You know you’ve made it when Jeopardy knows your name.
The FlowRider has been quietly showing up in the most unexpected corners of pop culture for decades now: prime time TV, Super Bowl commercial breaks, MTV clip shows, collegiate sports broadcasts. And honestly? It tracks. When your product is a stationary wave that makes people simultaneously look cool and wipe out spectacularly, you’re going to get noticed.
Consider this a greatest hits, not a complete record. The FlowRider has been showing up in pop culture for over 30 years, these are just a handful of our favorite moments that we couldn’t wait to highlight.
“What Is Flowboarding?” – Jeopardy (2023)
Let’s start with the ultimate credibility flex. On November 29, 2023, a FlowRider clip appeared on Jeopardy as the answer to: “The name of this sport combines snowboarding with something you just have to go with.”
The correct response, of course: “What is flowboarding?”
There’s something deeply satisfying about a sport born from shooting water up a ramp in a San Diego bathtub eventually making it onto America’s most iconic trivia show. Fun footnote: the contestant who nailed it, Henry, went on to win the episode. We’d like to think the wave brought him luck. No further questions.
Bethany Hamilton Wins a Fast Forward – The Amazing Race, Season 25 (2014)
In 2014, CBS sent its Amazing Race teams to Singapore and straight to the FlowRider at Wave House Sentosa. The challenge? Ride the wave well enough to claim the Fast Forward and skip ahead in the race.
Enter Bethany Hamilton and her husband Adam Dirks. If you know Bethany, you already know how this went. The professional surfer who lost her arm to a shark attack at 13, became the subject of the film Soul Surfer, and went on to compete at the highest levels of professional surfing — she did not struggle on the FlowRider. Bethany and Adam won the Fast Forward while the other teams left without a win.
The episode, “You’re Taking My Tan Off,” aired November 28, 2014, to millions of CBS viewers. The FlowRider earned its co-star credit.
The Reward Was Better Than Winning – Hell’s Kitchen, Season 16 (2016)
Gordon Ramsay doesn’t hand out participation trophies. But in Season 16, Episode 4, he handed out something better: a day off the line and on the water.
The episode’s challenge was a surf-and-turf protein relay — teams racing to identify cuts of meat and fish against the clock. Losers spent the day making sausages from scratch. Winners got sent to Wave House in San Diego to trade their knives for boards.
None of them had flowboarded before. Most of them wiped out. All of them looked like they’d rather be there than back in the kitchen, which, given the kitchen in question, tracks completely.
It’s a small moment in a 43-minute episode about ostrich eggs and screaming. It’s also proof that even a wipeout on a FlowRider beats a good day in most other places.
Collegiate Sport Gets a Makeover – CBS Alt Games (2010)
Before flowboarding had a prime time slot, it had a college sports broadcast. The Alt Games on CBS College Sports Network featured 15 hours of HD coverage of collegiate competition across action sports, and flowboarding was one of the headlining events — shot right here in San Diego.
The production team called it “on the cutting edge” for its use of POV cameras and modular multi-venue setups. Three locations, 12 cameras, one weekend. Flowboarding sat alongside wakeboarding and skateboarding as a legitimate collegiate sport competition.
For a wave machine that started as a standalone attraction, getting national broadcast coverage as a competitive sport is a pretty solid résumé line.
The legend is back. The wave is ready. All aboard.
111 Million People Watched This – Royal Caribbean Super Bowl Commercial (2012)
Super Bowl XLVI. One of the biggest stages in American advertising. Royal Caribbean bought a spot and put the FlowRider in it.
“The Sea Is Calling” aired to an estimated 111 million viewers — at the time, one of the most-watched broadcasts in television history. The commercial showcased the thrill of life aboard Royal Caribbean, and the FlowRider was front and center as the symbol of that experience. Surfing on a ship, mid-ocean, because why not.
This is the moment FlowRider stopped being a waterpark attraction and became shorthand for a certain kind of adventure. Royal Caribbean and FlowRider have been partners since 2006, when Freedom of the Seas became the first cruise ship to install one. The fleet now has 25+ FlowRiders across 16+ ships. The Super Bowl just made it official.
Rob Dyrdek Reacts — Ridiculousness, MTV
Ridiculousness ran for 46 seasons and over 1,700 episodes on MTV, airing so frequently it basically became the channel’s default state. The premise: host Rob Dyrdek — pro skateboarder, entrepreneur, and person who fundamentally understands the relationship between humans and wipeouts — reacts to viral internet videos with co-hosts Steelo Brim and Chanel West Coast.
FlowRider wipeout clips made the cut. Of course they did. The show ran on exactly this kind of footage: fast-moving wave, first-time rider, spectacular and harmless fall, repeat. Rob Dyrdek spent his career on a skateboard. He appreciated the physics.
