San Francisco Magazine (Best of the Brave/New Bay Area) - They Reinvented Flight - Nearly 30 years after deft-footed downhill skateboarders pioneered their sport in the Bay Area hillsides, Billy Smith, 25, a designer and developer of wetsuits for Patagonia, and Nick Smith, 21, a business student at the University of Southern California—the Wright brothers of landsurfing—came up with a novel way to control the ride. Their new Sporting-Sail attaches to the rider’s ankles or knees and loops around his hands, creating a kind of parachute effect when deployed—and making the rider, for many magnificent moments, feel like a bird. (Photo: Nick Smith makes the most of a wind farm in Hawi, Hawaii, with one of his new Sporting-Sails creations; by Billy Smith)