Orie Rush is mid-sentence about catching air on a Onewheel when his face breaks into a wide grin. He just landed his first-ever competition win at Oak City Shredfest, threw down a clean 360 and locked in the long slide on his first try, and you can feel the stoke radiating off him. This is not a guy who shows up to collect a trophy and disappear. This is a builder, a rider, a community member who genuinely cannot separate those three things.
Orie Rush competing in the Trick Comp at Oak City Shredfest, which he went on to win. Photo credit Seth Johnson (USA FLT).
Born From a Simple Question
Rush is the co-founder of Flight Fins, based out of Mansfield, Ohio, and what he and his brother Michael Woolson have built since 2017 is more than a product line. It is a philosophy made physical.
Orie Rush (left) and Michael Woolson, the brothers who founded Flight Fins together in 2017 taken at Float Life Fest 2. Photo provided by Orie Rush.
Rush grew up skating and snowboarding, chasing that particular feeling of flight that comes from launching off something and landing clean. Michael came from a different world, a BMX racing background that would later shape his pull toward the racing side of Onewheeling. When Michael introduced Orie to the Onewheel, the board's potential was obvious. But so was its limitation.
"Can we jump it though?" Rush remembers asking. That question, simple and almost ridiculous in the best way, became the founding premise of Flight Fins.
The idea itself started smaller. Michael's first version was a single nub on the back of the board, meant as a nudge assist. Rush is the one who pushed it further.
He had an idea for kind of a nub on the back, like a nudge assist. And I said, well, if we just put on both sides, can we double dip the thing? Is it possible?... Well, let's find out.
Starting with his first XR in 2017, Rush began developing fin-based attachment systems that give riders better grip, leverage and board control, whether they are carving tight trails, hitting jumps or pushing race speeds. The product lineup today includes inside hook fins for precise control in technical terrain, V2 fins, Falcon fins built for maximum nose leverage in race-style riding and the GOAT tire in both five-inch and six-inch options. These are not accessories. They are tools that change what a Onewheel can do.
Early wooden prototypes for what would become Flight Fins' first fin design. Photo provided by Orie Rush.
Tires were Michael's corner of the business, and he was deeply passionate about them. He built the early relationship with Hoosier and tuned two of the tires that became staples of early Onewheel riding, the Whisper and the T2, both of which are still ridden hard today. When Flight Fins decided to build a tire from scratch, Michael found the supplier that made it possible, and the result was the GOAT, a tire that has become iconic in its own right.
Ohio Built, Community Driven
Ask Rush why so much innovation seems to come out of Ohio and he laughs. "Birthplace of flight, baby," he says, before getting more reflective. Ohio winters, he explains, have always been his design season. When the trails are cold and the snow is deep, he is inside working on the next thing. Summer is for riding it.
That rhythm, prototype and then test it in the wild, runs through everything Flight Fins does. Rush talks with genuine excitement about riders like Kyle Hanson, Floaty McFly (Brenden Schurmeier) and Noah Mead pushing his products to their absolute limits in real conditions.
Making products that last is a huge, huge part of what I would like to do.
Now Running It Solo
Flight Fins started as two brothers and a shared obsession, and these days it runs as close to a one-man operation as a growing tire and fin company can. Michael has stepped back from the day-to-day, drawn toward acting coaching work out in Los Angeles and time spent riding e-bikes with his son, who Rush says is a beast on them.
These days it's Orie and Jake, known around the shop as Whalekat, who handles repairs and day-to-day shop management. Rush doesn't dress it up: the company has been in a slow rebuild since Michael stepped back, and he's still figuring out what comes next.
The biggest thing on his bench right now is a new inside hook system, a more naturally stanced fin that opens up alpine-style riding instead of locking riders into a fixed stance close to the wheel. It is the single most requested product in the Flight Fins lineup, and it is coming with a catch.
I think that's gonna probably require a new flight fin as well. We've been riding this design for a while. So I'm just kind of figuring out what, but that's probably the thing we've gotten the biggest request for is a more naturally stanced inner flight fin style.
A new fin means a new mold, and molds are not cheap. Rush is not rushing it. "As long as you believe in it, then all is gravy," he says.
I just wanna make sure that I'm doing something that will last and I'm real happy with.
Connection Is the Point
Rush competing at Race for the Rail 2021. Photo provided by Orie Rush.
At an event like Oak City Shredfest, Rush is not just there to sell. He is there to ride, to watch, to connect. When asked what makes festivals matter, his answer is immediate and unhesitating.
Sharing those ideas with people. You're always going to find a pocket of people that you can hang with. And then going off, doing more trails with those people. Going off, making things with those people.
He is equally enthusiastic about the broader PEV world, the racers pushing speed records, the builders experimenting with battery tech and the newer generation of riders who are already redefining what is possible. For Rush, it all connects. The sport grows when people share what they know.
"It's so sweet to see everything grow and continue to evolve."
What Keeps Him on the Board
Rush has never been a competitive rider. Racing came late for him and stayed secondary to the part of Onewheeling he actually chases.
I've never been a competitive person. It's always been competing against myself, where I just like doing tricks. I like the flow.
Ask him what it is about a Onewheel that keeps people coming back, year after year, and he does not hesitate.
I feel like it's very quick and pure flow state access... Jumps feel the same way. It feels very much as if you become part of a whole.
It is a big part of why he built a company around the board instead of just riding one.
Who Orie Admires In The Community
The riders he admires most are not necessarily the fastest, they are the ones who embody that same connection between riding and community. He points to Luke Austin first.
Luke Austin's just an absolute, generous human in general. He's very community orientated. He's fast, freaking fearless. He's definitely one of the top, he's top race winner, he's just super freaking fast. But he just really embodies the spirit of the community, I feel like.
He mentions Kyle Hanson, who has stepped back from racing to focus on tricks, in the same breath he mentions USA FLT Mens Pro leader Josh Ledford:
Josh Ledford's amazing. I love watching him race.
And on the women pushing the sport forward, he's a fan of "crazy fast" Hannah Klausing, who Rush remarks:
I'm a big fan of hers.
And then there is Noah Mead, the rider Rush cannot stop bringing up.
I've seen him fall in a race so many times and just like somehow he just catches back up. I don't understand how he does it, but just one of the most tenacious people I've ever seen on a board.
Riding What You Build
Rush launches off a ramp. Photo Credit FreshFotos.
What sets Flight Fins apart is that Rush does not just make products for riders. He is one. He competed at Oak City Shredfest and walked away with a win, after all. That kind of credibility matters in a community that can spot inauthenticity from a half-mile away.
It also explains why nothing about Flight Fins feels outsourced. Rush has no engineering background. Before the company, he was an animator and designer, not an engineer. He worked in Chicago on explainer videos and medical animation, did a stretch of work for McDonald's, and studied digital media arts at Huntington University in Indiana.
The Flight Fins logo, designed by Rush.
That training is the reason he can run the whole thing himself. Rush has designed the bulk of Flight Fins' branding and logos over the years, and he still does all of the company's product design today, from the fins themselves to the renders to the overall look of the brand, one person's hand on every piece of it. It is also why Rush is candid about the next hire he is hoping to make: someone who can carry the brand's content the way he used to, before burnout caught up with him.
Find Flight Fins
Head to flightfins.com to explore the full lineup of fins and tires, or follow @flightfins on Instagram, the brand's most active channel. You can also find Orie himself at orierush.com or on Instagram @orieganic. If you see Orie Rush at an event, stop and talk. He means it when he says these festivals are about making connections, and he is exactly the kind of builder this community was made for.
