Royal Caribbean cruises' FlowRider turns Adam Wildman into a flowboarding champion

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This was published 9 years ago

Royal Caribbean cruises' FlowRider turns Adam Wildman into a flowboarding champion

By Kylie McLaughlin

These days, you can do just about anything your heart desires on board a cruise ship.

For one Aussie boy, a cruise holiday paved the way for him to become a champion Flowboarder.

For those uninitiated, flowboarding is a hybrid sport which combines elements of surfing, bodyboarding, skateboarding, skimboarding, snowboarding and wakeboarding.

The FlowRider, found on board Royal Caribbean cruise ships, is a simulator of this sport. It's available for anyone, from the humble beginner to the advanced. Lessons are available from instructors if you want to learn or pick up a few new tricks.

Adam Wildman,a 20-year-old Gold Coast native, decided to try the FlowRider surf simulator while sailing with his family on board cruise ship Freedom of the Seas.

Discovering he had a knack for it, Wildman entered his first flowboard competition when he was 15, placing fourth in the Australian Flowboarding Championship in 2010.

He took another cruising holiday on board Independence of the Seas in 2011, using the FlowRider to train, and was told he was good enough for the European Championships.

His third cruise on Oasis of the Seas was used as an opportunity to hone his skills on the FlowRider even further.

Hard work paid off for Wildman, and he came in at second place during his first international competition at FlowJam in Singapore in 2013.

Later that year he took first place in the UK's European Championship.

Wildman is currently ranked fifth in the world in the Pro Bodyboard division and he is the number one rider outside of America. He is also the current European Flowboard Champion.

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