 eighty We've always enjoyed the water. Water skis offer a fine means of frolic for the expert, with real speed essential to keep those skimmers on top of the water. We've come pretty far from plain old water skiing and traditional water parks. And today, we are going even further. So a little while ago I came across these YouTube videos of people riding these insane water things I had never seen before. Turns out they're called flyboards. And let me tell you, they are sick. After watching maybe two seconds of this footage, I knew I had to try this for myself. This is Jimmy Bissett. He owns a flyboarding company out on Long Island. This is Trey Shallohorn, The Verge's video producer. Oh, and I'm Sam Sheffer. He gave Jimmy a call, he brought out some jet skis and flyboards, and I could not contain myself. Oh, and by the way, he's really good at this. What is a flyboard? Flyboard is a water jet propelled board that literally you can fly in the air above the water with. So how do these work? I know there's a jet ski involved, the board is involved, but there's pipes and there's engines and what happens? Yeah, so you got the jet ski, the hose hooks right to the back of the jet pump, and then there's a U-pipe that gets connected right to that. So all that water that's getting pushed through, just like a regular jet ski, is just getting redirected through the hose and out to the boots. Is there a high limit? Is there a speed limit? How does that stuff work? The hose we'll be flying today is 50 foot long. They do make ones that are about 60, 65, or 70 foot hose. When I'm flying, I can get up 35, 40 feet at max. Now are you stationary for the most part, or is the idea that you want to keep movement? You're pretty much moving all the time. The flyboarder is pulling the jet ski around, so wherever the flyboard goes, the jet ski is just following. As in that has enough power to pull the jet ski? Correct. When you're on the flyboard, you don't even realize the jet ski is getting pulled. Because of the design of the ski, it's very light. It just floats on top. So like most board devices, it's about balance, right? It's a little bit about balance, but the board itself is very balanced. I say just relax, keep your body pretty loose, and just look straight ahead. Will I die today? Not at all. I got strapped into the flyboard, and I was ready to go. I swam out, tethered to the jet ski, and Jimmy gave me some throttle. I managed to hover for a few seconds, but it did not last long. Turns out, I needed some practice. So to balance the flyboard, you need to relax your body and pay very close attention to your feet. Point them too far forward, and I'd fall down. Pick my feet up, and I'd fall backwards. But I didn't have nearly as tough of a time as Trey did. Honestly, I was focusing too much on my legs and not enough on my feet. By the time I actually realized what I needed to do, I just simply kept falling over. But hey, at least I was putting on a show for the crew. Even though I was struggling a bit at first, it wasn't very long until I got the hang of it. I was confident enough to hover, move around a bit, and I even tried some backflips. That was so sick. I definitely was feeling it. And next I tried the hoverboard, which is basically a surfboard that uses the same technology as flyboard, so it's water powered. Oh, and Trey was actually good at this one. I killed on the hoverboard. I surfed as a teenager, so you know what, it came a little bit more naturally to me. Do you think these are going to keep evolving, and do you think that the sport is growing? Yeah, 100%. Just in the couple years I've been in it, now we have competitions. It's worldwide right now. The different style boards are coming out, different movements with the board, so the ability to do different tricks is evolving too, because it's so new. New tricks coming out every day. Sometimes just throwing something and, oh, that looks cool. Today was awesome. It was amazing. One of the best days of my life. Absolutely. Absolutely. I felt like I didn't have enough time, and I just wanted to spend an entire summer doing it. What's cool about these, things are not out of the world. You can go buy one. Granted, they're very expensive, but I think it's fascinating that a year or two ago, we were just watching these videos on YouTube. Today we tried them, and then you can just own them. You can buy them. It's a real thing. Yeah, the learning curve isn't that steep. No, not at all. Now, trying a backflip. Now, if you're landlocked or feel too uncomfortable standing on a board, then your other option is an old school water park. When I was a kid, I loved going to water parks. Lazy rivers, large wave pools, tube slides, couldn't get enough of it. Since then, with the rise of technology, we've seen some pretty cool things like wave simulators, which allow you to surf the perfect wave without ever having to get into the ocean. Here at Schlitterbahn in Kansas City, they constructed the world's tallest water slide, Verrückt. Let me tell you, being there, it's pretty big. Verrückt is an extreme example of some Schlitterbahn technology, the blaster water coaster type technology that we've implemented through our park system over the years. You're looking at a 170 foot, roughly, tall, almost 700 linear feet ride that only takes about 18 seconds to complete. It may only take 18 seconds to go down the slide, but the climb up was pretty rough. The Verrückt stands at roughly 17 stories tall, which translates into about 264 stairs. And when you reach the top, not only are you the tallest thing for miles around, you're even higher than the Statue of Liberty. Being on the top was breathtaking. I really appreciated the views. I could see Kansas City way out in the distance, but it was super windy, which scared me more than the slide itself. Oh, and then there's Verrückt's growl. It's a little bit of a revolutionary ride in the fact that not only is it the world's tallest, but we've also gone through with some of the technology and combined air and water to power the boat up over the hill. In order to get over that hill, Verrückt uses a combination of compressed air and water to shoot the raft over the hump. They had to get this perfect. It even delayed the opening of the ride itself. Not enough force and the raft doesn't make it over the hill. Too much force? Well, let's just say it's not very pretty. So you can understand, when I was at the top strapped in pieces of Velcro, I was pretty scared. Sorry for the screams you're about to hear. Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! When you come over, the thing drops you in and then you get to a point where it doesn't look like they're slide. You just drop and then you see the slide and there's a little bit of anti-gravity. You feel like you're floating a little bit and it's really fast. It's over so quickly. So I noticed on the very beginning of the drop, it almost felt like you were going vertical. So you've got that sense of weightlessness, similar to what you experience on a roller coaster. That's another unique feature that Verrückt offers. So not only are you going to go through a feeling of free fall from 170 feet, you're also going to get to experience it on the second smaller drop at roughly 65 feet. Are there plans to continue breaking your own record? Well I always tell people, Sid, part of the unique thing of Schlitterbahn Park as well is that we're ever-evolving and ever-changing, adding and expanding our attractions and our amenities. The next attraction probably won't be anything quite as tall, but I would never put anything past Jeff Henry. He is a wizard of water and he continues to surprise the world of water parks every day. Riding the flyboard and hoverboard are easily some of the coolest things I've ever done. And sliding down the tallest water slide in the world wasn't too bad either. So now that summer is officially here, I cannot recommend it enough. Go find a flyboard, get on, and become your own wizard of water.