Canned Heat in my Heelys

Ever see those eight year old kids with wheels in their shoes?  Those shoes are called Heelys, and I've owned a pair for a couple years now. Sometime last week I saw a Jamiroquai music video where Jay Kay grabs onto the back of a moving car and grinds his feet into the ground, sending off sparks behind him.

I thought it'd be awesome to try this with my Heelys.  Here's what I came up with:

That's one of my Heelys with a customized lighter taped to the side of it.  I tampered with the flintlock to make the sparks shoot in the opposite direction (not hidden inside the metal guard), and I removed the butane lever.

Here's another photo from underneath:

There are two lighters taped to this shoe, one on the left side and one on the right.  Now, this is the left shoe, the one that I break with, so the idea is that when I ride everything is totally normal, but when I break, I spark up.

And this is the end result.  I've tried it in the street, and it totally works!  I was going to film it today, but it was raining really hard, so that video will have to come later.

After doing all this work, I discovered that some people have already done this, but with these things called Tail Devils, which are attachments designed for skateboards.  Pretty cool stuff, definitely more professional and sleeker than my homemade custom design.  Although, I have to say, I think I feel better custom-designing my geekdom than buying it.  Look for a video soon.