Out Of Doors

By Maryanne Murray Buechner; Lev Grossman; Anita Hamilton

SKYDIVERS' DELIGHT

If you're crazy enough to jump out of airplanes for kicks, here's a way to double the thrill. A German entrepreneur has created the Skyray, a pair of carbon-fiber wings that give skydivers a bit of extra lift and control. Instead of falling straight down, divers cut through the air at speeds of up to 136 m.p.h. and can stay aloft for an extra minute or so. How does it work? The combination of the wings' shape and the skydiver's position modifies the airstream to create the lift needed to float forward. A similar system was used to cross the English Channel this summer. INVENTOR Alban Geissler AVAILABILITY 2004, about $3,300 TO LEARN MORE skyray.de

INTO THE CLEAR BLUE SEA

Get a bird's-eye view of marine life gliding beneath you with the new transparent Napali kayak. Made of a clear plastic that allows for spotting sea turtles and dolphins, it folds into a bundle the size of a backpack. The plastic shell is soft and flexible like a shower curtain yet tough enough to resist punctures from sharp sticks and rocks. The stiff carbon Kevlar frame helps keep the kayak's shape, and at 26 lbs., the craft is just half the weight of some fiberglass models. The narrow, one-seat design is good for long-distance solo touring, but remember to steer clear of sharks. INVENTOR MURRAY BROOM AVAILABILITY Now, $4,289 TO LEARN MORE clearbluehawaii.com

EXTREME KITING

When Andy Wardley first started entering kite-flying competitions back in the mid-1990s, hardly anyone was doing elaborate tricks. Instead, judges evaluated contestants on such technical skills as precision steering and control. Part of the problem was that kites weren't designed to let flyers do things like back spins and flips. So Wardley decided to make his own model, the Airbow, inspired by the tetrahedron-shaped kite invented by Alexander Graham Bell. At once stable and easy to fly, it allows trick flyers to perform stunts like stopping and restarting in midair. "It's like flying a helicopter instead of a plane," says Wardley. It also makes kite flying a lot more fun. INVENTOR ANDY WARDLEY AVAILABILITY NOW, $200 TO LEARN MORE www.airbow.org

IT'S ALL PHYSICS

They say practice makes perfect, but sometimes you just need better equipment. MAC Powersphere drivers help golfers improve their game by redirecting wasted energy from their swing back into the club head. The distinctive-looking titanium golf clubs have a hemispherical hole (known as the magnitude amplification cavity, or MAC) scooped out of the bottom that is supposed to capture shock waves from your strike and send them back toward the ball. When TIME compared the MACs to two popular drivers by other makers, we were able to hit balls a bit farther, with no loss of accuracy, using the MACs. INVENTOR Bruce Burrows AVAILABILITY Now, $399 each TO LEARN MORE burrowsgolf.com

SNICKER-FREE CADDYING

If you love to golf but don't like lugging your clubs around, the remote-controlled RoboKaddy Titanium may be just what you need. Sure, you could hire a flesh-and-blood caddy to tote your clubs, but do you really want someone snickering at you every time you miss an easy putt? With the RoboKaddy, you just point the remote at the unit's antenna to get it rolling along at up to seven miles per hour. RoboKaddy isn't the only remote-controlled caddy that will hold all your clubs, but it is the only one that can go in reverse and collapse to fit neatly in the trunk of your car. You might break a sweat lifting it, however, since it weighs about 50 lbs. with its battery. INVENTOR PowaKaddy AVAILABILITY Now, $1,295 TO LEARN MORE golfsellersdirect.com