Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart on “Big Kenny’s Crank It Up Garage”

Before we give you the back-story on Phil Yastrow’s Hovercraft Golf Cart, take a look at how Neoteric Hovercraft are media magnets, just like Bubba’s Hover …

Phil Yastrow bought his Hovercraft Golf Cart last September … and now he’s appearing with it on Big & Rich’s Big Kenny’s Crank It Up Garage, premiering this Thursday, July 8, on Circle TV. Watch the trailer for a quick glimpse of Phil’s unusual replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1 Hovercraft … 

Although the episode featuring Phil’s hovercraft was the first one filmed, we’re not absolutely certain it will be the first one aired. But even if you have to watch several episodes to see it, it’ll be worth it. Big Kenny’s Crank It Up Garage website says, “Big Kenny and his sidekick Charlie Pennachio find and meet the builders, crafters and tinkerers of the craziest motorized “projects” you’ve ever seen. Featuring custom cars, motorcycles, boats, planes and a range of other weird, wacky and interesting modes of transportation, Kenny and Charlie chase down their authentic fascination of all things custom.”

Here, Phil and Big Kenny fly the hovercraft during the filming ...

Now let’s start at the beginning …

Remember that Neoteric was chosen by Bubba Watson to create the first and only hovercraft golf cart in the world. An extremely limited number of replicas were made available to the public. So, you’d think the only reason to buy one of these is to play golf, right? … wrong!

Golf was the last thing on Phil Yastrow’s mind when he bought his Neoteric Hovercraft Cart. Phil is a retired mechanical / electronics engineer who lives in Osage Beach, Missouri. After seeing the Bubba’s Hover video and learning about Neoteric and Founder/President Chris Fitzgerald, Phil decided he couldn’t do without one. He says, “I live on Lake of the Ozarks and I got the notion that I could avoid rough water by flying over it.” 

Here’s Phil last September when he came to Neoteric to pick up his hovercraft and undergo flight training ...

But Phil’s creativity had only just begun. He decided that his hovercraft golf cart had a strong resemblance to Fred Flintstone’s vehicle, the Flintmobile, which is called a Canopysaurus …

So Phil decided to turn his hovercraft into the “Brontocraft”. His nephew, CJ Patterson, designed the Brontocraft wrap, and here’s what his hovercraft golf cart looks like today …

Phil is no novice when it comes to being on water. He explains, “Water skiing was a huge part of my life. I built and owned two competition water ski lakes in Windsor, Colorado starting in 1989. I competed and became a world rated official. I ‘retired’ from competitive skiing around 2014 and got a place at Lake of the Ozarks in 2016.”  

But being on water and other surfaces in his hovercraft is truly a novelty. Phil says, “It’s enabling me to have fun and be unique in a way that other vehicles couldn’t do. I own two other boats and I’ll use them when the time is right and I will fly the Brontocraft when I want the thrill of flying. As an electrical and mechanical engineer, I am mesmerized by its technology and the design.”

Phil has also made it his goal to fly his hovercraft in 48 states. He says "I have friends and family in almost every state and the thrill of going places is unbearable!"

Here’s a map of the states he’s flown in so far …

Check back often because there's lots more to come about Phil's hovercraft ventures across the United States!

Don’t miss out on seeing Phil and his Hovercraft Golf Cart on television! Be sure to watch the premiere episode of Big Kenny’s Crank It Up Garage on Circle TV this Thursday. If you aren’t familiar with Circle TV, see how to access it here.

Update June 2025: Unfortunately, Circle TV has since shut down, and is no long broadcasting. You can, however, find Big Kenny's Crank It Up Garage at this link.

And whether or not you’re a golfer, learn more about Neoteric’s Hovercraft Golf Carts!

Neoteric Hovercraft to star with Rae Sremmurd on MTV

No doubt about it – a Neoteric hovercraft is the next level of cool. That’s why the media keep us so busy. What’s up next? Move over, Bubba's Hover - the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart has been chosen to star in the pilot episode of an upcoming new MTV show that will feature the new, unusual and cutting edge.

