My kids told both me and Santa this year, that all they wanted for Christmas were sleds. My 5 year old son, just learning to read and write, wrote his very first sentence just before Christmas - "I want a sled.". Santa brought the kids each one of these in both blue & pink. Thanks to Amazon offering 2 day delivery, they arrived within 2 days, despite snow storms everywhere in the area - Wyoming where we always spend Christmas. We had a blast on these things! My son is 48 lbs, daughter 39 lbs and I'm 175 lbs, and we all rode the Zipfys with no problem. However, if there is deep powder like we had - 12 fresh inches on top of a base of about 30", then it helps if a heavier adult runs the Zipfy down first, to cut out a run, as well as a run one down about 5 feet away to create a staircase to climb back up the hill. My kids didn't weigh enough to cut the runs. Within minutes, I had created 3 runs for the kids in the powder near our house in Wyoming. They were surprised that the "grownups" could use them as well as they could, well actually better. In an area where everyone has a number of snow transportation vehicles - snow mobiles, sleds, skis, snow boards, snow shoes, and even horse drawn sleighs, everyone we showed these sleds to were impressed by their small lightweight, compact design and speedy performance.
What we loved most about these sleds is that they are so lightweight - only 3 lbs compared to the near 20 lbs of traditional flyer sleds - ones with hardwood/metal runners, and will take blows on rocks hidden under the snow with it's hollow core design. If we had used one of those inflatable sleds, we would have blown one out in minutes. We were riding these from deep powder right down and and out onto an unused but rocky and icy driveway below, with no blows to our bottoms. My 5 year old son had no trouble steering it after explaining it was in leaning your body weight holding the handle, and not in the handle itself. Even when he did totally wipe out when over leaning, he laughed and had a blast. He had the ability to easily carry the sled back up the hill because it was so lightweight. Since we had 3 adults helping our kids, we soon developed a system of just tossing these sleds back up the hill to another person to speed up the process. I had no trouble throwing this thing 12 feet in the air and 30 feet away. Because it is so lightweight and designed with no sharp edges, it seems very safe, even to throw back and forth as we did.
But for us 'adults' riding the Zipfy all over age 40 - and weighing in at 175, 200 & 225lbs, we would like to see another size up with a larger seat - add 3 inches width and depth for us for more comfort. Also would like some kind of loop to carry this thing back home as the handle kept tending to slip out of my snow gloves for the two blocks we had to get back home. If carried with bare hands, may have better grip but it was -14C outside with -24C windchill, and I was not willing to try that. My husband used bare hands to carry the Zipfy- native Wyomingite, and carried sled with no trouble - said he doesn't even own a pair of gloves. Comparing the Zipfy to the original miniBob from decades ago, I'm guessing there may have been issues with broken fingers and hands when there was a loop or hole included so guess that is why not included this time around. Fyi, our thin plastic flexible flyers we had used last winter didn't last but 2 days this last snow season- they cracked in the extreme cold weather when using so we were glad to have gotten these Zipfy minibobs from Amazon. We do recommend getting snow sport helmets, as the Zipfy does encourage everyone to get pretty adventurous pretty fast going downhill and not wanting to wait turns, especially if sledding around trees. I've skied most of the major ski resorts in North America, and most accidents I've witnessed have been people running into trees. Try to find open areas without trees if possible if want to do steep runs at fast speeds, as this Zipfy is capable of and try to enforce rules of allowing enough space between sledders. These were the big hit item for our Christmas 2009 and we look forward to many seasons ahead using them each winter!
| Item Package Dimensions L x W x H | 20 x 14 x 12.2 inches |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 4.05 Pounds |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 20.98 x 12.99 x 15.98 inches |
| Item Weight | 1.6 Kilograms |
| Brand Name | ZIPFY |
| Country of Origin | United States |
| Color | Blue |
| Material | HDPE Plastic |
| Manufacturer | Zipfy |
| Part Number | 001 |
| Model Year | 2010 |
| Size | 3.5 lbs. |
| Sport Type | Sledding |
