Skyaak as Athletic Device

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been tossing a Skyaak around at work during breaks with Evan Reiffersheid, who is the strapping 17-year old nephew of Wayne Reiffersheid. Readers of this blog will remember that Wayne is the Skyaak enthusiast who managed to have his air-speed recorded by the RCMP radar gun at 41 kms/hr a while back. Evan has been quite involved in the javelin program at Winston High in Watrous, SK. He has become a very expert thrower/catcher in a short period of time. Evan has agreed to provide a detailed testimonial of his positive Skyaak experience. I am quite excited about this. While Skyaak may be enjoyed by nearly anyone with only average athletic abilities ( with some tips and practice) it is extremely rewarding for me to witness the excitement generated by an exceptional athlete such as Evan.

For example, I imagine Evan is capable of reaching airspeeds in excess of 50 kms/hr. And his throws are truly impressive. He says that he has developed a ‘whole new skill set’ with his Skyaak. Some of his best throws include a football/javelin hybrid that he delivers overhand. At the last split second he gives it a rolling twist that pumps up the spinning action. I have tried this throw myself and let me tell you it is not that easy. But Evan whips it up repeatedly, achieving a crisp, powerful trajectory nearly every time. We are establishing a bit of a throwing protocol: basically, the throw is deemed to be most successful when the recipient is able to keep his feet planted in the same spot. This is only possible when the throw is accurate within a circle of about six feet in diameter. ( ie: arm’s reach of the catcher) Obviously this ‘target’ varies according to the reach of the recipient. I have found in many instances that Evan has such a powerful throw that I have to pivot on one foot in order to compensate for his velocity! We are agreed that it is just as much fun to catch a well-thrown Skyaak as it is to chuck it!

Another one of Evan’s favorite throws is a sizzling underhand. When he’s on his game, he can hurtle his Skyaak over a distance of 40-50 feet or more at a low altitude of about 4 feet off the ground. This technique causes the Skyaak to spiral very fast on its axis, and even after traveling across the space between us it is still gaining speed and starting to climb a bit. Very impressive.
The point of this discussion is to emphasize that the Skyaak Model 3 truly is an athletic-quality device that has all kinds of exciting possibilities to be enjoyed by the athletically inclined.

I have gone ahead and contacted Bob Reindl, Head of the Athletic Program at Saskatchewan Track and Field Association. Bob has expressed an interest in forwarding my note ( along with links to the Skyaak web-site and this blog) to his two ‘throwing coaches’. Thanks to the amazing performance that Evan has consistently delivered, I have increased confidence that we may have a whole new athletic device here that has the potential to be embraced as something more than a just a flying toy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. A cool new flying toy is remarkable enough in its own right; this application just opens it up to a more discerning group who might find the Skyaak Model 3 to be as exciting as Evan does.