Ben Merrell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Benjamin Judson Merrell, also known as Ben Merrell, (born July 26, 1983), is an American hydroflier. He placed third at the 2013 Flyboard World Cup Championship in Doha, Qatar.[1] Since then, he is well-known and respected as a competitor and innovator.[2]
After graduating, Merrell enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after 9/11. He completed basic training and Airborne Qualification at Fort Benning, Georgia. He served as an infantryman and was stationed at Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawaii. For 12 months during 2004 and 2005, he was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom.
After being honorably discharged in 2006, he moved home to Florida where he began his own business, Power Up Watersports.[3]
Flyboard
After ventures in car sales and real estate, Merrell found his passion in 2012 and started one of the first United States Flyboard rental companies, Power Up Watersports, located in the panhandle city of Destin, Florida. Merrell quickly became proficient on the Flyboard and qualified to compete in the 2013 World Flyboard Championship in Doha, Qatar where his huge, arcing back dolphins, daring trick combinations, and crowd-pleasing showmanship put him on the winners' platform in 3rd place. This led to sponsorships from Skat-Trak and Power fly Products, national and international performances, and attention from other companies looking to place their products on the market.
After a summer of Flyboard performances, a competitor company, X-Jetpacks, contacted Merrell in August 2014 about trying out a new Hydro flight product they called the Jet blade. With no contract interest from Flyboard, Merrell decided to test this new board to great results and satisfaction. His endorsement of the Jet blade created a firestorm of controversy in the Flyboard community, that has ultimately taken Hydro flight Sports to a greater level of competition. Merrell has earned great respect for all Hydro flight competitors and innovators. He has been interviewed on international television and written about in national and international magazines and newspapers. He recently did stunt work on the Steve Harvey show[4] in Orlando, Florida.
In November 2014, Merrell participated in the St. Pete Fly-In held in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he served as the lead judge for an amateur Flyboard competition. Collaborating alongside a team of experienced Hydro flight professionals, Merrell played a crucial role in developing impartial and uniform guidelines for the judging process, a subject of contention in other competitions. Points were awarded to competitors based on a range of criteria, akin to the ISU system used in Olympic judging, as opposed to the bracket system more appropriate for other sports.