The art of flight: Polson native TJ Andrews is a professional flyboarder

TJ Andrews has mastered the art of flight. Not by piloting a plane. No, the 26-year-old straps a board on his feet, and 260 horsepower worth of water shoots out of the pipes on the board, sending him up to 60 feet in the air. His skills have earned him a spot in the World Championships of flyboarding in Dubai this coming week.

Andrews, a Polson high school graduate who now lives and works in Whitefish, has only been “flying” for about three years. He said his friend had a board, and he gave it a try. Andrews is a freestyle skier who has traveled parts of the world to ski. “I’ve been on a board my whole life,” he said. On his first try on the flyboard, Andrews said he picked things up pretty fast. “Most people do,” he said, “You just can’t overthink things... of course, you are in the air.”

He said he didn’t have plans to go pro when he first tried it, but when his friend, Justin Heyne, started Flyboard of Montana, Andrews became certified in teaching people how to use the board. Now he does it for a job in the summers.

Flyboarding is a relatively new sport. In layman’s terms, it’s a jet pack strapped to your feet, with a hose connected to a jet ski. By using the propulsion power from the impeller on the watercraft, water is sent out of the flyboard through the hose, sending the rider into the air.

Andrews explained how to use the board in a way only an instructor could. “Your feet are strapped into wakeboard binding straps. It is controlled by your toes. Relax and let the board balance you. Moving your toes down makes you go forward.” He said that almost everyone he teaches gets out of the water in their first lesson.

One of the most dangerous parts of flyboarding is the jetski that is motoring around below you. “That is the golden rule,” he said, “Nobody touches the jet ski. You have to know where it is at all times.” When Andrews flyboards, he has a remote throttle in his hand. He controls the throttle of the jetski from the air. Slowly letting off will lower him back into the water.

This past June, Heyne told Andrews he had to compete in the North American National Championships in Louisiana. “I didn’t really know how to feel about going,” Andrews said. He didn’t consider himself a pro at that point, nor had he done a lot of practice for competition.

A flyboard competition is a timed event. In the qualifying rounds, the competitors call the five tricks they’re going to do in the order they will be doing them. Tricks include things like spirals and supermans. “The toughest trick right now is a triple back flip,” he said. Points are lost for touching the water during the tricks, unless part of the trick is to dive head first into the water. After the qualifying rounds, there is a head to head competition, where competitors are judged on their height, style and the difficulty of the trick. Andrews said the judging is similar to slope-style skiing competitions.

At the national competition in Louisiana earlier this year, Andrews took on some of the toughest competition in the world, and placed fifteenth overall. However, that did not immediately qualify him for the World Championships in Dubai. Andrews made a two minute video of himself, then submitted it for people to vote on. Twenty would qualify for the Worlds. That was back on October 9. On October 19, Andrews found out he had qualified for the World Championships. “I was super excited,” he said, “I went from not thinking I was pro to thinking ‘holy crap I’m a pro with a world ranking’.”

That ranking? Twenty-sixth. Pretty good for a guy who said he had only practiced a few times.

Since qualifying in October, Andrews said he’s practiced around four times. The last time was just two weeks ago, when temperatures weren’t far over 45 degrees. Not many others have to deal with that kind of temperature, and Andrews definitely won’t have to worry about it in Dubai, where he will be one of only 11 American competitors.

The next problem for Andrews was getting to Dubai. A 26th world ranking doesn’t mean the flight is free. “I don’t like handouts,” he said, “It was tough for me to do, but my family pressured me to set up a gofundme account.” That gofundme site had 17 donations by as many people for a total of $2,345 on Tuesday afternoon. Last Saturday, a group of his friends and family got together at the Lake Bar in Polson to help raise some more. Andrews flies out of Calgary on November 30. Joining him will be his girlfriend. “My family really wanted to go, but instead they combined their money and bought my girlfriend a ticket,” he said. Competition starts on December 3 and goes on for the next two days.

So what brought Andrews back after his first trip on the board? “You’re flying. Everybody’s dream is to fly. You’re controlling your flight.”

Andrews doesn’t call himself an adrenaline junkie, but he’s pretty close. “I like to be outside, and I like to go high and fast. I’ve always felt comfortable with what I’m doing.”

You can watch Andrews’ qualifying video and donate to his trip at https://www.gofundme.com/n79cac3a.