FliteLab Amp Jet 4’2”

Yesterday we opened our FliteLab amp board. The board is produced by Fliteboard under the Flite Lab brand. The head of the project, Chris Reynolds had already started his jet board project when he introduced the project to Fliteboard Founder David Trewern. David convinced Chris to fold his project into the resources of Fliteboard. An unknown deal was struck and the rest is history. Now, the Amp board is an assist product. Unlike a dedicated Efoil, which is meant to be operated on flat water without any real need of waves or additional power the FliteLab board is meant to help you get up with an additional power source such as a wave, wing, or paddle. Typically, it helps the surfer get up on a wave that would be otherwise impossible to catch. This allows the rider to take advantage of conditions or breaks that would be difficult or impossible to ride without the assistance of the jet motor.

I did a test of the product at New Smyrna Beach this spring. On that day the waves were bad and it continued to get worse as the day went on. That being said it was clearly a revolutionary technology. The ability to power the board up allowed me to move quickly through the impact zone. I got out to where the lineup would have been. I paddled up on a wave and quickly fell. When I ride in the ocean my preferred method is to ride a tow board behind a jet ski. The thing is, as we start to incorporate more travel into our lives, we find times where it would be much easier to score additional sessions without the jet ski. Or the local provider was already booked for tow sessions, so we needed other options.

The batteries for the Amp board break into travel sizes. This allows you to fly with the board, Jet cartridge and batteries on vacation which is a game changer. Now this is only the beginning because in 2026 FliteLab will release the Amp Mast. This has a pod and integrated drive unit in the mast. This will be operated with a hand held remote. This will be similar to a Fliteboard Efoil but lighter. I enjoy the lightest Fliteboard. The Ultra Light 2 or L2 for short. That board weighs under 50 pounds with the wave mast and Nano battery. The Amp board with Amp mast should be in the 25 pound range.

So we got our Amp board today. I have a 5’8” board ordered and it should arrive mid September. I tried the 5’0” board in Florida. I thought it was good, but for ease of use and learning I thought the biggest size would make it the easiest. When we got our board we first got out all the components. Next we put the batteries on the charger. I got 4 batteries. I also got 4 chargers so I could charge them all at the same time. When everything was charged I began the process of updating the Amp Jet Cartridge. It is pretty simple. You open the Fliteboard app on your phone. Go to devices. Hit connect to device and then you will see the update in orange. Go ahead and update the board and then update the launch pad. The Launch Pad is the Amp board remote. It mounts into the nose of the board. This allows you to be hands free while you paddle.

If you are already a Fliteboard user you will find everything to be basically the same. The center button is a mode button. The right is a triangle instead of plus and the left is a circle instead of minus. All the functionality basically works the same as a Flite remote though, which is great. Now when you update the modules you will need to make sure you have the remote off when you update the board and the board off when you update the remote. Because this is Bluetooth technology, you can’t pair to them with your phone if the board and remote have already paired to each other. After you have charged and updated your batteries for the Amp and the Launch Pad remote, you can put your batteries in series in the board and you will hear the signature Fliteboard noise. A double beep. Then, hit the Triangle and mode button and hold them down at the same time until the launch pad remote comes on. Then you are almost ready. One last thing to do is change the mode. Mine came in unpowered mode. I had to push and hold the mode button to change it to Prone mode and I set on power level 10 because we planned to use it to prone (paddle) start behind the boat.

On the first day I came close to popping up and riding on my first try. We took our Malibu 25 LSV surf boat out onto the lake. I had my driver start going with the ballast loaded and I attempted to paddle up. I used a big Armstrong wing. I was very close. When I came in the boat to give my son Charlie a try I found out the wedge wasn’t down and the surf side was set to center. My son Charlie is about 140 pounds. He could almost get the board up on foil without the wave. Bear in mind he had never paddled a wave in the ocean. I have prone surfed on two occasions and I did catch waves in the ocean. Charlie has never done a pop up in his life. But he does boogie board and he is a great Foiler. He was up and fell over multiple times. I’m optimistic he will get it tomorrow. We both gave it multiple tries. We were close but we did not get it on the first day.

I know some people are asking why would you want this behind the boat or on the lake? Two reasons: first, the boat is our foil gym where we learn new skills and second is that we hope the poach waves of other surf boats in the future. It is a cool way to practice our skills before we go on vacation. It is also another thing we can do on the lakes. The possibilities are endless. The lake is full of sub optimal conditions for winging and surfing. That makes an assist product super useful. If the wind is not great we can use the assist to get going and get up on foil. Once we are on foil we have so much efficiency we will be absolutely cooking!! It should allow us to use smaller boards and smaller foils than we could otherwise use. It is more fun to use smaller gear. Also, once you are proficient behind the boat, the next step is going to the ocean or the Great Lakes. The thing is you don’t want to suck when you get there. In the ocean there are more variables. The ocean can have chop and the wave sizes vary greatly. It is nice to be able to take the variables out of the equation. We get a consistent wave behind the boat every time. This way we can learn and practice at home and this will allow us to be ready and make the most of our next experience on a bigger body of water. If anyone who reads this has any questions please reach out to me. No matter where you are on your Foil Journey, we are here to help!!