Drone Surfing: Is This Really A Thing?

Drones have a wide variety of outdoor applications, and have been a boon for many outdoor photographers, able to get shots of old bridges, isolated natural areas, and hit angles that just weren’t previously possible. Except with maybe a helicopter, if even then. While the photography or basic delivery of objects have been the main focus of civilian drone use, a few engineers from the State of Washington had another idea: why not surf with them? Could drone surfing be the next big thing?

I’ve got to be honest: based on this video I REALLY hope so!

I don’t know about all of you, but that has me excited. It’s also admittedly one of the best “influences” I’ve seen as far as motivating me to look at losing that excess weight around the stomach so I’d be light enough to throw on a good life jacket and take my chances while my brother…make that someone who won’t kill me for fun, flies the drone.

The Hobby Isn’t Budget Friendly…Yet

8 rotor flying drone
Yes, this is the big time 8 rotor drone in the drone surfing video!

One thing we have to admit is that this is not what you would call a budget friendly “hobby” off the bat. Granted, the engineers here were goofing around, relaxing after a stressful project, but this might have unintentionally started something for the future.

To have the pulling force to pull an average (in shape) male or female along, you need one of the heaviest duty drones that are currently available, because it takes a lot of force to be able to do that with just a drone.

Although a bit of good news is budget isn’t an issue: believe it or not the drone in this picture is available on Amazon!

Anyone who has the money and wants to try out their own amazing time on the lake can buy one of these drones and do the exact same thing! Obviously this is a two person job since someone needs to operate the drone, but a fun time is possible to be had by all!

So…That’s An Expensive Drone

Hey, some fun is more expensive than others, but this fun video, which you can watch again right here, may create a demand that no one had thought of: recreational drones that are designed for this type of on the water fun that anyone can enjoy – especially the big time thrill seekers.

While up to this point this was never an actual intention of creating drones for this particular type of recreation, thanks to a few engineers looking to blow off steam from Freefly, it’s suddenly something I think you’re going to see a lot of people talking about.

Like any relatively new technology, if someone takes charge and really puts the money and effort into research and development eventually the technology will become both more efficient and more affordable.

So who knows?

Maybe this little bit of “goofing around” will end up creating an entirely new thrill seeking sport!

What if I Need A Less Expensive Drone for Outdoor Photography?

There will be other articles coming soon on that. It’s important to note that this particular drone, the Freefly Octodrone, is heavy duty and top of the line. That’s one hell of a combination. While there are many drones in the $100 to $3,000 range, those aren’t meant for pulling or carrying the load this one can, so I wouldn’t recommend trying drone surfing with them – you’re going to be disappointed.

Beyond that, for now all we can do is promise to do a more extensive drone comparison article in the future, watch that awesome video maybe one more time, and hope this actually leads to some company or entrepreneur taking the lead on developing a less expensive model that is designed to make drone surfing a new thrill sport we can all get behind enjoying!