Skysurfing? Ummm.... no thank you

We've all done some things in our lives that we would take back, right? 

 In my last year of college, I went skydiving with a group of co-workers. We spent a day in classes, learning how to do it properly, and how to deal with problems, should they arise. My buddies didn't look too thrilled about it, but I seemed happy at the time. 

As the day ended, the sky clouded over, and we had to abandon the idea of jumping that day. The next morning, we went back for our first jump.

I've run through this scenario in my head so many times, I can still recall the details - my chute malfunctioned and I'm lucky to be alive. Here I am, a speck in the sky, after I got the chute straightened out. 

That training the day before saved my life. I landed near a corn field about a mile from where I should have landed, 

took my chute off, and decided it wasn't for me.  

It was life changing - I lost all desire for thrill seeking - no more roller coasters, no bungee jumping, no zip lining, no scuba diving, no para gliding, no wind surfing, no rock climbing... I don't even like ferris wheels. Or elevators with glass sides.

A customer recently stopped by my shop, and explained that he was a sky surfer. 

I'd never heard of it, but he was trying to make a surfboard, and brought in a piece of aircraft plywood...

 I didn't even know there was such a thing, and apparently the sport has mostly died out. Sky boards are mostly unavailable, and it's hard to even find a used one to copy.  I pictured a bunch of guys in their garages, making boards from low quality plywood from the big box stores... a recipe for disaster! I could picture the wood delaminating at high speed, or worse....

He and I have been working on some prototypes of boards, with the hope of producing some safe, aerodynamic samples with which he can experiment. This was our first version, 

but the second and third have better bindings and a different footprint.

 If I'm lucky, I'll get a photo of these boards in use.... but I won't be taking the pictures, trust me.  

Want to read more?

Click here: Skysurfing