Flyboard Operators of Florida, Merritt Island

The water's calm. Almost too calm. Nearly imperceptible ripples begin to form, soon evolving into bubbles reminiscent of a hair-raising monster movie. A figure erupts upwards, the water peeling away in sheets to reveal not a creature of the deep, but a person with their feet strapped into a strange device. The machine, called a Flyboard, projects two jets of water out from right beneath the rider's feet, causing her to soar through the air. This propulsion lends itself to acrobatics, helping riders perform tricks such as spins, flips, and dolphin-like dives from the air to the water and back again.

The owners of Jump Right In Flyboarding say such tricks are not hard to master. They started their company to give everyone a taste of this hard-to-describe, impossible-to-imitate water sport, and today they specialize in the sales, service, instruction and rentals of FlyBoards. With locations in Sebastian, Cocoa Beach, and Key Largo, they are some of the coast's most experienced operators.