According to the DJI website, the FlyCart 30 weighs 65kg with two batteries and has a max horizontal speed of 20 metres per second.<\/p>\n
Drone operator Dan Thompson from Aeroinspect next to his DJI FlyCart 30, which was used to tow Jack Jensen on his surfboard. Photo \/ Jack Riddell<\/p>\n
Recently, Thompson had been using the FlyCart 30 drone to take deer carcasses out of dense bush, but he said innovation has always been a big part of his life and that\u2019s what helped him come up with the plan for drone surfing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt began having a couple of beers over the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an idea and a vision and one day it all aligned and we just gave it a crack,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe future\u2019s now, and it\u2019s real cool to showcase what is going on and proudly here in Hawke\u2019s Bay as well,\u201d Jensen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo stoked to be on the front edge of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, November 22, Jensen, the MSFT Productions team and Thompson with his drone met on the banks of Te Awa o Mokot\u016b\u0101raro (formerly known as the Clive River).<\/p>\n
Thompson tied a wakeboarding tow rope with a handle to the bottom of the drone and Jensen grabbed his surfboard, crafted by Ben Knight from Hawke\u2019s Bay board makers and shapers Lightwave Surfboards, and hit the water.<\/p>\n
Soon, Jensen was being towed by the massive drone on the surfboard.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, Jensen had another try at drone surfing on the Ngaruroro River, this time in front of local media. <\/p>\n
He said he was still \u201cabsolutely fizzing\u201d after completing his first one.<\/p>\n
He said the sensation of being towed through the water was the most striking part of the experience.<\/p>\n
Jack Jensen “frothing” after drone surfing on the Ngaruroro River. Photo \/ Jack Riddell<\/p>\n
\u201cPsychologically it\u2019s wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in terms of feel, it feels really similar to a cable, but better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just because it\u2019s a line, you don\u2019t have a wake or anything like that, and probably the speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Jensen has a warning for anyone thinking of giving drone surfing a go after watching him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all for inspiring people to get out there and go get amongst, but just do it safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen said Thompson was one of only a few people in the country who was legally allowed to fly a drone of such size and had completed two years of courses just to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all the gas, all the froth of people wanting to get out there, but just do it safely \u2013 make sure you dot all the i\u2019s and t\u2019s man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to the DJI website, the FlyCart 30 weighs 65kg with two batteries and has a max horizontal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,1561,4057,8843,5907,68341,25094,305,1976,32897,117,111,43,139,69,6662,19723,2961,18694,10137,74932,16670,14605,108049],"class_list":["post-165265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-bay","tag-behind","tag-believed","tag-completed","tag-daredevil","tag-drone","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-mate","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-pilot","tag-pull","tag-surf","tag-surfer","tag-towing","tag-watch","tag-whats","tag-zealandfirst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}