HANALEI — “It’s a ball,” squealed a young girl splashing in the water of Hanalei Bay. The attraction of the red-and-white water sphere caught her attention as the toy’s inventor, Tim Leefeldt, sent it skipping across the azure water. “It’s
HANALEI — “It’s a ball,” squealed a young girl splashing in the water of Hanalei Bay.
The attraction of the red-and-white water sphere caught her attention as the toy’s inventor, Tim Leefeldt, sent it skipping across the azure water.
“It’s not a ball,” said Darlene Nalley, who was playing with the sphere-like object that resembles a tennis ball. “It is hand-made, it absorbs water and it collapses on impact.”
Leefeldt, an architect-turned-inventor from Chico, Calif., said the roots of the Water Ripper go back 26 years. They were playing with a hacky sack, also called a footbag, at Hanalei Bay and it got into the surf.
“We thought it was gone, but then it surfaced,” Leefeldt said. “When we started playing with it in the water, we just couldn’t put it down.”
Over the years, Leefeldt said, he bought several water balls, but those did not come close to the experience they had with the hacky sacks.
“This is what architects do when the economy turns sour,” Leefeldt said. “We worked on the concept until we came up with the Water Ripper, which is not another bouncy water ball, hard to catch, hard to control.”
Leefeldt said it is a water bag so it does not bounce.
Resembling a somewhat more rigid version of a hacky sack, the Water Ripper is made for the water, skipping, floating and “catch-able,” Leefeldt said. “It’s not big and, as the Water Ripper website claims, ‘skips like a rock, catches like a bag.’”
The Water Ripper has been sold for the last two years at The Magic Dragon in Princeville. It is also available at the Hanalei Surf Co., and is even used at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club at its pool concession. This year, the inventor added a demonstration at the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa.
Spending his annual Kaua‘i visit recently playing and demonstrating the water toy, Leefeldt said they’ve had groups as large as 10 and more people having a blast with it in Hanalei Bay.
But beyond the skipping and catching, Leefeldt said people are at liberty to make up their own games, one of the more advanced games being kayak golf where the Water Ripper is launched using a Chuckit! or tennis ball thrower available at pet shops.
When playing kayak golf, the player sits atop a kayak and launches the Water Ripper at a target at least 200 feet away, the distance the sphere can travel when launched by a Chuckit!
“You don’t need much water for the Water Ripper to work,” Leefeldt said. “Three inches and the Water Ripper skips.”
The Water Ripper is a water ball typically played on a water surface, according to the Water Ripper website. All you need is 3 inches of water and you have a water court of any size and shape — you don’t need to get in the pool or go to the beach to play Ripperball Sports, the website states.
The website suggests shooting at targets. For example, converting a pool chlorine dispenser makes an effective base for a rubber duck target.
Other suggested sports include water polo, water soccer and water golf. Variations include WaterRipper Bowling, WaterRipper Tennis, WaterRipper Kayak Fetch, WaterRipper Houseboat Catch, WaterRipper Jet Ski Fetch and more.
The company also has blanks available for those who want to put their logo on the sphere.
Coinciding with Leefeldt’s annual visit to Kaua‘i, the Water Ripper website was offering an Independence Day sale which is good until July 17.
Visit www.ripperball.com for more information on playing, wholesale, logos, an iPhone App game and more.
Visit The Magic Dragon Toy Store in Princeville and the Hanalei Surf Company to pick up a Water Ripper locally.
