Flying Hoverboard Inventor Fails to Fly Across English Channel

"I lost balance, I fell in the water."

Channeling the Green Goblin

Franky Zapata's attempt to make history on Thursday ended with a splash.

Earlier in July, the former jet-ski champion made waves when he flew over Paris' Bastille Day parade on a hoverboard of his own invention.

His next big stunt was supposed to be a hoverboard flight across the English Channel on the 110th anniversary of French inventor Louis Blériot's history-making cross-Channel flight in an airplane.

Winners Never Quit

Zapata recently told The Guardian he thought he had about a 30 percent chance of success. As it turned out, he wasn't able to beat those odds — he fell into the water while trying to land on a boat to refuel about 11 miles from his destination.

"When I got closer to the platform, the boat took a wave and it hit the foot of the machine and broke it," Zapata said during a follow-up press conference, according to CNN, later adding, "I lost balance, I fell in the water. The flyboard is damaged, the electronic part has to be redone, the motors are ruined but the base is saved."

Zapata wasn't hurt by the fall, and it isn't deterring him from getting right back on the, er, hoverboard — during the press conference he said he hopes to attempt the cross-Channel flight again, perhaps "as soon as next week."

READ MORE: France's Flyboard hero Franky Zapata failed in his attempt to cross English Channel [CNN]

More on the hoverboard: Inventor Set to Fly Across the English Channel on His Hoverboard