Once upon a time, I learned how to snowboard. Above is a picture of me and my friend Seth (for whom I was a "big brother" for many years).
I was never very limber (even in my youth), and I found the bindings too difficult to use. “This is dumb. Why not use an electromagnet instead, so I won’t have to touch my toes?”
An electromagnet is an electronically-controlled magnet; you can turn it on and off with the press of a button. And they’re pretty affordable too – here’s one that runs off one “D” battery that can lift 200 pounds!
My idea was to put electromagnets into my boots, and put a metal plate on top of the snowboard. Just step on, flip a switch, and you’re locked on. Flip the switch again and the board instantly disengages.
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| Someone else came up with the same idea. This is their prototype. |
Although I bought everything I needed to build a prototype, I never actually had the time to do so. But apparently I wasn’t the only one to think of this – the photos and illustrations above came from a google search. So a working version is out there somewhere.
The idea might also work for conventional snow skis, but the forces on those are considerably larger than that of a snowboard, so it might not work as well.
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