Ringboard

Surfboards are not noted for being great at flying, whilst gliders generally make poor surfboards. This idea combines these two failures into one handy device.

The Ringboard is, depending on how you look at it, either a deep ring or a short cylinder. As a cylinder, it's about 2m in diameter and about a metre long. There are a couple of hand- grips and foot-stirrups, so that you can stand in a semi- spread- eagle position inside it.

The walls of the Ringboard are not thin and flat. Instead, they're fairly thick, and have an aerofoil profile. The result is a sort of annular wing, rather as if you'd taken a conventional aircraft wing and rolled it up into a cylinder. The Ringboard is made of rigid foam, with a plastic or composite skin.

As a surfboard, the Ringboard is barely adequate. However, as you pick up speed, you'll begin to notice the board producing lift, mainly from the upper half of the ring. Pitching the ring forward, backward, left or right will tend to vector you down, up, left or right. By careful tilting, you can gracefully achieve enough lift to part company with the water, using your momentum to glide for a considerable distance with your annular ring.