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Sport equipment development is a long term process, evolution of a new sport lead in new directions, yet certain things remain a constant. When we designed the hydro flight X-Jetpack and followed up with the Jetblade, we based our design decisions on years of experience producing outdoor sport equipment.

What are the driving forces of selection that act on a given design? Three things kick the daylights out of equipment, the environment, the riders, rental operations.  We keep durability priority number one from the start of every design. We want the users of our equipment to use it with the confidence that everything will hold together, whether for personal, professional or commercial use.

Over the years in snowboarding, skateboards and literally every other sport, inventors and start-ups have refined and expanded the equipment.  New designs are launched, new marketing campaigns devised and manufacturing tools are bought and paid. Some designs get more complicated, promising more functions, some are geared for mass production with cheaper, faster to produce materials like plastics, some are launched by dreamers and never hit the surface of reality, some are bogged down by complexity.  After some time goes by, market evolution and natural selection takes place, the equipment that lasts is the streamlined, efficient equipment.  Some of the negatives are apparent quickly, additional size, additional complexity, extra weight.  Riders are adaptable, they take good gear and take it to the limits.

We know the time proven sport design brief and we stick to it. Build efficient, easy to maintain equipment with a minimum of moving parts, a close center of gravity, minimum size envelope and the right materials for each component, period.  There are no sport points for “most technically advanced” or “most complicated”. Complications belong in watches, technology belongs in space.  We build the best. When someone tells you they have the most technically advance new equipment in the sport, congratulate them.  When you want gear that you can depend on, X marks the spot.

We have followed the saga of Jetlev from the beginning.  We even reached out to help them in their struggle to reach the market with an affordable product in 2012.  They tested our first X-Jetpack, broke our agreement, clung onto it after we asked for it back, measured it up, then came up with the Aquaflyer and the Aquaboard.  We can see the design influences that they took from the X-Jetpack.  The saddle design, the curved Y tube, the jet ski redirect system made from silicone rubber for flexibility and cavitation reduction.  Good thing they were so stubborn and short-sighted not to copy more.

On his yearly jet ski buying trip, Frazier shows Lars the video of the jetpack flying.  Lars is into it now.  He convinces Ray that he is the man for the job to make this thing go mega.