Meet the Cloudbase Team
Young and old you get the best with Grey and Bevan
Cloudbase Paragliding Mission:
To produce safe, competent and confident pilots
Cloudbase aim to make your paragliding journey fun and safe in a learning environment.
Our Cloudbase instructors have many years of experience of instructing and flying, locally and overseas, they love nothing more than passing on their passion of flying.
Grey Hamilton is the owner of Cloudbase and has been flying for 28 years and instructing paragliding since 1998.
Among the many flying expeditions over the years some of Grey’s most memorable flights have been on vol biv (flying/camping) expeditions to Pakistan, flying across the Indian Himalayan mountains North attaining altitudes above 7000m.
Bevan Small is our new instructor on the CB team, plenty of enthusiasm, lots of experience overseas and here in NZ and he is mad keen on XC! He lovers seeing his students progress and his easy manner ensures you learn paragliding with confidence!
Grey has been a member of the NZ team to the World Paragliding Championships in 2007 and has competed in a large number of competitions in Canada, Australia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania and Italy and New Zealand.
Grey has also been the president of the Canterbury Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club and a past executive member of the NZHGPA.
Meet the Team
Owner/Senior Instructor
Grey Hamiton
Grey has been flying since 1993 and instructing for 23 years. He loves all aspects of the sport. With an extensive background in teaching and a huge passion for paragliding, Grey combined them both and opened Cloudbase Paragliding School. He has had many adventures flying all over the world, from the highest mountains in Pakistan to the flatlands of Australia and has a vast amount of experience and stories to share with Cloudbase students.
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Instructor
Bevan Small
Bevan is an instructor with Cloudbase and loves chasing clouds through the mountains of New Zealand. With a history of flying in Europe, South America, Australia and of course right here in NZ, Bevan has an engaging teaching style and plenty of experience to share.
In a past life Bevan worked as an engineer with aeroplanes and helicopters, and likes nothing more than over-explaining the mechanics of flight to polite and unsuspecting students.
Assistant Instructor
Brian Lotter
Cool and calm on the radio, Brian has been the voice that landed a hundred students. He’s also a service tech extraordinaire – he’ll help get your wing tuned up and flying right.
It’s rare you’ll spot him in the air at Taylor’s as he mostly flies his secret spots. Be nice to Brian and he might even share them with you.
Assistant Instructor
Andy Sarratt
Andy is an assistant instructor with Cloudbase and is passionate about adventure. A former (after yet another tendon injury) rock climber, Andy now favours vol-biv and is dead keen on flying remote lines with friends where “failure” means camping out and missing work on Monday.
As mechanical design engineer, Andy relishes escaping the office and feeding on student stoke. He encourages a vibrant, open atmosphere and reckons his role at Cloudbase beats working a real job.