Is Fliteboard crashing?

I ordered a Flite Ultra L in early July. No shipping info followed so I called twice (because they never call back) and learned that they are having “supply issues” with their carbon masts so it would take 4 weeks. Bummer. After 4 weeks I called and they said “about 4 weeks” again. After a few minutes talking, they agreed to ship the following day. Got out on the water and was having a blast, but the fuselage broke halfway through the second session. No response from Flite so far…

Fliteboard was acquired by Brunswick last year and now operates within their Mercury Marine division.

They were a very successful company before the acquisition and Brunswick is a huge corporate entity that has VERY deep pockets.

I would be very surprised that they would buy a company and then close it within a year.

Obviously product availability is subject to delays based on lots of factors. Sorry to hear about your problems.
Did you purchase from Flite directly or did you use a dealer?

It’s hard to tell exactly what happened from that photo, of course it looks terrible. It doesn’t look like you hit a rock or something since I don’t see scratches or impact damage (and you didn’t mention it). Another angle might help show how and where it’s bent.

You can try posting about this in the Fliteboard Owners Facebook group if you’re having trouble getting Flite to handle this. They do monitor that group, probably much more than they watch Foil.Zone. They will tell you Flite stands behind their products hopefully it can grease gears for you. Unfortunately you may end up waiting around again for replacement parts to arrive.

I recently ordered one of their new Flite Air Pro boards for another build. However the board was poorly built and has a comically bent nose pointing off to one side. I posted a photo about in the Facebook group and got quite a bit of reaction, but it did get noticed by few people from Flite and the founder of Fliteboard (@David) even offered a nice apology.

They not crashing, but I’ve noticed the quality slipping since Brunswick took over. I’ve seen quite a few quality issues of late.

I have not heard about quality issues but there have been some noticeable product changes that align with the acquisition date.

@David had a business model that tried to ensure legacy products were considered.

For example the change in volume of the “standard” battery compartment was notable in that some of the newer models of board will NOT accommodate the largest “explorer” type battery. Not a big deal but still a change. Dropping some of the more affordable “classic” models is another. Likely all sound business decisions but changes that effect the existing consumer base nonetheless.

When a relatively small (100 employee) company gets acquired by a large corporate entity the autonomy about what is “best” often suffers.

At $90 million I personally can’t fault David or his investor group fo going forward with the deal. :grinning:

Intriguing! :thinking:
I can’t understand how the angle is possible, is it deformed without cracks? If so, then that’s some ductile material. Can you describe it better, with closeups? How did it get bent, did you fall on the board?

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This photo could be a stitch up too though. Fliteboard has the new conical section where the front wing attaches. You can see in the photo the screws aren’t in the wing so someone might be playing silly with it.

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Hey there, i think im gonna have the same problem soon. I ordered the marc newsom mast and the front conical wing is starting to loosen up after 650+km(29 hours) of riding. It hasent gone as far as yours but when i try to move the wing there is lots of play and you can see the part that the wing screws into is moving in the fuselage. Im wondering if flite has gotten back to you and what is the procedure to fix this. Can you tell me anything ?

The original post was a troll trying to bash fliteboard. He deliberately left the screws out and put the wing skew.
Reach out to the flite Facebook group.

I have the conical system and you cant possibly put the wing on like that, it only goes on in one configuration. MIne is starting to get loose so i would imagine that what happened to him is eventually gonna happen to mine. Pretty sure this is legit

This is the stats page of rhe person who created the thread.

Sure looks like a troll to me!

I don’t understand why you don’t contact Fliteboard or the dealer where you purchased the setup and then post their response here???

Can you actually twist it with the bolts in?

Very little amount of movment right now but you can see it moving in the fuselage, and you see water and air bubbles coming out when you move it. Im gonna contact them tomorrow cause i just noticed it yesterday. But the front wing only goes on one way there is no way to get it flush with the fuselage in any other position. Cant beleive they charge 7 grand canadian for the mast and after 29 hours of use its already having issues.

Can you post some photos of what it looks like? The only graphic I could find on Fliteboard site is this.

If you could post a video to YouTube and then place a link here it would be interesting to see how it’s moving.