Flyboarding, Ziplining, and Rappelling with Teens and Tweens in Puerto Vallarta Kara Williams - Expedia Viewfinder
go to original August 7, 2014

"Are we parasailing?" asked my 14-year-old daughter during our most recent vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

"Nope," I replied. "You guys have parasailed before. This is something none of us has ever done."

"Deep sea fishing?" asked my 12-year-old son.

"Nope."

The questioning was non-stop on our 30-minute walk from our Puerto Vallarta resort hotel to the Nuevo Vallarta marina location for Vallarta Adventures, with which I'd booked a surprise outing for my family of four. My husband knew what the plan was, but my children didn't.

And the suspense was killing them.

When we finally did reach the marina, when the gentleman who checked us in at the Vallarta Adventures activity desk said, "Hello, Williams family. Flyboarding for four," both kids questioned, "Huh?" and "What?"

I pointed to a brochure photo of this new-to-us water sport, and then we watched a video of participants standing on snowboard-like contraptions and being shot up into the air by a jet-stream of water from below.

The kids said, simply, "Cool!" and "Sweet!" Even they were impressed.

I was impressed, too, when we boated to the bay and I watched each of them strap on flyboards (with the help of friendly instructors). Within minutes, my children managed to learn how to balance on the boards (by dipping forward on the toes or backward on the heels). They were airborne in no time.

Each of my kids got about 30 minutes of instruction and "air time" as personal guides gave pointers. The guides controlled the level of water thrust from jet skis (each board is attached to the jet-ski propulsion by a long hose). They also encouraged us with supportive comments ("You did it!" "Look, you're Ironman!"). By the end of the half hour, my daughter was diving into the ocean and getting propelled back into the air on her flyboard, and my son was hanging onto the board with one hand, a la Shaun White in a snowboarding half-pipe.

My husband caught on quickly, too, which was no surprise, since he does most athletic things quite well.

I, on the other hand...well, it was rather ugly for a while.

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