulty levels and different elements so that participants can progress safely, at their own pace, regardless of skills and ages.

An attractive feature of these parks is that they are accessible to all, from young children to extremely fit adults with some eco-zips included. Tree-top adventure parks are a new and exciting way to (re)discover forest environments while enjoying an outdoor activity. The theme of these parks is based on the idea that participants travel from one tree to another by completing challenges above ground level. For example, challenges are suspended bridges, cable walkways, nets, ladders, trapezes, tube traverses, zip lines, barrels, acrobatic exercises, etc., that require agility and balance skills. Tree-top adventure parks are a source of extreme fun and sensation for families, tourists, students and more, whether in small groups or large parties.