This series will take you along on adventures as we head out to find all of the different activities and opportunities to truly experience the Okanagan.

This episode of Experience the Okanagan I believed I could fly, and I did! Hydrofly Kelowna took me out for a lesson on how to flyboard.

 

The ExperienceThese guys know what they're doing!

This was my first Experience the Okanagan that I have participated in that I was genuinely nervous/scared to do. There was a lot of nerves and unknown going in, but as soon as I got onto the dock, the guys at Hydrofly made me feel super comfortable.

We got onto the boat, and headed out onto the lake with the sea-doo in tow. We drove under the Bennett bridge where it was a bit calmer and less boat traffic, and Sam and Adrian gave me the low-down. Their tutorial was super helpful, and made me feel way more confident than I had been feeling, even though they said they have had people that didn't even make it out of the water.

I buckled up my lifejacket and helmet, got strapped into the boot contraption, listened to a bunch of great pointers from Adrian and jumped in!

And I have to say, these guys have SO much patience, and were encouraging me with pointers after every face plant.

FlyboardingI felt like Iron Man

Putting my feet in boots isn't unusual to me, from previous wakeboarding and snowboarding experience, however the whole mechanics behind balancing was the exact opposite.

You start off on your stomach with your boots behind you, and then you bring your knees underneath you and straighten your legs with a slight forward lean. Just this, took me 15-20 minutes to get the hang of. Once you actually get out of the water, you have to keep your legs straight to balance (what?!) and all you're doing is moving your feet up and down, and leaning side to side to stay up. 

The flyboard has a long hose attached to it, that runs to a sea-doo where Adrian was sitting. The throttle of the sea-doo is the pressure of the water under the flyboard, so he was controlling how high I went, or how soft I fell. He made sure that I was at a safe height and didn't just drop hard when he could see I was unbalanced.

You gotta try it!"If you can stand on the ground, you can get up on a board"

Although the above quote may be true, it does take A LOT of patience with yourself. I do not like being bad at activities that I try, so I found this very frustrating at first, but once I could get up with ease I was determined to stay up, turn, and at least feel like I was in control. 

It was one of the coolest experiences I have tried, there isn't really anything else out there that blasts you into the air like you are flying. Now I technically got out of the water, but the sport of flyboarding is insane. Adrian decided to strap the boots on and show us how it's really done.

In competitions he said he would reach up to 60ft in the air, which is about five stories high! He showed us some diving tricks and double backflips, it was crazy!

Want an unforgettable experience flying over the lake? Make sure to pay these guys a visit at Hydrofly Kelowna located at the Downtown Marina in Kelowna.

 

Kaz's 🌵🍉💛✨Okanagan Bucket List

☑   Helicopter to a snowy peak

☑  Snowmobiling in the Graystokes

☑   Parasail over lake Okanagan

☑  Visit the Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm

☑  A day at Predator Ridge

☑   Hydro-Fly at Downtown Marina

□  Smile Cycle Tour through Kelowna

 



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