The series will be hosted by the wildly popular hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd (“Ear Drummers”, backwards) composed of two brothers, Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown and Aaquil “Slim Jimmy” Brown.

Neoteric’s Law Enforcement Liaison/Flight Instructor Steve Stafford recently took a Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart to California to fly it in the pilot episode filmed at a golf course in Pasadena, California near the Rose Bowl. Check out a few photos ...

Steve Stafford advises the film crew as they install GoPro cameras on the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart to be featured in the show's premiere ...

Stafford and Rae Sremmurd's Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy Brown go over final hovercraft flight plans with the production crew ...

A drone films the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart as Steve Stafford flies the MTV show's hosts Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy Brown over a water hazard on the golf course ...

After experiencing hovercraft flight - and 360 degree spins - the new MTV show's hosts, Rae Sremmurd's Swae Lee and Slim Jimmy Brown, may now be more into hovercraft than hip hop! ...

The name of the MTV series and its premiere date are a big secret, but we'll keep you posted. 

First Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart in Puerto Rico

Alberto Torruella, an 80-yr-old retired attorney and businessman and former sugar cane farmer, lives on a beach in Puerto Rico. And he comes from an interesting background: “Initially our business was sugar, but my great-grandfather started producing rum. After Prohibition, we set up a distillery and went into the rum business, which was kind of a secondary business at the time.” Alberto’s “secondary business” became the Serralles Distillery, the maker of Don Q Rum - and not only the largest producer of rum in Puerto Rico, but the second largest producer of quality rums in the United States.

After he retired last year, Alberto was “… looking for something to keep me busy. I get the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and saw your golf cart there and I looked Neoteric up. I didn’t contact Hammacher Schlemmer because I didn’t want to go through an intermediary; I wanted to go to the source.”

Alberto wanted a hovercraft to fly him over the beach and sea, but he also had business in mind: “Ten years ago we went into the hotel business; we purchased a hotel and added a golf course. And I thought it would help the golf course. Puerto Rico has 12 or 13 golf courses – lots of competition for attracting golfers – so we can offer rides.”

Before he purchased his HoverGolf Cart, Alberto (left) completed a hovercraft pilot and maintenance course in November at Hovercraft Training Centers “to see how it works out, whether I can handle it.” …

Even though Alberto is a pilot and has vast experience operating motorcycles and boats, his training course was his first experience on a hovercraft – and he particularly enjoyed the unique features of the Neoteric craft – such as reverse thrust, which allows the craft to fly backwards, brake and hover in place: “It was very enjoyable – and different. I used to drive motorcycles so I’m used to speed and crazy things – but not this crazy! I mean, you’re going 30 mph and all of a sudden you can spin and go backwards! Being able to fly backwards, etc. – it adds to the fun!”

Alberto is eager to introduce his hovercraft to Puerto Rico: “You can use a hovercraft in Puerto Rico all year round. I think Puerto Rico would be a good market for your hovercraft because we have good weather all year round and we have lots of areas where it could be used.”

As all you Hoosiers know, the weather in Indiana is not quite as good. But that doesn’t stop Neoteric or our hovercraft! Here are photos of Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald conducting performance testing on Alberto’s craft in January on the icy Wabash River …

Want to take a ride in a hovercraft? Take a Test Flight!

Ukraine's first Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart

Superior Golf and Spa Resort in Kharkov, Ukraine - proud owners of their nation's very first Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart - takes their craft for a trial run over greens and water hazards. Full back story and lots of photos coming soon!

HudsonMOD features Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart

The tsunami of publicity about Bubba’s Hover rushes on. The Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart is featured this month in HudsonMOD, a luxury lifestyle magazine that prides itself on treating its New York City readers to “the best the world has to offer” …

HudsonMOD

September 2013

THE WOW – You know you want it

Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart

A video that could have been taken on any golf course shows your run-of-the-mill golf cart winding down a paved pathway. But suddenly, a larger cart flashes across the screen. Never mind that the driver of this floating golf cart is none other than 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, who deadpans with a nonchalant stare back at a gawking golfer. The golfer looks like he’s seen something he can’t very well explain. Yes, that’s a hovercraft on the links. Welcome to the future.

