Origins quote source
Autobiography - SkiGo Project Description (Page 20)
A single-paragraph snapshot from a much broader life story. Here Grandpa recounts the SKI-GO project; reflecting on family, travel and what did not materialize.
"About 1967 I started a home project designing and developing a personal recreational watercraft. It was a small, light weight stand on watercraft designed to imitate water skiing, which I called a "SKI-GO". This was long before Yamaha's JET-SKI appeared. I had just got started building a plywood model when the company sent me to their headquarters in Van Nuys, California for several months."
"On week ends we stayed in a motel, but on week ends I went over to my brother, Bob's place close by. I took the boat on top of the car and my tools with me and on week ends worked on the boat in Bob's garage. Before I came back home we finished the plywood model and tested it at Lake Elsinore in California. It went pretty good and drew a lot of attention. I was anxious to get back home to build a finished fiberglass model and contact potential fabricators and marketers. Lynn was about 14-15 years old and was my test pilot. Several companies showed interest in making the "SKI-GO": Browning Arms in Ogden, Farmer Tool Co. in Denver, Colorado, Conroy Corp., parent company of Polaris in Houston, Texas, a machine shop in Texas and others. But either the financing or timing for the market wasn't right and nothing ever materialized. I know that I spent too much time on this project at the expense of my family, but I had high hopes. We did finish plaster molds for making a number of fiberglass parts. The molds and some old beat up hulls were still here until taken to the dumps last fall."
James A. Thompson, Autobiography (page 20).
