The future of wakeboarding is coming, and it’s very technologically advanced. Let’s just hope it’s waterproof too, because if it’s not, it won’t have a very long life.
Wakeboarding may be one of the most popular water sports out there, but in years to come, it may not be seen as as cool as the water sport that’s trying to take over, dronesurfing.
That’s definitely the world’s longest “selfie stick,” and one that maybe isn’t that annoying.
Freefly Systems is the mastermind behind dronesurfing. The company makes film equipment and specializes in MōVI cameras, which are drones basically. They introduced the world to dronesurfing on September 8th with the above promotional video.
That drone must be pretty powerful to pull a human. Now the question is, what happens if the person falls? Does the drone fly away? That answer isn’t answered in the video because those dronesurfers are so good they don’t fall.
It’s no question that if this works, it could blow wakeboarding out of the water. The two are practically the same except dronesurfing requires a drone while wakeboarding requires another human driving the boat, a boat, and tons and tons of gas.
In short, dronesurfing requires one person and a drone and that’s it.
While the idea seems pretty cool, here are some flaws in the idea of dronesurfing:
1. Does the drone fly away after you fall off? – We already asked this question, but it’s important to ask again. What’s great about the human element of wakeboarding is when the human driver sees you fall off, he/she circles back around to grab you. How would a drone get you if you let go?
2. What happens if the drone battery dies before you notice it’s going to? – Once again, what’s great about the human element of wakeboarding is the human driver notices when gas in the boat is low and you need to go back to shore. What happens if you’re in the ocean or a big lake, the drone dies, and you’re stuck in the middle of the lake or ocean? Well one thing is for sure, the drone will fall in the water and die. Speaking of which…
3. What happens if the drone hits a bird or something else in the air and falls in the water? – A boat can hit birds and rocks and islands, but does have the human element so a person can steer away from them. What if a bird comes out of nowhere and hits the drone? The dronesurfer is screwed, that’s what happens.
Still, this is just one of the many ways drones are entering sports, and ESPN is planning to broadcast a full season of drone racing this fall. Maybe if dronesurfing catches on, they or other networks might pick that up too.
