Waboba

Waboba is an outdoor toy and sporting goods brand based in Stockholm, Sweden and with offices in Guangzhou, China and Atlanta, Georgia. Waboba is the creator of the original balls that bounce on water. Even though Waboba began with “the ball that bounces on water” in 2005, it has since expanded to introduce a range of accessories and land items.The slogan used in advertising is Keep Life Fun. The name Waboba is a registered trademark and the balls are internationally patented.

Name

Even though Waboba is short for WAter BOuncing BAll, the name is specific to the brand and its products only.

History

All Balls can bounce on water when thrown at a shallow angle with sufficient speed to hydroplane. This was the principle employed by WW2 period British Inventor Barnes Wallace when he developed the 'bouncing bomb' used in the famous "Dambusters" raid against the Ruhr District dams. He had been inspired by the story of a technique historically used by the British navy that bounced spherical canon balls off the ocean surface to achieve accurate hits against enemy ships. Wallace worked out the physics by bouncing marbles, steel spheres and various size and shape balls across a pond and then a long trough before progressing to larger scale experiments. Even solid steel balls would bounce across water.