US3833956A

US3833956A - Water skate

Info

Publication number: US3833956A
Application number: US00267453A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Meehan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-06-29
Filing date: 1972-06-29
Publication date: 1974-09-10
Anticipated expiration: 1991-09-10

Abstract

A water skate for each foot including a buoyant hull structure. Each hull has a vertically pivotable foot support mounted within a well in the hull. Movement of the foot support actuates a lever arm which is fixedly secured to the foot support and extends rearwardly beneath the hull and terminates in a horizontally disposed blade. The blade reciprocates through the water as it is moved by the pivotal movement of the foot support and reacts with the water to provide forward movement of the hull on both the upward and downward motion.

Description

United States Paten [191 Meehan 11] 3,833,956 Sept. 10, 1974 WATER SKATE [76] Inventor: John F. Meehan, 16102 Penninsula Rd., Stanwood, Wash. 98202 [22] Filed: June 29, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 267,453

[52] US. Cl. 9/310 D, 115/25, 115/28 R [51] Int. Cl A63 15/04 [58] Field of Search 9/310 D, 310 E, 310 R;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,692,055 ll/1928 Sheldon 9/310 D FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 273,226 6/1927 Great Britain 115/28 R 1,174 8/1887 Sweden 115/28 R Primary ExaminerTrygve M. Blix Assistant ExaminerPaul E. Sauberer Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Seed, Berry, Vernon & Baynham [5 7] ABSTRACT A water skate for each foot including a buoyant hull structure. Each hull has a vertically pivotable foot support mounted within a well in the hull. Movement of the foot support actuates a lever arm which is fixedly secured to the foot support and extends rearwardly beneath the hull and terminates in a horizontally disposed blade. The blade reciprocates through the water as it is moved by the pivotal movement of the foot support and reacts with the water to provide forward movement of the hull on both the upward and downward motion.

8 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures amuse PAIENIED I l/l/dll FIG 2 JOHN F. MEEHAN- WATER SKATE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Many attempts have been made to provide an individual human with a means to manually propel himself across water without the need of a boat. Some of the prior art attempts have included hand held poles by which the wearer of buoyant shoes would push against the water surface and propel himself along, much in the way of ski poles, fins or paddles pivotallyseeured to the bottom of the hull which would automatically extend thereby resisting rearward movement of the hull but permitting relatively resistance free forward movement, a hull or semi hull including a pump means whereby water would be pulled-intothe hull from the front part of the hull by upward movement ofa plunger and evacuated only rearwardly ofthe hull by downward movement of the plunger thus providing a jet like forward action, and a treadle mechanism'whi'ch turned a standard propeller restricted toturn in only one direction thus providing propulsion for the hull.

The problems with the prior art devices and attempts to make man capable of walking on water have been, firstly the physical effort involved in attempting to move a hull solely by means of muscle force of the leg and secondly the lack of reaction by the water to rearward motion of one hull resulting in quite a great rearward movement at one hull for the amount of forward motion gained with the other hull.

Yet another problem in the prior art devices lies in the amount of physical exertion necessary to propel the type of skate using a jet stream for forward propulsion.

vide a water skate wherein an individual may manually.

propel himself across the surface of the water at a greater speed than heretofore achievable.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a water skate which has relatively few parts and thus is inexpensive to manufacture.

Still another object of the present invention is to pro-- vide a water skate wherein the entire motion of the wearers legs and feet is transposed into forward motion of each of the hulls and the leg motion is very similar to that of walking.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical section through FIG. 1 illustrating the foot supporting and propulsion mechanism; and

FIG. 3 is yet another view of the water skate showing I another possible hull embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS As can be seen in FIG. 1 the hull 2 is a buoyant structure of a configuration which offers very little friction when traveling through the water having an exterior shell 4 and a well extending from the top of the hull to a position adjacent the bottom. It should be understood that the design of the hull is entirely optional and not critical to the present invention. The only requirement of the hull is that it have enough buoyancy to support an individual human. It is well within the contemplation of the present invention that the hull may be made of a molded plastic structure, such as shown in FIG. 2 having a hollow water tight compartment providing the buoyancy or alternatively as shown in FIG. 3 being formed of a foamed, closed cell plastic. It is likewise well within the scope of the present invention that the hull could be made of a thin plywood over a light framework or a water tight outer shell the interior of which is made of foamed closed cell substance such that if the outer shell were to be punctured or broken the hull would retain its buoyancy. For purposes of travel through the water it is, of course, desirable that the hull be as smooth as possible such that it is preferred that the exterior surface be entirely smooth with the exception of the area where the lever arm which supports the blade, hereinafter described, extends through the hull.

