Ever snowboard, B.A.S.E. jump, wakeboard, play basketball, pole-vault, or jump on your friend’s twenty year-old, rusty trampoline in her backyard (that could break at any second) and wonder who had the best air time? With the Hangtimer, now you can (with the same technology that allows you and your estranged cousin to flail about aimlessly while playing with your Wii). The Hangtimer web site claims that the product will spark a “revolution in trash talk”, thereby ending all arguments about who is better. Hmm …

Let’s look at the features:

Okay, so there are the obvious functions like best hang time, total hang time, and history of the last 10 jumps. Naturally we would want these features included if we were buying a device with an accelerometer! inside of it, so these are good. But, the question I have is: where is the option to record distance traveled? Was there too much space taken up within the unit by the mega-awesome carabineer clip (with competition lock) for the implementation of a walk-motion recording chip?

The other features, like the clock with time and date, the shockproof design, and illuminated display, seem like standard fare nowadays, as well as the stopwatch and water-resistance. The other cool feature is the ability to read temperature while jumping through the air. I can’t remember how many times that I have been snowboarding or surfing and wondered how cold the air/water was at the time. Now I can know for sure- that is, if I am willing to pay the $99 price to utilize that ability. I guess when it comes down to it, I may not want to know whether I can get better or worse air than my friends, since snowboarding and surfing are meant to be relaxing and friendship-building experiences (at least for me).