Surfer Invents Death-Cheater
August 23rd, 2008First off Surf California would like to announce the most suprising thing about this- a surfer has actually invented something! If you know as many hardcord surfers as I do, you’ll know that this is a real achievement. When you’ve got sun, sand and good times, it’s pretty difficult to take the time to invent something completely new. We leave that to people who live in the cold around Boston.
Mark Chestnut had been a dedicated surfer for more than 25 years.
He had surfed around the world, everywhere you can think of in between the Atlantic and Pacific. This guy knew his stuff.
Despite all his experience, he found himself seconds from death when he was out by sunny Baja California. He pushed his board down to go under an approaching wave. Everything was normal. He waited on is board underwater to emerge. He was calm, he had done this a thousand times before. He was sitting on his board and then he began to feel a little anxious.
He should have come up by now.
““I reasoned that my surfboard and my wet suit float, and would pop me up above water. While I continued to hold my breath and sit on my surfboard underwater I realized that I was not rising and was running out of air in my lungs,” he recalled.
He finally surfaced, but he was in shock at how close to death he had been. Another few seconds and he would be gone.
This near-death experience inspired him to begin working on an emergency breathing device. His surfing friends encouraged him as they too had had many close calls with the ocean.
After a lot of trial and error he finally made the A.I.R. which stands for Always In Reach. This device is lightweight and is designed to be worn on your upper arm. It can also be used by firefighters, kayakers and snorkelers to catch a few extra vital breaths. You can check it out on his we got air website. It sells for $40 which is pretty reasonable for the few breaths of air that could one day save your life.
If anyone has already tried this product or has any near-death experiences, feel free to share in the comment box. Surfing is awesome, but there’s no reason to die doing it, so stay safe people!
