Flyboarding shoots people 30 feet above water

It looks like a special effect, as if Iron Man decided to visit Lake Stevens.

Using just a small board and high-pressure streams of water, a man floats 30 feet above the lake. He circles, dips and dives, backflips and spins.

It’s called flyboarding, and the people on the board are called fliers. They are also tough, because even with wetsuits, the lake is cold in late October.

Flyboard Funatix is a business started this summer by Don Crow and Mike Mohney. On a visit to Cabo San Lucas this spring, Crow and Mohney saw people flyboarding.

“I caught what I call flyboard fever,” said Crow, a Mukilteo dentist.

Crow and Mohney are started the business. They are working to get the proper licenses to take customers out on Lake Stevens. They hope that’ll be done by spring. They’ve already been taking customers out on Lake Washington and Moses Lake.

Mohney and his wife, Sharon, of Lake Stevens. own and run the business with the help of employees Bryan Finne and Nolan Cummins, who do much of the actual work taking fliers out.

They’re already going out on Lake Stevens just for their own fun. The antics often draw a crowd. It’s impossible to resist gawking at a person floating like a superhero.

It looks difficult, but all of them insist it’s actually not. “If you can stand, you can fly,” Crow said.

“Within the first 10 minutes, they’re up and going,” Sharon Mohney said. “We’ve never had anyone who couldn’t do it.”

The fliers say it has similarities to skiing, snowboarding or skateboarding. Mike Mohney said that he had some sore muscles after the first few times. The shins can get sore, because fliers point or flex their toes so much to help control their flight.

The flyboard is powered by a personal watercraft. A 55-foot hose connects pumps the outflow from the watercraft from the craft to the flyboard. The water shoots from jets, one on each side of the board, providing propulsion.

Cummins, of Lake Stevens, said it only took him about a weekend to master backflips, which are extremely impressive 30-feet in the air with a trail of water looping behind him.

Finne, of Arlington, and Mike Mohney attended a certification program in Salt Lake City, where they learned more about flyboarding and how to teach it to other people.

Flyboard Funatix is also a distributor of Flyboards, and the certification was part of the process of becoming a distributor.

Finne, who has only been flying about six months, has gotten so good in that time that he qualified to compete in the sport’s World Cup in Doha, Qatar, on Nov. 7 to 9.

Finne says flyboarding is “Amazing. I can’t even describe it. I’ve always wanted to fly.”

Flyboarding

Learn more about Flyboard Funatix atflyboardfx.com. If you’d like to try it out yourself, contact the company through its website. You’ll need to be older than 18 and weigh between 100 and 300 pounds. A 40 minute session, with about 10 minutes of instruction, is $110.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.