Straight to the bottom.

So, my diving board didn’t work. Product of bad engineering from yours truly, I’m afraid, and it’s back to the crafting table. It could be argued that it did work…since it really did have no trouble at all pulling me straight to the bottom of the lake…but the resurfacing part was tragically broken. Down was the only direction it wanted to go, and I just can’t hold my breath as long as I used to. My brother thought that perhaps we just needed more speed, but in truth I had a feeling this would happen. There was a physical attribute from the board I remember using back in the day, that I left off of this one…mostly because I don’t really know how to shape a wooden board into airplane wing proportions– specifically, thick in the front, and thin in the back, for the purpose of creating lift. I now realize how important that particular aspect was, and am fully confidant that by the time next summer dawns, I’ll have crafted up one that actually works. Not yet sure how that’s going to happen, but it will…oh it will…

Especially since the only trace of such a device I could find is this hideous monstrosity, beginning at 700 bucks for the ‘basic’ model, and just going up from there:

I see absolutely nothing that is ‘basic’ about this design. It has more ropes and pulleys than the path to One Eyed Willy’s treasure, and features an extremely wide board, with no discernible lift-principals built into the design. From what I can tell, it looks like it operates purely on newton’s law of force (the law my brother thought would kick in if we went faster), by making the board nice and wide and flat, so that it catches as much water as possible when it’s tilted. I think I can get away with providing equal force, greater maneuverability, and better handling, with a much smaller board…as long as I can get it into the shape I want. But we’ll see.