Lindsay McQueen

Lindsay McQueen making a trick called "backflip" with FlyBoard

Lindsay McQueen (Villajoyosa, Spain, 28 of May 1979) is a hydroflight athlete. He has been involved with FlyBoard since it was invented by a French watercraft rider, Franky Zapata in spring 2011 and has actively taken part in the growth of FlyBoard. He has taken part in all World Championships to the date, Qatar (2012), Qatar (2013) and Dubai (2014). His best result was in 2012 when he came in 5th place unluckily disqualified by a head to head battle in quarterfinals by Stephane Prayas from France, who went on to become the World Champion of that year. At present he is the top ranked Spanish and Latin rider.

Thanks to the work he did with the Spanish maritime authorities in 2012 he achieved the Spanish legislation which governs the use of FlyBoard in Spain. At present he is the only qualified "instructor of instructors". As per the Spanish law of the DGGM, IS27/05/2014 any company that wants to have a FlyBoard rental business in Spain must receive a training course from him.

He lives and trains in the world-famous party island of Ibiza where he is sponsored and is image for the world-famous Ushuaïa beach hotel, Maremoto Jets, SEA-DOO Watercraft, Alkkemist premium Gin and FlyBoard Spain. He has a VIP FlyBoard and HoverBoard school, some of his customers are Leonardo DiCaprio, Wladimir Klitschko, Sete Gibernau, Mireia Belmonte, Ana Boyer, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nicole Scheizinger, Leo Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Jose Manuel Pinto, Connor Cruise, Carlos Sainz, Carlos Sainz Jr, Raul Meireles, Alvaro Bautista, Pablo Motos, Juan Ibañez, Damian Moya, Jorge Marron Martin, etc..

Early life and education

At age 5 he started waterskiing at the Cable Ski Benidorm in his home town in Benidorm (Alicante), at age 8 he started to compete for the Spanish Waterski team in the category of Slalom achieving various Spanish champion titles. At age 13 he moved to Nottingham, UK to study. After finishing his studies at Carlton le Willows school he moved back to Spain where at age 19 started waterskiing professionally again and working as an instructor at Cerro de Alarcón waterski school in Madrid where amongst other personalities he gave lessons to the present king of Spain SM Felipe VI. He was also one of the first Wakeboarder's in Spain and was the winner of the first Spanish national Wakeboard Championship held at Casa de Campo, Madrid. At age 29 he moved to Ibiza, Spain where he continued with businesses related to watersports and in beginning of 2012 when French watercraft rider Franky Zapata invented the FlyBoard he signed the exclusivity for Spain and has dedicated his life to this sport ever since.

FlyBoard in Spain

When McQueen committed himself to FlyBoard in 2012 there was no legislation for its use. He worked very hard for months in order to achieve that insurance companies in Spain would insure the FlyBoard and as a result in May 2014 achieved the Spanish legislation IS27/05/2014 which regulates the use of FlyBoard in the Spanish territory. In order to comply with this legislation, he is the person in charge of giving the necessary courses to companies that want to have FlyBoard rental operations. These lessons are given at the facilities of the present Spanish FlyBoard distributor Maremoto Jets located at Puerto Marina Greenwich in the town of Altea, Alicante. Lindsay McQueen is a reference for FlyBoard in Spain and is known as the "Father of FlyBoard in Spain".

FlyBoard Shows

Thanks to his past experience in Waterskiing and Wakeboarding he quickly progressed and self-taught himself with the FlyBoard and is now a reference for the sport. After the first FlyBoard World cup held in Dubai, 2012 he became part of a select group of riders that made a series of FlyBoard shows around the world. At the training sessions for one of the shows at KaruJet in Guadeloupe, Caribbean, he was one of the 5 riders (Patrick Esnard, John Albinson, Emmanuel Jules, Stephane Prayas) that decided to experiment the use of the FLyBoard without the arm stabilizers that where originally invented by Franky Zapata, soon after this the decision was taken to use the FlyBoard without arm stabilizers. In September 2013 this group of riders was to hold a show in Azerbaijan for the Minister of Sports, on arrival and unexpectedly, early elections where announced and because of this the show was canceled because it was not allowed to make shows in public areas. As a result, the team had the idea to make the show in a private place, in this case was the hotel swimming pool. This was one of the first FlyBoard Show's in a swimming pool. Lindsay McQueen performed what would be the first backflip with a FlyBoard in the world inside a swimming pool. At the hotel the team met professional Saxophonist Anastasia Zhukouskaya and had the idea for her to play the Saxophone on the FlyBoard as part of the show.

Flyboard shows are very popular in the most popular events, weddings, beach and night clubs around the world. Lindsay McQueen is one of the most experienced FlyBoard Showmen in the world and makes regular shows during the summer months at some of the best clubs and events in Ibiza. Some of the places you can regularly see him performing at are Ushuaïa ibiza, Destino ibiza, Jacaranda lounge ibiza, Nikki beach ibiza, Ocean Club ibiza. More information on shows can be found on McQueen's FlyBoard Show ibiza Facebook page. McQueen has also appeared on various TV commercials and TV programs like Vodafone, Heineken, Hormiguero with Tom Cruise, Les Princes de l'Amour and more.

Performances and media

References

External links

• Official website
• vision of Franky Zapata and Lindsay McQueen