Drone footage is the latest trend in photography and videography today – and for good reason. The shots are incredible. The one of a kind, bird’s eye, dynamic view that a drone can produce is breathtaking under the right circumstances. So why shouldn’t wakeboarders get in on this action? Be sure to check out our choice for the best drone for wakeboarding on Amazon!
Our Top Choices |
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The Best of the BestAirdog Action Sports Drone
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The “Make Your Friends Jealous” WinnerDJI Phantom
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The Waterproof WinnerSwellPro Splash
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Combining an awesome activity with an equally awesome filming technique is sure to produce some serious eye-popping footage. Well, a Google search will show that this is definitely the case. Some pro wakeboarders have already taken their drones out to the water with them and have posted up some incredible shots.
The tricks that pros pull off look sweet from a boat – and absolutely insane from the air via drone. So what’s stopping you from creating similar footage of your own wakeboarding? Nothing. Which is why we have put together a shortlist for the best drone for wakeboarding on the market today.
What To Know – Follow Me
As with any action sport, there are difficulties that come along with getting footage that are unique to the wakeboarding scene. Several characteristics (that are mostly based on personal preference) are important to make sure of when we go to buy a drone that will allow us to get worthwhile shots.
Most importantly, one aspect we want to make sure that our drone has is the “follow me” function with object avoidance. There is a breadth of drones on the market today that offer a variety of capabilities, specifications, and functions that are all suitable for different types of activities.
The “follow me” function, which puts the drone in a mode that automatically follows a person with its camera locked onto the target, is one of these utilities. This mode brings a ton of autonomy to the process of getting the awesome shots that you are looking for. Nail your trick once and you’ve got the shot. This can be a lot less frustrating than your buddy manually controlling the drone and missing your air.
The “follow me” function usually has several different settings that let you choose how the drone follows its target (like how far away and at what angles) so you will get custom shots specific to your liking. We also want to be certain that our drone has object avoidance so that it doesn’t hit anything while it flies. While we’re out wakeboarding, we have enough to pay attention to already so if we can get a drone that avoids running into anything automatically, we should do so.
Best Drone for Wakeboarding
The Drone’s Drone
DJI Phantom 4 Pro
If you want to own the sickest drone on the market, you are looking for a DJI drone. And if you want to get the best DJI drone there is for wakeboarding, you are currently looking for a DJI Phantom 4 Pro at $1500. This drone features all of the bells and whistles that you could possibly ask for out of a drone.
See all the features at Amazon.com
For the case of wakeboarding, you are sure to love this drone. It has several different types of flight control, including the all-important follow me function we need. Possibly more importantly, the drone has five directions of object sensing so that it won’t crash, ruining your investment. The Phantom 4 Pro is capable of reaching speeds of up to 72 km/h so you need not fear that you’re going to outrun your drone, either.
One of the better drone vids you’re going to see!
Phantom Highlights
- Camera with 1-inch 20MP sensor
- On-board camera has been redesigned to use a 1-inch Megapixel CMOS sensor
- Five-directions of obstacle sensing
- Powerful video processing supports 4K video with a 100Mbps bitrate
With a battery life of up to 30 minutes, this drone will let you carve for plenty of time to get in your best tricks. And all of these features come with the best camera resolution on the market. The camera on a Phantom 4 Pro records in 4K at 60 frames per second. Talk about impressive. And at the end of the day, you can stuff it in a backpack. All told, this drone is good for just about anything so it can be used perfectly for your wakeboarding needs, making it a player in the race to be the best drone for wakeboarding.
The Waterproof Winner
SwellPro Waterproof Splash Drone
This drone from SwellPro offers a unique characteristic that you may find useful on the water; it’s waterproof and it’s the only waterproof drone available on the market.
While you can probably trust today’s drones to not crash land into the water while you are using them, this extra security blanket may make you want to choose this Splash Drone over some other options. Additionally, it floats. Clearly, this drone was built with crash water landings in mind and could save you some cash if you were to make a mistake controlling your drone while out wakeboarding.
See the SwellPro on Amazon
At $1,600, this SwellPro product offers plenty of the capability that you will need to capture your shredding. Of course, this drone has the “follow me” mode on top of many other useful functions. This drone can actually be controlled and given a live feed via an app on your iOS or Android smartphone or tablet. Also, your own GoPro will act as the camera for this drone, furthering the simplicity of running this drone. The ease of use and waterproofing of this product make it a unique offering in the drone market and make it a contender for the best drone for wakeboarding that you could go out and find.
The Overall Winner
AirDog
Built specifically for action sports drone videography, AirDog is probably our favorite option on this list. Priced at $1400 and utilizing your GoPro for its camera, AirDog was actually designed only with a “follow me” function but with sport specific flight modes – including, that’s right, wakeboarding.
Check it out on Amazon
AirDog’s algorithm allows you to draw out a map for AirDog in a cable park course that AirDog will automatically follow as you trick your way around the park. This drone will also follow you if you choose to ride out on the open water behind your tow using other flight modes.
Specs and Features
- Fully Autonomous Drone with sports specific flight modes
- AirDog autonomously follows you without a bulky remote control, so you can focus on the action!
- Control AirDog & make inflight adjustments with AirLeash – the wearable, waterproof control & tracking device
- Future-proof. New flight modes & performance enhancements through free software updates
- Foldable, easily fits in your backpack
- Ground Collision Avoidance with LiDAR
Folded Airdog
Buy the Airdog on Amazon
AirDog is also different from other drones in that it follows you by utilizing a wearable, waterproof wristwatch-eque GPS tracker called AirLeash. This device also acts as the drone’s controller, capable of ordering your drone into several different commands.
This drone is completely autonomous from takeoff to landing, even going as far as stopping a flight to return to its takeoff point once the battery starts to run out of juice. At the end of the day, AirDog folds up easily into your backpack. For these reasons, we can’t say enough about AirDog’s ease of use and capabilities, making it, we believe, the best drone for wakeboarding that we can find.
Wrap Up
From this list, you truly can pick out what is most important to you in your drone purchase. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro is one of the most advanced drones on the market, heavy on engineering and easily adapted to your wakeboarding videography needs.
SwellPro’s Splash Drone gives you peace of mind that, were the worst to happen and your drone ended up in the water, your pocket would not ache. The waterproofing on this drone is one of a kind on the drone market and ensures that your drone will mean fun instead of headache.
Last (but certainly not least, and our overall winner), AirDog poses a formidable force in our decision for the best drone for wakeboarding that you can find. The unique tracking system that AirDog employs along with the specified algorithm specifically for wakeboarding make the AirDog drone a top of the line competitor for your attention for your wakeboarding needs.
All told, though, you’ve got to make your own decision about what you are most concerned with getting out of your drone to ensure that you get the best wakeboarding videos that you can produce. See you out there!