When it comes to snowboarding, I wouldn’t exactly call myself an expert. Now, however, thanks to Aerones, that just may change.
One of the latest twists on drone sports is a drone to use for droneboarding—yes, you read that right. Droneboarding, a new sport that’s just what it sounds like—a snowboarder being pulled through the snow by a powerful drone—is truly the first of its kind.
Aerones posted a video of droneboarding online, and within the first couple of weeks, the video had a whopping 5 million views.
But that’s not all—the company wanted to use drones to wakeboard as well, so it built a larger, more powerful drone capable of lifting about 320 pounds. And when the AFP news agency approached Aerones about a year later and asked them to do a story on the sport, the company decided to go even bigger—four times bigger to be exact.
AFP and Aerones released videos of the feat. CEO Janis Putrams helped to pilot the drone using remote controls, but he said the professional snowboarders who were towed were very excited about the way it felt.
And in January 2016, droneboarding was “tested” again, this time by a child at a much slower pace.
The use of drones in sports is not new, per se—take The Drone Racing League, for example. Attracting participants from around the world, pilots use remote controls and virtual reality glasses to race drones through courses with a variety of obstacles.
So what’s next for droneboarding? Well, you might not be able to score your own just yet, as the company is still working. In fact, Putrams says the company may try to integrate the control in the handlebar so there would be no need for a pilot to operate the drone.
So, until you can try it out for yourself, you’ll have to settle for watching this 360-degree video of droneboarding instead.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine), Virtual reality
