Flyboarding takes off for Wilmington native
By Wayne Faulkner, Star-News, Wilmington, N.C. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Destination: Up to 40 feet above the surface, powered by a contraption -- kind of like a rocket for your feet -- attached to his boots that has him zooming, dipping, looping and diving into the water and out. It's a Flyboard, and the sport is only a few years old.
Neal is propelled by the force of water that streams to the Flyboard, up through a flexible pipe from the water scooter, piloted by first mate
"The sensation is like nothing else, because it's not like skydiving at all," Neal said. "You don't have that drag of wind all over your body."
Neither is it like wakeboarding, where you can get slammed, Neal said.
"With this you need some leg muscle to keep that board pushed down and in place. As long as you can comfortably manage your own body weight, you should be fine."
Neal's company, Carolina Flyboard, will train you for the experience. It's the only Flyboarding company in
Though typical customers are in their 20s and 30s, the sport isn't just for the young and svelte.
One guy was 58 years old and weighed 265 pounds. "We only took him five feet out of the water, but he still flew around and did some dives," Bundy said.
The entrepreneurial Neal took his own twists and turns before he got into the Flyboarding business.
In 2009, he started TechStop, an Internet-based financial marketing company, then took a break to do a double major in business finance and information systems at the
After graduation, he went to
"When I came back to Wilmington I started to open up an organic food truck but ran into problems with the health department," Neal said.
Flyboard kind of came naturally for the athletic Neal. He grew up on the ocean. His father was a commercial fisherman for a while.
"Growing up in
Not stopping at earthly sports, he got his pilot's license.
"I wanted to be able to jump out of a plane and started looking to skydiving. Then I came across (Flyboarding) on the Internet. It piqued my interest."
After the food truck foray, he headed to
"I trained there for a week, brought my board back here and trained here for about a month, and went into business last summer," he said. He has his instructor certificate -- which takes in-depth training, a requirement to get insurance, Neal said.
"Business is good," he said -- especially the weekends.
When Hurricane Arthur blew by, he and Bundy took the business inland for a successful day on
"We're pretty much mobile," Neal said. To travel, Carolina Flyboard needs a minimum of 10 people participating if it's within three hours. Beyond that, Neal said, 15 or 20 people are required.
And not just any body of water will do.
"You don't want to be in shallow water," he said, pointing out that, except for the ocean, there is a limited supply of suitable venues, even on the
But he'll take return customers one or two days a month to
In contrast, the
Because most of the company's customers are beginners, it's a perfect place, Neal said.
Introductory training is 30 minutes -- 10 minutes of training on land, 10 training in the water and 10 minutes of free play, he said. The first instruction is
Flyboarding is comparable to snowboarding, Neal said.
You've got to be comfortable "moving as one fluid body. Imagine yourself as a snake." Taking a straight line will jerk you back to the stationary Jet Ski -- "like a dog chain," he said.
Flyboarding "almost feels like getting that big air on a snowboard," he said.
But "if you are doing some spins and flips and you mess up and need to bail, you just dive -- instead of rolling down the side of a hill.
"You can wipe out and not get hurt."
On
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