1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains generally to water sports and, more particularly, to watercraft of the type towed behind a boat or other vessel.
2. Related Art
Children and others enjoy being towed behind boats on a variety of buoyant devices such as inner tubes and the like. Such devices are generally attached to the towing vessels by towlines, and there is no way to steer them. They simply go where the boat takes them, and that can become relatively unchallenging and/or uninteresting when the boat is going slowly and in a straight line.
At higher speeds, when the boat makes a turn, centrifugal force can cause the device to swing outside the wake of the boat and to travel substantially farther and faster than the boat itself is travelling. The rider has no control over where or how fast he is going, and in the event of debris or other obstacles in the water, about all the rider can do to protect himself is let go of the line or fall off the device. With a boat travelling at a speed of 25 mph, the tube can travel at speeds as high as 40 to 50 mph, or more, and jumping or falling into the water at those speeds is not something that most people would want to do.