Flowrider question

[cjacksonii]

Hello all! I have a question that I think others may possibly have as well, so I'm going to post it.

When I sailed on Freedom of the Seas last November, they had a policy that if you could not load yourself onto the Flowrider without assistance you could only do the boogie boarding on the flowrider and not the stand up surfing. I personally am not that great at loading me on my own, and when I did the Flowrider on some of the other ships like Oasis, Harmony and Symphony, the crew members helped me load onto the Flowrider so I could do the stand up surfing.

I'm going on Allure in October, and am wondering if they have the same policy that Freedom did. I've looked at Cruise Compasses from the sailing I did on Freedom, and it stated that guests had to do the Boogie Boarding before doing standup surfing, but the cruise compasses I've seen for Allure don't say this. Can anyone advise as to whether or not they are requiring guests be able to load themselves onto the Flowrider to do stand up surfing?

[melmar02]

We just got off Allure a couple weeks ago. I'm not sure what you mean by load yourself onto the Flowrider, but their policy was that you had to have prior stand up surfing type experience before you could surf. The prior experience could be previous stand up Flowrider, snow boarding, skateboarding,  etc. 

[Jkaczano]

Flowrider time is broken up into 4 times - boogie board, mixed wave, assisted stand up, and advanced.  To try stand up, you must have previous stand up or surfing type experience.  You then must “show” boogie board ability by loading and then going back and forth on wave.  Stand up can be tried during mixed or assisted stand up times. Policy is that staff may NOT help you load.  You will be given 2-3 tries (depends on ship and staff) and then either you won’t be able to try again all cruise, all day, all session, or for 1 hour (depends on ship and staff).  

[Babsy47]

My family loves Flowrider.  The rules seem to be in flux.  Most recently, during the self-assist, the would give three chances to load (get on the wave yourself) per session.  I think the beast way to learn is in a class—that was the route for my kids and spouse.  My family can all surf, but flowrider is different.  The number of classes required varied by person.  Once you figure out how to get on the wave by yourself, you get a wristband.  I haven’t really figured out the difference between ‘self-assist’ and advanced though.

[Jkaczano]

14 hours ago, Babsy47 said:

My family loves Flowrider.  The rules seem to be in flux.  Most recently, during the self-assist, the would give three chances to load (get on the wave yourself) per session.  I think the beast way to learn is in a class—that was the route for my kids and spouse.  My family can all surf, but flowrider is different.  The number of classes required varied by person.  Once you figure out how to get on the wave by yourself, you get a wristband.  I haven’t really figured out the difference between ‘self-assist’ and advanced thought.

Advanced requires you to already have your blue (advanced) band.  Self assist is the opportunity for people to attempt stand up.  current policy (Anthem in March and Odyssey in May) is to load yourself and ride in control for 10 seconds to get a blue band.  Definition of “in control” did vary though.  I agree that the best way to learn stand up is a lesson.