FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review – A near death experience

This is my review of the INSTRUCTOR at FlyBoarding Toronto, who made my friend and I have a near death experience at Lake Simcoe.

 

A near death experience – FlyBoarding.

I had a near death experience today, and I am grateful for the opportunity to even be able to write my experience. I went flyboarding with a group of 16 women, with a company called FlyBoarding Toronto. I wasn’t the one that booked for the group and I should have done better due diligence. We got to the Lake Simcoe for the activity. Guest what? A less than average body built man (the FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor), came to try and supervise a group of 16 women of different sizes and weight. I questioned the waver of FlyBoarding Toronto, because frankly speaking, it was wishy washy and sounded like they were just trying to avoid responsibility for negligence. When the activity was about to start, the FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor started showing us how to flyboard from his phone, using a few pictures likely from the internet and didn’t really do his due diligence to confirm that we all watched the video. No safety training. When asked what will be done in an emergency? He said he will jump into the water to rescue us. The first 4 people did and only one person was really able to flyboard. She was a good swimmer. Others that went after couldn’t swim and couldn’t even flyboard not to talk of enjoy the moment. The man had no assistant and needed to get down a few times to untangle things and assist the participant. Those were early signs of his lack of expertise and professionalism.

 

Yes we complained – He never admitted.

This FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor came back to shore after 5 people and after we started complaining that no one that went so far could flyboard, or even enjoy the sport and they were not honest by saying we didn’t need to know how to swim to do the sport. The FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor never admitted his fault, he kept arguing that one just needs to be comfortable in water, despite the sport taking place past shoulder level in the water. We complained about not enjoying it, and how he was already getting tired. He wasn’t really willing to shift the participation day for the rest of the group, but he finally agreed to move it to next year, but he didn’t want to admit something was wrong and just process a refund.

 

We didn’t want to come again next time – count our losses.

Since my friends and I came from a far distance to join the group, we didn’t want to come again next time, knowing he wasn’t that good or professional. We wanted to count our losses and at least try, even if weren’t going to levitate as expected with fly boarding. Myself (with very beginner swimming knowledge) and my friend (with moderate swimming knowledge), asked if we could do ours today since he said that was an option and really didn’t want to move it for the rest of the girls initially, he agreed. Never admitted to being tired or there being fault with the machine. While we were at sea and my friend was already strapped to the fly boarding boots, everything was fine at first and she was moving around with the flyboard. She was able to levitate at some point until things started going wrong. My friend felt her legs were twisted in the boots. She was sinking and called for help. He jumped down the jet ski and went to rescue her. He said we should go a second time and the situation repeated itself and I saw my friend’s life flash before my eyes the second time. This time around the tides and wave was high. We were too far into the sea and shouldn’t have gone that far but I doubt he was noticing how far we were from shore. While he was rescuing her the second time, he was obviously exhausted and it took so long for him to drag her and himself close enough to the ski, because of the water turbulence. I was on the ski and couldn’t really do much to move it nearer to them. They finally got close and held on to it. I said I wasn’t interested in taking my turn seeing the situation and suggested he head back to shore. He asked if my friend could stay strapped to the fly boarding boot and flyboard us back to shore, but she said no as she was physically exhausted after nearly dying twice. So the plan was for three of us to stay on the jet ski, carry the flyboard boots and drag the house while we try going back to shore.

 

The beeping warning signs – FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review.

As we were going, the jet ski kept beeping and giving warning signs that something was wrong. My friend kept getting pulled back, but the FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor didn’t listen to our suggestions. I was scared she was going to fall and kept telling her to hold tightly onto me. Common sensically, the jet ski was beeping and not really working due to the turbulence, weight and everything else. He didn’t think it was appropriate to admit what was going on and call for help while he still had his phone. He kept turning off the machine and kept saying: I don’t know what’s going on. Why is it beeping? He open the front trunk, I am guessing where the engine is to check, leaning forward while we balance for our lives. After a few minutes, he started the jet ski again and frankly speaking he was not realistic about the situation and in my eyes, he put too much power/throttle the jet ski (not sure what the right term is). As he did that, we seemed to be moving fast at first heading back and before we knew it we capsized holding on for our dear lives.

 

I felt myself drowning – FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review.

I felt myself drowning but held on to my friend at first, as I struggled to survive and then held on to the capsized ski. The FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor was struggling to survive at first, then finally I saw him after a minute or so. He kept saying don’t hold onto the capsized ski. How is that a reasonable suggestion? Despite the tide and our swimming ability, how are we meant to float in such deep waters and tide. I want to believe he was just concerned about his ski in that moment. Not once did I hear him ask, are you guys okay? As we all held on to the capsized ski.. we kept trying to swim back to shore… shore which was soooo far away. He asked if I could try swimming like a frog and push the ski as we manoeuvre ourselves back to the swim level buoye close to shore.

 

NO CALL FOR HELP – FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review.

Not for once did the FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor think of calling for help. I asked where his phone was. He said he doesn’t know. Then said it’s in the water.. possibly meaning in the capsized jet ski trunk. We couldn’t call and that didn’t even cross his mind until I asked. After what felt like forever, I believe we swam for nothing less than 30 mins, we got back to shore and we were met with one of the beach resident who asked if we were okay. The instructor never admitted what happened and said we were fine. The man questioned that with his look and said ‘you capsized’, that was when the instructor said, you know we had weight balance issue, nothing serious. So the man left when the instructor said he doesn’t need help. My friend and I had to help the instructor turn the ski back upright and we were being used as workmen, which showed that he shouldn’t have been the only one in the first place, if he needed us to assist him with holding the ski and bailing out the water from the ski.

 

FAR AWAY FROM SHORE – FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review.

We were there for about 10 mins and mind you we were at another side of shore, far from where we originally started. My friend was mad at his unprofessionalism and asked how much longer we needed to hold his ski for him while he packed up his things. We started for a bit and left him there. We both had to walk over people‘s private fences and in the water to get back to the public side of the beach we started at. By the time we got back, a resident already called the police because our jackets were at shore for a while and they didn’t see anyone. We told the police what happened and left. Frankly speaking, I am interested in pursuing recourse. Had I not being calm and collected in that situation, with my little swimming ability, I won’t be here today.

 

AFTER CAPSIZING – FlyBoarding Toronto Instructor Review.

While we were making our way back to shore after capsizing, he made a silly comment; thank God you guys can swim at least (or Something similar). Which shows that if we couldn’t, he really wouldn’t have been able to get us back to shore. When we got back to our car, my friend later told me she didn’t drop our waiver forms for just the three of us and he didn’t even notice. Which also attests to the lack of attention and unprofessionalism. She said she didn’t drop it because the waiver didn’t make sense and the supposed training we were attesting to have gotten was not true.

My conclusion is that FlyBoarding Toronto, their unprofessional instructor, and their malfunctioning equipment is not worth anybody’s time or money.

 

 

Related Info:

Flyboarding Toronto Experience at Lake Simcoe.

Flyboarding Toronto Management Report.

Flyboarding Adventure in Lake Simcoe.

 

 

samueluwawah

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