The Superior Express -

With the expectation that thousands of visitors will visit Superior this weekend, community residents are working to make sure the community is looking the best possible. Mother Nature has cooperated and the vegetation looks great.

Here at the newspaper we decided we should spruce up our windows. Since the festival was not held last year, it may have been two years since some of the windows had been washed. It has taken repeated baths to get the accumulated grim off.

We also decided to change the Miles of Memories display put in our Mullet Building windows for the festival held two years ago.

Our goal was to tie the window display into this year's Bon Voyage festival theme.

As a high school yearbook photographer and editor, I used a similar theme for the seniors leaving Superior High School and venturing down the river of life. For the last page in the yearbook, I pictured two seniors paddling a boat down what was to look like a river (however, it was really a Lovewell Lake finger.)

This year my first idea was to display the Jet Board I've had in storage for more than 45 years.

I went to retrieve the Jet Board but gave up. It is so far back in the warehouse, I didn't have sufficient time to get it out. I either had to move a lot of stuff or have helpers to lift it up and over. When I was riding it I could carry it from truck to water and back after a day on the lake. Not sure I could still do that. I think 45 years of dust added considerably to the board's weight.

Instead of getting the Jet Board out, I selected the easier to get to Wing Glider, a small sail board designed to haul one person.

Though the Wing Glider is nearly as old as the battered Jet Board, a student working at the newspaper this summer was able to clean it to near new condition. While I once road the Jet Board all over Lovewell Lake, I have only had the Wing Glider on the water once.

But that one time was enough to be checked by the late Gary Heskett, a longtime conservation officer who enforced the rules at Lovewell. I was off Walleye Point, struggling to get back to shore when Heskett pulled alongside in the game commission's motor boat. In reply to being asked what I was doing, I told him I was trying to get back to land and if I succeeded in doing so I would never again take the Wing Glider out on Lovewell Lake. That must have been the promise he was looking for. He said, "Don't let me delay you" and promptly went off to look for a violator.

With the sail mounted behind the rider, I found the Wing Glider impossible to navigate.

But since getting it out, co-workers have expressed an interest in trying to sail it. If we take it out again, I will insist we go to a small enough body of water that one can walk back from where ever he makes land. A place like Liberty Cove west of Lawerence would be a good choice.

Wanting to know more about the Wing Glider and Jet Board, I went to the internet. Google never heard of the Wing Glider but I found several sites devoted to the Jet Board.

The Jet Board is an early powered longboard surfboard, probably the first to be marketed. While it failed, other designs have succeeded. Fewer than 700 Jet Boards were built. Most of those that remain are in museums. A few are being used by businesses as decorative pieces. It is unlikely that any are being ridden. The internet has a registry of all Jet Boards known to be in existence but it doesn't have mine.

If I can open the engine hatch, I plan to get the serial number and list it in the registry.

The original designer was a former engineer for Boeing Aircraft. His design utilized an aircraft tab roller control which could be moved by the rider's foot to control speed. There is disagreement over the choice of engine used to power the boards. Some sites say the board was powered by McCullough chain saw motor. Others say it was a specially designed Techumseh engine. I believe mine has the McCullough motor.

The aluminum hulls were manufactured by Sargent Fletcher in El Monte, Calif. The board was the result of Alfred Bloomingdale's (heir to the Bloomingdale Department store fortune) distaste for paddling a surfboard. He liked to surf but didn't like to paddle. The first working model was designed in 1965,

I don't have any pictures of my Jet Board being ridden on Lovewell Lake but I do have an original advertising piece which pictures a young female rider.

My board was used until it needed a new propeller which I didn't try to buy, for by then I had a new toy called a Windsurfer, which I found to be more to my liking.

Unlike the modern Jet Ski, which is designed to circle when the rider falls off, the Jet Board was apt to leave the rider in the middle of the lake. For safety I wore a strap around my waist. A cable connected the strap to a magnetic kill switch. Fall off the board and the motor stopped. But the board was so buoyant the wind blown waves often carried it away from the rider. For me it seemed like the wind propelled the board faster than I could swim.

The Jet Board was also hard to start. When attempting to start it, I often had to take the board into the shallows, adjust the carburetor with a small screwdriver I carried in my cutoffs. Once running I had to adjust for maximum power, replace the engine compartment hatch and jump on. That procedure required someone to hold the board while the rider made the adjustments.

This was contrary to my reason for buying the board.

When my father ran a sporting goods and lake supply store in conjunction with his gasoline station, I browsed the trade magazines looking for water toys suitable for loners. I liked to make impromptu trips to the lake and often went alone. I suspected there was an unserved market of people who liked to do the same thing. Water skiing was popular but that sport required a boat driver and preferably an observer.

Dad let me order in likely toys but I never found one that met my sales expectations.

The one I enjoyed the most was my Windsurfer. In fact it was so much fun I bought a second Windsurfer so I could sail with a friend.

Jet Boards and Windsurfers are similar in that they both are designed around a long surfboard. While the Jet Board had a gasoline engine mounted inside the hull, the Windsurfer employs a sail for power.

I think I had the right idea when looking for water toys for the singles market, I was just ahead of my time. Today's kayaks serve the singles market well. They are light weight, easy to transport and can be paddled alone or in a group.