HoverDisc

HoverDisc is a 3-foot wide, inflatable (with air, or, better yet, helium!) Frisbee-like thing.

I quote: "The amazing HoverDisc flies like nothing else! Flip it, throw it, spin it -- the HoverDisc floats, hovers and defies gravity. Toss it, roll it, bounce it off a wall -- invent your own tricks and games! The HoverDisc inflates to an enormous 3 feet in diameter! Just fill it with air or helium and you're ready to go!"

I owe this discovery entirely to a fellow named Dan 'Stork' Roddick, the first, full-time proponent of Wham-O's International Frisbee Association (click this link to view page one of the first issue of the IFA newsletter) and Executive Director of the World Flying Disc Federation. When Dan, a remarkably playful and scholarly professor of social science, made his entrance into my home, he came in HoverDisc first. For the next ten minutes, nothing more needed to be said. We tapped it, floated it, bounced it to and fro, from wall to wall, room to room. The delight was sheer.

When we finally spoke to each other, the first words out of my mouth were "let's take this to the beach." But the wise and informed Dan helped me understand that the HoverDisc is actually an indoor toy. Or perhaps a sheltered, backyard toy. But not a toy to trust to the blustery whims of ocean breezes.

It might take some time to discover all the things you can make a HoverDisc do: bounce off walls, skim the ceiling, roll, spin. But it's time well-wasted. These are the kinds of toys that joy is made of - big, safe, floaty things that are sturdy enough to be thrown hard against a wall, ever so easy to catch, and dreamlike in their movement - offering child and adult alike an invitation to delight.