What started as a clever marketing stunt earlier this year by Thinkmodo to drive interest to Bubba Watson’s promotional deal with Oakley has had another, truly astonishing, effect. Since being uploaded to YouTube, the video “Bubba’s Hover” has gone viral, receiving more than eight million views thus far and garnering worldwide media attention for Neoteric, the manufacturers of rescue, military and commercial hovercrafts - and now the first hovercraft golf cart on the planet, the BW1. 

“Since the viral video hit YouTube, we’ve been deluged with inquiries from all over the world,” says Filip Przybysz, an executive at Neoteric. The prototype bearing Watson’s initials has given rise to 100 limited-edition HoverGolf carts that are custom manufactured at the close of each sale. “At this point, we have shipped the first order and are in the process of shipping the second to customers in the US,” he says.

One of the recipients of the accommodating four-passenger, two-golf-bag, 65-horsepower vehicle is the Windy Knoll Golf Club, in Springfield, OH, which recently became the first golf course in the US to purchase two $58,000 hovercrafts with lift-up roofs and the latest noise-reducing fan technology. But why wait for your local golf course to follow suit with futuristic rides? You could be piloting a cushion of air across water hazards in no time with your very own personal hovercraft.

Finally, a reason to smile about spraying a shot: You get to drive in a BW1 to find the ball. The future has arrived. Score!

Learn more at hovercrafttraining.com and facebook.com/HovercraftTraining

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As the article says, “Why wait for your local golf course to offer futuristic rides?”  Sign up right now for a Hovercraft Test Flight or Training Course in a Neoteric Hovercraft at Hovercraft Training Centers!

Enjoy a few photos of the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart in action ... 

Bubba Watson flies the BW1 during the filming of Bubba's Hover at the Raven Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona.

The BW1 flies over sandtraps at an Oakley charity event held at the Heritage Club in Mason, Ohio.

At another Oakley charity event, the BW1 captures attention at the Four Bridges Country Club in Liberty Township, Ohio.

At the Four Bridges Country Club - or at any golf course - water hazards are no obstacle for the Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart.

The BW1 was filmed at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, NJ, with NBC's Matt Lauer and Al Roker at the controls.

Neoteric to be featured in Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles

This week film crews from New York City and Los Angeles traveled to Terre Haute to film a company profile about Neoteric Hovercraft - which will be seen by more than 6 million monthly viewers as part of the Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles series.

Yahoo’s Breakout Profiles feature unique companies doing extraordinary things, and as the media have reported in Neoteric’s recent tsunami of publicity, Neoteric Hovercraft, Inc. “is certainly out of the ordinary.”

The Neoteric profile will debut on July 26, the day before the official launch of Neoteric’s HoverGolf™ Cart – the limited edition replica of Bubba Watson’s BW1 hovercraft golf cart, also manufactured by Neoteric. On July 27, Windy Knoll Golf Club in Springfield, Ohio, will become the first of the world’s more than 35,000 golf courses to use Neoteric’s hovercraft golf carts, which will take flight in an all day star-studded Hover Bash at Windy Knoll.

Be sure to check out Yahoo! Finance Breakout Profiles on July 26! In the meantime, have a sneak peak with the following photos and video clips of this week’s filming ...

Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald (left) and Yahoo! Producer Kevin Chupka from NYC

plan the morning's video shoot at Hulman Links Golf Course in Terre Haute ...

Tribune-Star photo / Joseph C. Garza

A Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart awaits its flight across water hazards

and sand traps at Hulman Links Golf Course ...

Water hazards are transformed into joyrides with a hovercraft golf cart ...

Fitzgerald does a few "doughnuts" in the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  on the 18th green,

without leaving a mark, because it floats 9 inches above the ground on a cushion of air ...

For the afternoon film shoot, the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart and a

Hovercraft Training Centers craft await launch onto the Wabash River ...

And you thought the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart was only good for your golf game? ...

On the Wabash River, the Yahoo! film crew, in the Hovercraft Training Centers

hovercraft, capture Chris Fitzgerald demonstrating  a golf cart that can go river cruising! ...

