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  • A tourist rides the Sky Surfer in a standing position. Courtesy | Adventure Zip Lines of Branson

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August 24, 2012

Tourists take to the skies with new attraction

By Dave Woods Digital market development manager

BRANSON, Mo. — Bob Nichols remembers the first time he boarded the Sky Surfer.

“It was exactly what it describes,” said the longtime Branson show and attraction marketer. “I felt like I surfed the air. I’ve done it multiple times, all three ways.”

Nichols said the daring may ride Sky Surfer standing up. The position is called “the flying surfboard.”

“You stand on it and surf,” he said. ”There are no hand rails and no guard rails. It’s just your lanyard that connects to a body harness. You ride the surf board around the corners.”

He said riders may also sit or kneel on it like a magic carpet or lay face down, head hanging over the front edge of the motorized platform.

“It’s flying like a super hero,” he said.

Seven days a week, visitors can soar above the Strip on Sky Surfer or take a more traditional zip line ride at Adventure Zip Lines of Branson. Each provide thrill seekers with a unique outdoor Ozark experience.

Nichols, who was in on the design and development of the airborne attraction, said he wasn’t sure what to think of the one-of-a-kind attraction.

“This is the first,” he said. ”We spent the last year designing and building it. It was invented right there on Highway 76.”

Sky Surfer launches from a tower 35 feet in the air and moves from point to point around the six and a half acre property, offering a bird’s eye view of the Strip.

“It’s not a zip line or a roller coaster or a surf board,” he said. “It’s a combination of all of them. It goes at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, uphill and downhill and around the corners and at heights of up to 50 feet in the air.”

Don’t fear, Nichols said. The attraction was put through its paces before guests were ever allowed to take flight. The development crew sent thousands of pounds of weight across the span, logging more than 1,000 tests before the attraction opened to the public.

Riders are “speechless” when they come off the ride, said Nichols.

“Reactions are off the hook,” he said. “You can look at our Facebook page and see where people post their comments and photos.”

While Sky Surfer accomodates one rider at a time, Adventure Zip Lines of Branson offers trips for families and groups. The only restrictions are good health and a 275-pound weight limit. No rider younger than 3 years old may zip alone. Young riders can be tethered to other guests or tour guides for their zips.

In groups of 10 to 12 riders, guests are guided up spiral metal towers, climbing several stories above the ground. From the time guests ascend to the top of the first tower, they are perched with a view of the Strip’s middle section.

 “You spend time on each tower with your friends or family as a group,” Nichols said. “There are towers to climb and seven lines for you zip through as a family.”

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