A few years ago now JetLev made waves around the world when they built a jet pack you could wear, powered by a jet ski and massive jets of water capable of propelling someone 10 metres into the air for a world of fun.

Engineering on jet powered personal water sport devices has come quite a way since then, now instead of needing to buy the entire product (jet ski and jet pack), you can just buy the jet pack and attach it to any normal jet ski – reducing the price from over $50,000 to under $10,000!

Now new water jet powered sports devices are starting to hit the market, two I’ve seen recently are by Zapata Racing. The first video below shows the Flyboard, which looks like a set of rigid boots with a jet of water under each one that allowed a lot more freedom and maneuverability than the original jet pack style devices by JetLev.

Recently the next stage of development by Zapata Racing has hit the water and they’ve built a jet ski powered hoverboard, which has a single jet at the back of the wakeboard and it produces some spectacular looking fun!

What will the next invention in this space look like?

Willowbank held the Fuchs Winternationals 2014 Thursday 5th June to Sunday 8th June. There was a massive line up of bikes, compacts, cars, funny cars, doorslammers, alcohol and of course top fuel.

I was disappointed that neither Victor Bray or Ben Bray were there on Sunday for the finals but on Saturday Ben was involved in a serious accident, moving seriously fast. Since Ben was in hospital with potentially serious injuries, Victor understandably pulled out of the finals on Sunday despite getting the green light from Ben to race.

According to the Courier Mail, Ben has suffered three fractured vertebrae, six fractured ribs and bruising to his lungs. He also reported shoulder pain to ambulance officers immediately after the crash but I don’t think that really rates compared to the pain of the aforementioned issues. There has been a huge amount of support for Ben, lots of well wishes have been sent to him already and I hope he’ll make a full recovery and be back in his thunderous beast in no time.

Top Fuel

Nathan managed to capture the start for the top fuel final at about 6PM between Damien Harris (right) and Anthony Begley (left). It was an absolutely spectacular run as the sun was down, lights were on and the massive flames from the exhausts were on full display. Damien took t he win in 4.756s at 283.71mph (456.58kph)! I’ve seen top fuel several times now and each and every time I see them – I am in complete awe at the incredible power, launch speed and the noise.

The noise, the noise, the noise, it is something else entirely – you can literally feel the engine beating while idling in the staging area from 30-40m away. If you put your hands on the ground, it is literally shaking from the engine. When they do their burn out to heat up their tires, it takes that noise to a whole new level – completely uncomfortable to hear if you don’t have ear plugs in. When you think it couldn’t get louder, you’re wrong because when they go full tilt when the lights go green – ohh my god – it is so loud, so much pressure and force it is actually hard to describe for those that haven’t witnessed it first hand!

Interesting Top Fuel Facts

In 2009 when Andrew and I attended the Winternationals last, Andrew took a photo of some interesting facts about top fuel on a sign in front of one of the top fuel pits as we stood there watching them rebuild and engine between races. It is a little hard to read the facts in the image, so I’ve written them out below for your enjoyment:

• A top fuel dragster motor is 500 cubic inch Hemi engine
• A stock Dodge 426 cubic inch Hemi V8 engine can not produce enough power to drive the dragsters supercharger
• The redline is actually quite high at 9500rpm
• Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light
• Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load
• Under full throttle, a top fuel dragster engine consumes 1.5 gallons (8 litres) of nitro methane per second
• A fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced
• With 3000 CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into near solid form before ignition
• Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle
• At the stoichometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane, the flame front temperature reaches 7050 degrees F
• Nitro methane burns yellow
• The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from the atmospheric water vapour by the searing exhaust gases.
• Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug, which is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder
• Spark plug electrodes are completely consumed in a pass
• After way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust values at 1400 degrees F
• Cutting the fuel flow can only shut down the engine
• If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro methane build up in the affected cylinder and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
• In order to exceed 300mph in 4.5s, a dragster must accelerate at an average of over 4G’s
• In order to reach 200mph well before half track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G’s
• The bottom line, assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew work for free and nothing blows up, each run costs an estimated $1000 per second.

AWESOME!

The IndyCar Series have just released a new innovation, visor cam! Take a few laps around the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with Simon Pagenaud as he literally manhandles his Honda powered sled around the track. The over steer and fast catches as he approaches many of the concrete walls is amazing, as are the concrete barriers as they approach out of nowhere!

I came across this short but fantastic video of a bloke named Liam Morgan tearing down a steep hill in an urban area on his skateboard. What is great about the video is that it is raw, no cuts, no edits, no fancy camera work or angles – just Liam shredding down the hill au naturel on his skateboard.

Pay particular attention to how fast he is going in different sections of the hill and how often he is sliding on his skateboard, not just the big power slides he does but just trying to navigate through turns his skateboard is sliding all on its own.

Remember, don’t do this at home kids – Liam Morgan is a trained professional. These sorts of disclaimers usually include a comment about the stunts being performed in a controlled environment, well that one doesn’t apply this time!

The video is by a skateboard accessories company named Blood Orange and I think Liam is wearing their gloves, using their grip tape on his skateboard deck and might also be using their wheels as well.

Red Bull have built their brand in recent years on the back of sponsoring elite level and extreme sports, whether it is the Red Bull Air Race or the more recent events like Red Bull Stratos where Felix Baumgartner skydived from the 128100 feet and broke the sound barrier on the way back down or the Formula 1!

The video below shows a Red Bull sponsored downhill mountain biking champion racing a peregrine falcon, which happens to be the fastest bird of prey on the planet, down a mountain bike course while the peregrine is swooping and bomb diving him on the cyclists descent attempting to retrieve a bright yellow package from his back.

I love the amazing camera work, it really highlights just how fast and amazingly agile the peregrine falcon is in the wild. Now imagine how the prey must feel when a peregrine bomb dives them at over 320kph and the fastest ever recorded speed was 389kph!