Skipping, skimming water toy

Abstract

A skipping or flying hydrodynamic water toy for children and dogs designed for recreational use upon and across a surface of water is provided. . . . The toy preferably is an equilateral triangle with concave sides and rounded vertices and includes a pliable body, or upper external layer of neoprene which is laminated with or without fabric or and has a natural buoyancy, and lower external layer of same material. The upper body preferably forms a relatively thin outer shell that extends laterally, through a smooth curve defining a peripheral region. The lower body is of similar design to provide minimum drag and maximum hydrodynamic performance. Since both external layers slope downwardly and upwardly respectively, they provide minimal toy contact with water thus increasing skipping characteristics and throwing distance. The interior cavity is filled with plastic pellets or some other material that can increase the buoyancy of the toy and adds weight to increase throwing distance. The upper and lower layers are sewn, melted or chemically adhered together to form a tight seal to prevent interior cavity material from escaping.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]This invention relates to skipping or skimming water toy for children and dogs for recreational use, and more specifically to a water-skipping / skimming toy for use in a swimming pool, lake, pond or ocean. Many rigid flying discs are available that provide a throwing and catching recreation, with a flick of the thrower's wrist imparting a spin that enhances the water toy's aerodynamics, are well known. These inventions all are based on a disc shape which is not well suited for skipping on water. The design and choice of materials of this invention cause it to substantially outperform these designs providing better aerodynamic lift, smaller percentage of product contacting the water surface and yet being capable of evenly dispersing water carried thereby throughout a major portion of its flight. Additionally, since the invention is made from soft pliable material it is substantially safer than other inventions. With a fre...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]It is the general object of the present invention to provide a lightweight skipping water toy that is easily gripped and designed to safely and efficiently skim or skip upon and across the surface of a body of water, such as a pool, lake, pond or the ocean, from one user to another. The invention is a hydrodynamic toy that, in one embodiment, includes an interior cavity filled with buoyant material and outer upper and lower external layer that tapers to an outer edge. The outer layers and interior cavity material provide substantial buoyancy and weight to increase throwability and provide a gripping surface and safety protection to toy users.

[0007]The outer external layers include a center bulge that tapers to a thinner outer edge and has a relatively small portion of the toy that contacts the water, giving the toy efficient hydrodynamic qualities that allow it to easily skip or skim across a body of water.

[0009]The simple design of the present invention provides enhanced safety to a user, hydrodynamic efficiency, long skipping distances, utilizes free flowing fill material to increase centrifugal force is lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture.

Problems solved by technology

However, due to their emphasis on aerodynamic design, such flying saucer devices are not adapted towards skimming or skipping over bodies of water efficiently.

In addition, most flying saucer devices are manufactured with rigid material that can injure people or damage property upon impact.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,840 to Bustamante (1998) discloses a hydroplaning disc designed to skip or skim over water; however, the design of this disc is complex and expensive to manufacture.

None of the designs cited utilize any type of free flowing material to increase centrifugal force nor does their designs allow for such a small surface of the toy to contact the water surface.

All of which utilize the disc design, can only be skipped on one side, are not safe for users due to hard material construction, are heavy in design and a large portion of the disc is in contact with the water surface.

This substantially hazardous for the user.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,679,082 to Hincke (1997) is heavy, requires couplers to hold the 2 halves of the disk together, the majority of weight is centered in the middle of the device thus reducing centrifugal force / skipping distance and likely very expensive to manufacture.

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