This is Flyboarding. It makes jet skiing look like a relaxing child’s activity. Riders stand on a Flyboard, which supplies the propulsion to push the Flyboard up into the air and down under the water. The board is connected to a watercraft using a long hose. Water is forced through the hose to a pair of boots with jet nozzles underneath. This creates the thrust of the Flyboard, propelling the rider through the air and into water.
Riders can fly up to 49 feet into the air and 8 feet under the water. They have to be strapped onto the board securely for it to work as well as possible. Since Flyboards were released, riders have been uploading more and more videos, where they try show off ever greater tricks; for example, extreme sports star Devin Supertramp uploaded a video showing off all the tricks he could do on the device, and since then he’s been shown up by this video, which shows a team of 12 Flyboarders performing incredible synchronized events in the air and under the sea.
The Flyboard was invented in 2012 by French watercraft rider, Franky Zapata. The first time the world ever saw Flyboarding in action was in the 2012 Chinese jet ski World Championship. You can only imagine what the participants in that year’s competition thought as they witnessed someone flying over the ocean, performing the most insane stunts imaginable. Since then, they’ve been appearing ever more frequently in public; a Flyboard world championships has been held in Doha, Qatar, and a contestant on America’s Got Talent even performed Flyboarding on the show.
If you’re interested in trying out this crazy new sport, you can find several rental locations around the world, mostly at beaches and lakesides. The individual rental prices vary from location to location, however this Long Island based rental firm offers use of their Flyboard starting at $99 for 15 minutes and maxing out at $1500 for 8 hours. At the time of writing, there are over 400 locations globally where thrillseekers can take to the air and under the water, with the highest concentrations of firms being found on the eastern seaboard of the United States and in Western Europe. Find your nearest rental center with this handy guide.
However, if you think you’d like to own your very own Flyboard, you can do just that, but it isn’t cheap. The Flyboard official website is selling the complete kit of everything you need for $5,704. However, even this comes with a catch. You also need to have or buy your own jet ski to be fully equipped to take the device flying into the air.
As you may imagine from something that looks so death defying, people that ride on a Flyboard have to take some serious safety precautions. Riders have to wear a helmet and life jacket, in case you accidentally careen into rocks or get detached from the board far out to sea. Also, the helmet is useful for protecting the ears when diving underwater, preventing any damage that a hard impact could cause on the eardrums.
The current official distributor of the Flyboard isn’t stopping with its insane inventions. Recently, the company uploaded a video showing an updated product, the Flyboard Air, which acts just like the current Flyboard, except without the water fire hose attachment. That’s right; it’s just like a Sci-Fi hoverboard and is designed to fly over the ground, instead of just the water. While this product exists, there are a few catches. It currently costs a huge $250K and can’t yet be used for recreational or civilian use. Hopefully, it will be freed up soon!