Andrews has bad luck at World Championships, but great luck in love life

Polson native TJ Andrews didn’t get the results he wanted at the World Championships of flyboarding in Dubai a few weeks ago. But he did get something better. “There’s no prize bigger than what I got out of this trip,” he said on Monday night. Andrews proposed to his girlfriend, Brie Sellwood, and she said yes. “I had to do it right off the bat,” he said, “I was a little anxious.”

After proposing on the beach in Dubai, Andrews was ready to compete against 42 other pro flyboarders. During the qualifying round, competitors had a certain amount of time to do five tricks that they told the judges they were going to do. During his run, Andrews landed his first ever triple backflip. “I laid down a really good run,” he said.

Unfortunately, the judges and timers weren’t all on the same page as the competitor. Andrews said there was some confusion about if he started the run at the right time, and if his tricks counted. The miscommunication knocked him out of the competition in the qualifying round. “I got the hard end of the stick in that run. There were some issues with the hose and timing,” he said. Andrews isn’t new to these kind of issues, as he has competed in other judged sports like skiing. “You can’t complain about the judges,” he said.

Due to some mix ups, Andrews started his run hours before he was supposed to, which meant both his friend and his fiancée missed the start. “That kind of had me frazzled too,” he said.

Even though the competition didn’t go quite like he wanted, Andrews said it was a great experience. He plans on continuing to practice and will be back at it next year.

The winner of the World Championships was a teenager from Texas, who landed a quadruple backflip.