You’ve got to admit the thought of tooling around the lake on your own personal water jetpack is a seductive proposition. This is the second summer in which [Toby Gardner] has been trying to work out the kinks on his build. Last year he got out of the water, but the jetpack was pretty hard to control. Over the winter he redesigned the nozzles of the water jets and they seem to be doing quite a bit better.
The fact that the build will be in frequent contact with water makes it a bit harder. They need to have parts that won’t corrode but can stand up to the pressure. Stainless steel was the obvious choice, and for the refinements they were able to get quite a few off the shelf parts to start from. He built a mold for forming the backpack and took it out for a spin. We don’t get a great look at the new version from afar. But watch the videos below and you’ll see last year it tried to drown him, this year it seems to float.
Why is he building rather than buying? Have you seen the price of the original version?
Version 2
Version 1
I saw a guy down in Destin with jet boots on. The amount of control he had was quite stunning. Search on youtube for “water jet boots” or maybe the brand name “Flyboard”. What I saw in person was every bit as amazing as what’s in those videos. But the whole time I couldn’t help thinking, “At any point I’m going to see this guy get paralysed from the neck down.”
I have been following Franky Zapata for about a year now and the Flyboard is awesome. It’s like being Iron Man but using water.
http://www.zapata-racing.com/en/flyboard/
thanks! the ZR version has given me plenty of idea’s to build my own!
Saw him at crab island about a month ago myself. Got a quick vid of it. Pretty cool
“marginally less lethal”, I’m in! :)
Am I the only one worried this will dump all kinds of harmful substances into the water? I get the sense that using water for propulsion means it has to have intimate contact with the thrust system. :/
Like every other jet ski and other jet powered boat out there?
Or any other powered watercraft …
A helmet – even a pushbike one – would have been a good idea, in case of collision with the trailing power unit, or the nearby jetty, or even coming down in shallow water.