Lindsey Hulet hovered ten feet above Lake Zoar’s rippling surface Friday, September 4. Water jets shot from his boots as he swiveled, pushing himself in circles or jetting higher and appearing to stand on the horizon.

His boots were attached to a small board that he maneuvered with a handheld device controlling the throttle to his jet boat, its propulsion sent via heavy duty hose to his feet. Minutes earlier Mr Hulet had hopped off the end of his dock, unraveled the hose, hooked up to the boat, and was in the water with his boots on. Soon he shot upward, jets streaming beneath his feet.

Catching the eyes of other boaters and residents enjoying a lakeside afternoon off of Bankside Trail, Mr Hulet was just a quick splash away from the sandbar area near Underhill Road.

In the last year he had spent time overseas traveling with a friend, but when they returned home, “I ended up broken-hearted and was looking for something to cheer me up.”

The watersport — flyboarding — has kept him busy this summer.

Mr Hulet had seen videos, and one television show where people were flyboarding. He went online, found the equipment he needed, and was soon practicing on the lake. His first days out were not as smooth as he would have liked, he said, laughing.

“I did the typical guy thing: no listening to instructions, and I didn’t get off the water on the first day.” So he decided to listen to the instruction video, and the next day he was up, he said. Behind him and tending to another boat, his brother-in-law Ron Tichy laughed at the story. But he had seen the attention Mr Hulet’s sport soon gathered. “It was like flypaper; people came out to watch.”

He likes to buzz by Stevenson Dam, “to sort of show off,” Mr Hulet said. “People stop to watch.”

What they see is a man in a life vest standing in a relaxed pose, and drifting casually back and forth above the water. Wearing what look like ski boots and flying on top of two sturdy streams of water, Mr Hulet has become a familiar sight on the lake this summer. With its propulsion all funneled into the boots, Mr Hulet’s boat drifts on the lake, pulled along as he swung across the water.

“It’s all a matter of balance,” said Mr Hulet, who compares the feeling to standing on a board that was resting on a ball. After getting a feel for the flyboarding, he then had to worry about the hose kinking, which would drop him into the water. Also, he said, he is careful not to fall on his boat.

The sport is “a real workout on the legs,” he said, but certainly fun.

See videos and pictures of Mr Hulet on Facebook at Lake Zoar Flyboarding.