Cross-country skiing isn’t for everyone. It’s slow, tedious. Hardly an extreme sport like the downhill type of skiing.

Until now.

Sergei Khvalin of Russia has taken apart half of the things in his garage – a lawnmower, some hand-made propeller, a paraglider – and re-assembled them into a scaled-down backpack hovercraft propeller.

What to do with such a device? Blast your ass across town to the liquor store on skis at 40 km/h, of course. Whether this is legal or not is another thing all together, then again, it’s in Russia.

The only thing I’m wondering is, if he can make a propeller, can’t he make a couple screens or guards?

And what would happen if he threw that thing into reverse?

I’m not holding my breath for this thing to hit the larger markets, or any for that matter. It is actually kind of beautiful in itself; if everyone had Khvalin’s same do-it-yourself attitude, the world would be a truly unique place turbine blowing, blade propelling place. Freedom from mass production and the red-tape regulations it imposes on our lives and products would be no more. Each to his or her own personalized means of transport, borne from the very daydreams that cause horrible accidents while using the handmade devices.

Which also explains the lack of screens.

[Giz via The Awesomer]