The team at Freefly normally focuses on catering to the demands of media industry professionals and building heavy duty drones for aerial photography. But in a new promotional video designed to show off the power of the company’s latest drone, they may have just discovered a new sport: Drone Surfing.
The premise is pretty simple. Strap yourself into a drone powerful enough to pull you along the surface of the water, hold on tight and hope for the best. If it does all go wrong, at least you’ll be able to watch the footage back and figure out why.
The drone used in Freefly’s video (below) is the company’s ALTA 8, an eight-rotor monster that will set you back just under $18,000 and can carry almost 20 pounds. On any normal day, the ALTA 8 is expected to operate with heavy camera equipment to shoot professional grade video. But Freefly decided to attach one to a guy on a wakeboard and find out what would happen.
Clearly, this man weighs a lot more than the normal ALTA 8 payload limit, but that doesn’t stop it from dragging him across the surface of a pretty smooth looking lake at a decent speed. Fancy trying this yourself? You’ll need an equally big drone, a running start (It probably won’t be strong enough to pull you in straight from the sand) and a traffic-free stretch of open water.
It kind of goes without saying that the more propellers and motors you add to a drone, the more powerful it becomes. Another fact of life is that there are more keen surfers out there than there are beaches with decent waves. Maybe super powerful drones offer the solution: Drone Surfing – the new watersport in which waves aren’t required.
If you want to see more of Freefly’s drones in action, check out the company’s YouTube channel.
Malek Murison is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for tech trends and innovation. He handles product reviews, major releases and keeps an eye on the enthusiast market for DroneLife.
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The premise is pretty simple. Strap yourself into a drone powerful enough to pull you along the surface of the water, hold on tight and hope for the best. If it does all go wrong, at least you’ll be able to watch the footage back and figure out why.