Tribune-Star photo / Joseph C. Garza

A few spins on the 18th green ... or a few spins on the river - 

the Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  can do it all! ...

Now here's maneuverability - Chris Fitzgerald easily flies the

Neoteric HoverGolf™ Cart  right up to the floating dock ...

At the end of a productive and exciting day, the Yahoo! film crew,
media representatives and Neoteric personnel are all smiles ...

Golf Digest Promotes Neoteric's Hovercraft Golf Cart

Golf Digest Stix

June 2013

By Stephen Hennessey

RIDING ON AIR

HOVER LOVERS

Bubba Watson’s hovercraft golf cart, unveiled in an online video a couple of months ago, continues to draw attention. His clothing sponsor, Oakley, brought the BW1 to the CVS Charity Classic this week at Rhode Island Country Club. Last week, it appeared at a Dick’s Sporting Goods event outside Pittsburgh, where about 300 people got to ride it.

“People have really been fanatical about it since we debuted the video,” says Nathan Strange, Oakley’s director of global marketing.

Chris Fitzgerald, president of Neoteric Hovercraft, which made the BW1 at the request of Oakley and Thinkmodo’s advertising/video team, says 100 hovercraft have been ordered. A four-seater with a fuel-injected, 65-hoursepower engine is available for $58,000, and a six-seater with a 100-horsepower engine costs $70,000. In your price range? You can call the Indiana plant to place an order: 812-234-1120.

Bubba's Hover: Bubba Watson’s Neoteric Hovercraft Golf Cart, the BW1

Here’s something to talk about at the nineteenth hole – and a chance to get in on the ground floor of a video that has gone viral in a major way. Thinkmodo, a viral video marketing agency in New York City, has recently released “Bubba’s Hover “on YouTube, a video project by Bubba Watson and Oakley Golf Apparel. It features golf pro Bubba Watson driving around a golf course – no, not in a golf cart – in a Neoteric hovercraft!

Check out Bubba and Neoteric President Chris Fitzgerald flying across fairways, greens and water hazards in the BW1 hovercraft golf cart – at this writing, the video has nearly 4 ½ million views on YouTube:

The BW1 is the prototype hovering golf cart, the first one out, but golf pros and amateurs everywhere will soon want to capture the always distinctive "Bubba style". Here’s a pro who hovers not only with his driver  - a hot pink golf club – but now hovers around the course itself. The man who won the 2012 Masters Tournament and is who is one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour can surely be trusted to know the best way around a golf course!

The BW1 hovercraft golf cart floats on a bubble of air and has no wheels, so causes no damage to golf courses. A hovercraft has a footprint pressure 33 times less than the human foot - the same environmental impact of a seagull standing on one leg. It sails right over water hazards, sand traps, mud - even snow and ice - so you can go right over hazards instead of around them.

Golf courses can use hovercraft golf carts for maintenance instead of other utility vehicles because they don't damage the ground. They fly right over waterlogged or freshly laid grass and can be used to spray fertilizer and grass seed and are a great way to blow early morning dew from fairways. Hovering golf carts can also boost golf course profits:  in winter, when most courses are closed and making no money, hovercraft golf carts can be used to give joyrides. And, as one owner told us, there would be no need for new golf courses to have expensive cart paths.

We need say no more. Bubba's Hover is going viral and is all over the news worldwide. As one example, here’s yesterday’s Fortune Magazine article: Bubba Watson flies high with hovercraft golf cart video … and Neoteric’s BWI appeared on NBC's Today Show this morning, showing a video of Matt Lauer and Al Roker flying the hovering golf cart.

Lots more to come! Subscribe to the Neoteric Hovercraft blog for updates ... and visit our websites often:

NeotericHovercraft.com
HovercraftTraining.com


About Thinkmodo:

Founded by former Saturday Night Live producer James Percelay and social media maven Michael Krivicka, Thinkmodo is the mastermind agency behind campaigns such as the Times Square Hack for Limitless and the flying people campaign for Chronicle. Their recent video for Popcorn Indiana's Popinator has surpassed two million views on YouTube.