I don’t really buy a lot of random surf gadgets, but I love them nonetheless. I like coming across the cool and random stuff people create, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes just out of pure joy enthusiasm. It gets my own wheels spinning on all the ideas I should have been smart enough to pull away from the computer and come up with myself.
The Kingii is one of those why the hell didn’t I think of that? inventions. Since I don’t plan on tackling Mavs or Todos it’s another gadget I’ll probably never own myself, but just looking at how it’s intended to work I’m curious how practical of a replacement for the good old fashioned life vest this could be. It’s being marketed as the smallest inflatable in the world. Chunkier than a watch but probably less restricting and bulky than a full torso life vest. The Kingii uses a replaceable CO2 cartridge to inflate the flotation bag in one second. When you’re all finished with the life saving and ready to throw yourself back into harm’s way the bag can be folded back up into the wristband, the CO2 cartridge is replaced, and it all works like new.
But it doesn’t look like I’m the only person intrigued by this thing. After launching its Indiegogo campaign with a goal of raising $65,000, Kingii raised over $400,000 in the first 10 hours. Seriously, why didn’t I think of that?