I thought these Flyboard water jet boots were pretty cool:
The Flyboard is a water sports piece of equipment which mounts to your feet like a wakeboard and causes the water that is flowing out of the jet ski to propulsion you underwater and in the air; wherever you desire to ride. The flyboard is all about balance and when you master the distribution of your body weight on the flyboard you'll be able to control and experience this amazing flying water sport! Usually after about 25 minutes you can already move underwater like a dolphin and challenge the gravity like super hero!fly board
The nozzles under your feet puts 100% of the propulsion from the waverunner and allows movement by tilting your feet and tilting the Flyboard. The flyboard is very intuitive: similar to learning to ride a bike, waterski, surfing, skating, air chair, wakeboard or any other activity that requires a little balance. Find your balance and you will be flying in the air like a bird or swimming through the water like a fish! For most people it takes about 5 to 20 minutes to learn the basics of flyboarding with an instructor.
Golden Age writer Francis Flagg described something pretty similar in his 1930 classic An Adventure in Time, published in Science Wonder Stories. He called them air-shoes:
Manuel fastened to my feet the metal, disc-like devices I have before noted. Closer examination revealed
them to be quite broad on the bottom and punctured with
a score of small holes, containing a small compact atomic
motor that compressed the air beneath one and made it
as hard and resilient as rubber. The short metal rod
handed me was hollow, and at either end, like stoppers,
were what appeared to be sensitized plates. The rod was
fastened to the wrist by a flexible strap of metal. Three
keys, red, white and blue, were at the end of the rod nearest the wrist, and there were other devices whose function
I will describe later on.
Lucid Dreams On Demand From Prophetic and Card79
'the peeper did not operate by virtue of its machinery alone, but by the reaction of the brain and the body of its user...' - Clifford Simak, 1957.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
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Prairie Madness - And Space Sickness
'Space-sickness is one of the most unpleasant sensations that a human being can experience. Not all are subject to it...'
'Old People Began to Cross The Continent In Their Own Cars'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
Starfall Manufacturing Drugs In Space
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
The Solar Oberth Slingshot
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'