If you look at some of the pogo sticks they have these days, the height you can reach is amazing (8 feet is the record). And yet while you're soaring in the air on a piece of metal, you can't help wonder what's going to happen when you attempt to land. (Mostly likely freak out and fall. From 8 feet.) If you landed in a soft substance, like snow, perhaps you would consider the experience a success.
Obviously, you could just jump from pavement to a snowbank and achieve this. Great. But why not a pogo stick that bounces on snow? That would be one insane ride, and you wouldn't have to worry about painful falls.
How would you do it? Envision a water-proof pogo stick with a snowshoe-type object on the bottom. It would only have to be about a 8x8 inch diameter or less, especially if rods were used to spread the weight. (Seem far fetched? Just picture placing a board on snow then jumping on that. Same concept except the board is attached to the pogo stick.) You might sink a few inches, but you would pop right back up.
One of the cool things you could do with this would be to place some kind of stamp on the bottom of the "snowshoe". Every time you jumped, the imprint would be left in the hard packed snow. Great for leaving "I was here" messages and such.
Happy Pogo-ing!-- Elk, Dec 08 2006 //But why not a pogo stick that bounces on snow? That would be one insane ride, and you wouldn't have to worry about painful falls.//
Ask a snowboarder or skier how painfull it is to fall on snow.-- Chefboyrbored, Dec 08 2006 One of the most heart-in-throat experiences I have had was cantering horses along a fire road in a foot of snow. Not knowing if there is a pothole somewhere under there raises the tension level considerably.
There would be a world of difference between falling on a packed snow board slope, and falling in powder. Two different pole configurations would be required for the two different sets of conditions.-- normzone, Dec 08 2006 crash helmets , body guards, elbow, knee, shin guards, aahh fuckit just dress up like a star wars storm trooper, and dive off a snowy mountain, try to tackle any near snowboarders/skiiers, and have a very good defence counsel ready, not to mentionlife/disability insurance....ooooer there's a question, do disabled people get discounts on their disability insurance?????-- Stork, Dec 08 2006 [Chef], as a pretty poor skier, I'll testify to that. I got tired of having to hunt for the poles after the more spectacular wipe outs, so I started skiing without them. I never did learn to ski with one ski so I could ski down the slope and retrieve the ski I just watched happily ski down the slope by itself.-- Zimmy, Dec 08 2006 In England, sometime in the 17th century (or so - I forget the details of the story), the crop circle kids of the day managed to leave a track of giant footprints going some 12 miles in the snow, in a directly straight line, going up and over barns, hedges, and any other obstacles. (At the time, it was widely attributed to a visit by the Devil.)
Anyway, this thing should have a giant foot on it, for leaving giant footprints.-- DrCurry, Dec 08 2006 As someone who enjoys activities that on the surface look pretty safe but always end with getting caught in a safety net somewhere, I have to say this sounds like a whole lot of fun.
I suggest, however, that it should be three or four large feet of the aforementioned size, each with a spring to allow your weight to be distributed more vertically, even if the stick is not.-- shapu, Dec 08 2006 random, halfbakery