Awesome Water

SkyCaliber is a crazy new waterslide coming to Vernon, New Jersey’s Action Park in 2016. The ride stands 90 feet tall, and sends riders through a loop de loop in a special capsule at speeds up to 50mph. Apparently, they tried this before.

As part of NASA’s 3D camera project, astronauts at the International Space Station made a softball-sized ball of water – thanks to the low gravity in the space station – and submerged a GoPro camera inside the ball. 3D video here.

The Quadrofoil is a two-seater electric watercraft that glides on the surface of water, giving you a quiet, smooth and agile ride. Its electric motor lets it cruise up to about 25mph with an estimated range of 62mi per charge.

Rinspeed’s amphibious sports car, the sQuba can dive up to 10m (33ft.) and move at up to 2 knots (2.3mph) underwater. It has three electric motors – one for land, two for water – two jet ski motors and two oxygen tanks for passengers.

It’s amazing just how realistic CGI water simulation has gotten. Check out this short demo from Carlos Parmentier using Houdini FX which shows off sea foam, bubbles, wind, mist, splashes and even a dead body floating there.

The Schiller X1 has two propellers that are steered with the handlebars, eliminating the need for a rudder. It can be assembled and disassembled in 10 minutes and can fit in most vehicle bike racks and trunks. Video here.

Josh Malone is declaring war on summer. His invention lets you fill 100 small balloons with water in less than a minute. Sadly, Bunch O Balloons’ straws are one time use only, although they are made of recyclable plastic.

Gavin Peacock of FlippedSociety made his own Russian swing and used it as a diving board. Unlike most swings, the device has steel bars instead of ropes and is often used by circus performers to pull off high acrobatic jumps.

Viral filmmaker Casey Neistat and his son Owen took a trip to Tropical Islands Resort, a huge indoor 24/7 water park in Germany. It’s in a 710,000 sq.ft. airship hangar that’s high enough to fit the Statue of Liberty inside.

A group of Russian firefighters has a little time on their hands between calls and decides to do something fun with all those high-pressure hoses they have lying around. Sure, it’s a waste of water, but it still looks like fun.

The BomBoard is a gas-powered personal watercraft. It disassembles into four separate pieces that are small and light enough to fit in the trunk of a car. It has a top speed of 40mph and will sell for $3,495 in 2015.

Tribord’s Easybreath is a mask and snorkel that lets you breathe through your nose while underwater. Works down to about 10ft., provides 180º vision and won’t fog up or let water in. Available in Europe starting 5/14 at Decathlon.

We love a white Christmas as much as the next guy, but there are moments when the dirty snowmelt outside makes us crave warmer climes. Good thing we can dive into this surf vid featuring western Australia’s pristine waters.

Point 65 specializes in take-apart kayaks. The Mercury in particular splits into three parts small enough to fit in the back of a small SUV or crossover. You can also link two cockpits together to create a longer tandem kayak.

ACL Digital Cinema showcases some of the epic shots they took this year using the amazing Red Epic camera, which has a 14mp sensor and a 5120 x 2700 pixel array. Best watched in full screen HD with the sound cranked.

Using a Kinect and projector, Mato Mato developed a display that you interact with using a liquid surface as the interface. It has desktop applications but it’s the game ideas shown off at the end that really captured our attention.

The Lifesaver Jerrycan holds up to 5 gallons of water. It can filter all known viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi from freshwater sources. Its filter can clean up to about 5,300 gallons of water. It also has a shower attachment.

The Balmain Boat Company sells flat-packed mini rowboat and sailboat kits. Each kit has most of what you need to build the boat, including nails and screws. It takes about 30 hours to put a boat together.

It’s officially summer and it’s like a steambath in the city, so watching all the superior wakeboarding footage in Parker Walbeck’s video for Devin Supertramp is cooling us off. And maybe making us a little jealous too.

Software developers have long struggled to incorporate realistic water into video games. As video chips become more powerful, and engineers create better digital models, we might soon be seeing water that looks this good.

(NSFW: language) Isaac Brumaghim was minding his own business, kayak fishing, when he received an unexpected visitor. His reaction is priceless (and way better than if Chompy had actually made contact). (Thanks everybody!)

Devin Graham flings summer at us as we watch these folks head 60 feet into a lake at 40mph on an inner tube. Minimal broken bones and only two people knocked unconscious – our typical Tuesday.

Made by Vestergaard Frandsen, the LifeStraw is a durable, long lasting and user friendly water filter that doesn’t use chemicals. One unit can filter 99.9% of bacteria from 264 gallons of water.