Bangkok--13 Jul--Bangkok Bounce
To mark the launch of the Waboba Asia Video Contest 2011, Waboba ball enthusiast Tim Wilson has built what is probably the world’s first Waboba-launching gun.
The Waboba Ball, a unique gel ball invented by Swede Jan von Heland, is the world’s first high-performance ball designed specifically to bounce on water.
Skim it like a stone and it will skip across the water for thirty or forty metres. Thow it at the water at a steeper angle and it will bounce up like a tennis ball.
The ball, which has sold by the million in Europe, the US and Australia, reached shop shelves in Thailand earlier this year.
Tim, a director at Bangkok Bounce Co Ltd, says he built his Waboba launching device in the same spirit of invention that spawned the Waboba ball itself, and he is undaunted by the fact that the device was less than completely successful.
“I’m really just trying to explore different ideas that people might use to enter the Waboba Asia Video Contest,” says Tim, who previously worked as a photojournalist.
“I’ve also been experimenting with stop-motion animation. I’m hoping these videos will inspire people to go out and make a video of their own.”
The top prize in the video contest this year is a holiday for two in Phuket, including flights there and back, two nights in a five-star hotel and 700$US in cash.
“I would think it’s the perfect project to keep kids busy over the Summer holidays,” says Tim.
Although his own Waboba gun failed to sprout wings, Tim sees potential for a Build Your-Own-Waboba-Launcher competition in Phuket towards the end of the year.
“I think it would make a great event. We’d need to muster several teams, but imagine the scene — mechanical slingshots, catapults, combustion spud guns, all competing with each other for the longest throw and the greatest number of bounces.
“That would be something worth watching,” he says.
For more information about the Waboba Asia Video Contest 2011, visit www.bangkokbounce.com or www.wabobablog.com .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM6iZ3Hz58w&feature=player_embedded