Sure, Aquaman has never been the world’s coolest comic book character, but there’s something undeniably cool about the notion of speeding effortlessly through the water like a superhero.
That’s a dream that YouTuber “PeterSripol” has tried to make a reality, and a new video showcases his homemade hack involving two T100 thrusters, a pair of wrist straps, and an Arduino-powered, belt-mounted unit.
Sripol — who has previously built a number of cool engineering projects, including an RC Lego airplane, DIY javelin missile (!) and giant Zippo flamethrower — describes the finished product as “wrist rockets.” And when you see him test out the miniature propellers at a beach in Hawaii, it’s pretty darn hard to disagree.
The video’s not just Sripol showing off, though. It also gives you a sneak peak at the construction process, which is a lot more complex than you might think — with one of the most important parts being the waterproofing of the whole contraption. (With good reason, too: electronics and water aren’t exactly the world’s greatest tag team.)
The design Spripol comes up with offers a few neat touches, including a triple-level throttle system that users can switch between by clicking the controller. Clicking once provides a low power thrust, twice provides midlevel propulsion, and three times gives the full supercharged wrist rocket experience.
Sadly, the rockets turn out to be too good for this world, as Sripol’s test dive is brought to an unceremonious halt when the wire connecting the wrist gauntlets to the power gets accidentally chewed up by the propellers. However, Sripol remains optimistic.
“Other than that, I’d say say these work really, really well,” he said. “You can get pretty good pace in the water without having to kick at all. I’ll have to make mark two of this, but [this version] was pretty sweet.”
It certainly beats the heck out of flippers and a snorkel any day of the week.