Referring now to FIG. 2 the method of providing forward motion for the water skate comprises a platform or foot support 8 pivotally mounted to the bottom 10 of the hull 2 and having a frictional upper surface 11 for supporting the foot. The foot support may well include a heel support 12 and a toe strap 14 such as those normally used on water skis, thus providing a secure grip on the wearers foot. The forwardmost portion of the foot support 8 is turned upwardly at 16 and has rigidly secured thereto by any conventional means a rearwardly extending lever arm 18. As noted above, the

' foot support 8 is pivoted, the motion being about fulcrum point 20 on the bottom 10. A bracket 22 is secured to lever arm 18 and likewise pivoted at 20, reinforcing the am 18. Thus it can be seen that movement of foot support'8 about fulcrum 20 causes lever arm 18 to simultaneously and directly pivot about fulcrum 20. The point at whichthe lever arm 18 extends through the bottom part of the hull is provided with a sealing member 24 of any suitable configuration preventing the ingress of water.

The lever arm 18 extends generally rearwardly to terminate in a horizontally disposed blade. Blade 26 having upstanding edges 27 is pivotally mounted at point 27 to the rearwardmost end of the lever arm 18 and has stops 28 and 30 restricting the pivotal motion of the paddle. Upstanding edges 27 serve as stabilizers in that they tend to keep the skate moving in a straight path.

The lever arm 18 and the paddle 26 are hydrodynamically shaped to allow easy passage through the water, provide less resistance and gain greater speed of the hull with less effort on the part of the wearer.

In operation the wearer steps into the well 6 in the hull, secures his feet within the

straps

12, 14 upon the foot support 8 and proceeds to walk. Since the blade 26 and the'lever arm 18 can be folded back against the bottom of the hull it is feasible to walk upon firm ground; Upon entering the water and reaching the point where the hulls are buoyant the wearer simply alternately rocks his right and left foot around the point 20 causing the lever arm 18 and the connected blade 26 to oscillate in a vertical path through the water. As

the blade 26 is moving downwardly it will pivot about point 27 and assume the configuration as shown in solid lines in FIG. 2 and during the upward motion the configuration is shown in phantom lines of FIG. 2. Thus it can be seen that both the upward and downward motion of the blade provide forward force to the hull enabling the rider to traverse the water at relatively fast speed.

In summary, it can be seen that the water skates as hereinabove described allow a person of limited means to enjoy a water sport. Since the skate is not actually fitted, it is possible that all members of one family could use the same set of skates.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

l. A water skate comprising;

a buoyant structure having an opening extending from the top to a position adjacent the bottom of the hull foot supporting means pivotally mounted to the bottom of the hull at the bottom of the opening a rearwardly extending lever arm secured to the foot supporting means for movement therewith and a horizontal blade secured to the rearward end of the lever arm whereby pivotal movement at the foot supporting means moves the blade providing forward motion on both the up and the down movement of the foot supporting means.

2. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the foot supporting means comprises a lever adapted to be moved upwardly and downwardly by the wearer.

3. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the foot supporting means includes a means for holding the foot in the appropriate position.

4. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the blade is pivotally mounted to the lever arm whereby the blade gives a forward thrust on both the upward and the downward stroke of the arm.

5. A skate as in claim 1 wherein the forward end of the foot support is bent upwardly and the lever arm is rigidly attached thereto.

6. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the lever arm is a rigid rod of a hydrodynamic shape and the blade is mounted parallel to the surface of the water, said blade being generally of a tear drop shape in cross section.

7. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the hull is of a hollow construction having a smooth exterior surface.

8. A water skate as in claim 1 wherein the hull is of a rigid closed cell plastic substance.

Claims

1. A water skate comprising; a buoyant structure having an opening extending from the top to a position adjacent the bottom of the hull foot supporting means pivotally mounted to the bottom of the hull at the bottom of the opening a rearwardly extending lever arm secured to the foot supporting means for movement therewith and a horizontal blade secured to the rearward end of the lever arm whereby pivotal movement at the foot supporting means moves the blade providing forward motion on both the up and the down movement of the foot supporting means.