It's basically a cross country ski exercise machine with parallel pontoons that slide forwards and backwards on rail attachments relative to each other, each one having fins that open when pushed backwards and close when moved forward.
It's steered by handles like ski poles or a bike style handlebar arrangement attached to rudders located under the pontoons, fore, aft or both.
This system would be extremely efficient and should be able to break any speed records for man powered water vehicles by several times over.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024 Pontoon Water Runner https://www.dropbox...4f&st=coqbzk0c&dl=0 [doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024] Closest thing I found. https://www.youtube...watch?v=lDUudocjaJw [doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024] Okay, mostly baked at 7:15, but not perfected, in fact pretty flawed. https://www.youtube...watch?v=R8f5fehB_CQMine would be an improvement using a steering wheel and automatically resetting pontoons. [doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024] Kind of shuffling sideways, on water https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NVYQO-C8s0o [afinehowdoyoudo, Jul 19 2024] Hmm, wonder how collapsible this could be if you could deflate the pontoons. For the structural element needed you could have collapsible poles, platforms or something.
I also think I'd play around having springs that reset them after you push them back so you're only putting energy into pushing them backwards like actual running, albeit with more force needed obviously.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024 Okay, 90% baked but needs what I added to make it fun, the central control column you push against and steer with and the spring reset so you don't move the pontoons back in place manually, and most certainly getting rid of the paddles that make the whole thing a balancing act.
Quite simply the prior art doesn't look fun at all. All your energy is spent keeping your balance. Mine you just lean forward and start kicking. There's one that has little paddles but mine was much more paddle area and should go much faster.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 06 2024 //break any speed records// Umm, no. Basically, anything pedal-powered will beat anything "stepped". Bicycle vs. runner? Top cross-country skiers might hit 15mph; current record for pedal-powered boat is (a surprisingly low) 21mph (air-prop hydrofoil). Water is way more draggy than snow...-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 08 2024 I'm seeing that the fastest water thing is the deal you jump up and down on with a couple of fins in the water.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 08 2024 Like a Waterbird Aquabike? 17mph, according to a re-seller, but that would be really pushing it (a friend of mine has one).-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 08 2024 Cool! I want one!-- doctorremulac3, Jul 08 2024 Clearly if you want to go fast(er) on water, hydrofoils are the way to go There's been many human powerered hydrofoils.. paddled, pedalled, shuffled, humped, etc. My notion was a stairmaster-like mechanism driving water pumps (pistons or bellows) on a dual-foil (fore and aft) board. The front foil has ports to suck up water, and the rear foil has jets for propulsion. Electric or other powered augmentation suggests itself.-- afinehowdoyoudo, Jul 19 2024 Yea, the other one I saw was smaller going goes forward. You're not only using minimum area moving maximum water, you're putting the entire body weight and musculature into the power system, not just the legs or arms.
Looks like a lot of work though, I'd be more about having fun and just cruising around.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 19 2024 random, halfbakery