Frankie Zapata conceived the Flyboard in Spring 2011, rapidly prototyped and developed the sub-$10,000 personal water craft (PWC) attachment inside a few weeks and this was the third running of the world championship.

This year the competition was expanded to three categories with women and veteran (over 40 years) competitors now separated from the outright pro category. It was just as well, because the standard of flying has grown appreciably better each year, with the undoubted highlight of the event being the first triple backflip, performed by Thailand's 2013 and now 2014 world champion, Suksan Tongthai.

In total, 86 competitors were selected via video from 29 countries and our photo essay leaves little doubt as to the growing breadth and depth of expertise that has been achieved in this brand new extreme sport over the last three years.

Just over two years ago, we wrote of the astonishingly rapid development of the "floating island" and "firehose" marketplaces, marveling at how quickly new thought in any arena can propagate globally thanks to the internet and the many commando-like development teams that can rapidly prototype and develop entirely new products.