I invented the RescueStreamer emergency signaling device to solve a tricky problem I hope I never experience—surviving a plane crash at sea. This is how it happened:

Success Story–RescueStreamer

I was in a small airplane flying over the vast Pacific Ocean. Way out in the ocean, a volcano was sending up clouds of smelly gas and as I am a volcanologist, I was heading out there to check it out.  The pilot was my friend and I trusted him, but I didn’t trust the plane as it was rented and rusty. Suddenly the engine began spluttering and making horrible noises.

Thoughts of doom ran through my head. What if the pilot had to ditch in the ocean below? The plane would sink quickly. Sure, we could get out of the cabin and swim, but humans are tiny specks in the big ocean and they can’t be seen.

Survivors of plane crashes at sea say that rescue planes flew right over them again and again. How could I somehow signal the search planes that would, hopefully, be looking for us? I brainstormed, but couldn’t solve the problem. We finally landed successfully, in spite of the weird engine noises. But the problem of visibility in the ocean still rattled round and round in my head.

((Illustration: guy in ocean. Shark caption: “That looks yummy.” Plane caption, “Can’t see him anywhere.”))

A few weeks later, flying on a jet to Miami, I spotted a strange sight in the ocean below. An artist had wrapped small islands near the coast with bright pink plastic. The plastic was very visible. That was it, the solution to my problem. If I used a piece of that pink plastic I could be visible in an open ocean and also in snowfields and the desert.

It took years to figure out how to make the invention work. The pink plastic had to be compact when not in use, but extend and float until search parties saw it.

I started looking at things in nature that could stay outstretched like the human spine, centipedes, and palm trees. They were made up of segments. I put dividers on the piece of plastic to make it look like a centipede and that was the magic touch!

Making a model streamer took months of trial and error. Then I took my RescueStreamer out on my fishing boat. When that streamer hit the water, it bunched up. I thought, Oh no. It doesn’t work! Then suddenly it straightened out like a spinning spiral. It was the most beautiful thing I’d even seen in the ocean! My invention worked!

Finding the problem you’d like to solve is the first step to inventing (Hardcore Inventing).

Remember the acronym K.I.S.S.—Keep it Simple Stupid. Simpler is better. Ideal inventions have no moving parts and preferably hardly any parts at all. That way, there are less things to break or fail. The RescueStreamer falls into this category. So does the wheel, one of the greatest inventions.

To get your creative juices going—pretend you’re in a survival situation, e.g. stuck on a desert island or lost in the woods. You’re out of power/batteries and have no computer, cell phone, ipod etc. You have only your brain and the natural objects on the island or woods to help you solve problems. What can you eat? How can you build shelter? Will you be able to catch fish? Will you be able to trap animals? Can you make a fire? How can you protect yourself from all the hungry bugs?

Make a list of what you might find on a desert island—rocks, shells, coconuts, sticks, leaves, etc. and try to solve a problem using those materials. Use a pen and paper to sketch your ideas and write a description of your ideas with the sketch. Show how to build your invention with the materials at hand. ((Illustration:  Guy sitting in front of palm frond hut. Fire in front. Trap at side pile of coconuts. Fish in rock pool. Milk in coconut etc))

Who would you choose to be with you on your desert island? A survey of how Americans feel about inventing and innovating found that teens recognize how important inventors are when survival is at stake. Using the example of being stranded on a desert island, the survey found that 46 percent of all teens questioned would choose the company of an inventor over that of a famous musician (19 percent), actor (13 percent) president of the United States (9 percent), athlete (6 percent). This indicates that inventors, although mostly not celebrities, hold a vital place in the minds of many American teens. (The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index annual survey, MIT Tech Talk January 10, 2001; see more on Lemelson in Hardcore Inventing)

Using this brainstorming exercise, you’ll find that you are able to come up with a lot of survival ideas, and it will free the flow of your creative brain juice to attack problems. The good news is that after you do this a few times, the next time you go to a Home Depot or Wal-Mart, the materials available to you will seem endless and you will have the mindset to combine materials to make other things, e.g. you may buy a toy and cut it up to get one piece of material to help you build your invention.

Getting the first idea for an invention is like an engine getting a spark to start.  The inventor then has to think about the best way to make the invention work.  One way to do this is brainstorming.

What do you dream about doing?  As a little kid, I used to dream about turning into a fish some day. I thought it would be cool to be able to stay underwater forever and swim around the ocean. Wanting to work with nature, I became a scientist and inventor and moved to a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Surrounded by plants, animals, and fish, I discovered nature is the best inventor. Working on active volcanoes in the ocean made me respect nature and also made me think a lot about survival. That’s why most of my inventions save lives. And following nature’s example, I try to keep my inventions as simple as possible.

My “million-dollar invention,” the RescueStreamer® emergency signaling device, is a 25-foot-long piece of orange plastic that unrolls if you’re lost on land or in the ocean. RescueStreamer® is used all over the world. It’s about to go on all U.S. Air Force fighter jets and a glow-in-the-dark version is on already onboard all U.S. Navy submarines.  And its saved lives already, at sea and in Afghanistan. RescueStreamer® is a simple invention. Bet if you’d tried, you could have thought of it too!

Back in the old days when I was young, there was a song that had the line, “Don’t be no fool, stay in school, let you mind become a tool” (Dr. Hook, Bahamas, circa 1980’s). I have let that line be my mantra in life. Your mind is that most important tool you have in any situation you may encounter – even the survival experts say the first thing you should do in an emergency is stop what you are doing and analyze the situation with your mind! Even though I am old now, at least by young kids’ standards, I am always trying to learn more and let my mind become an even more powerful tool.  Life is short and from my perspective, it’s all about lifestyle. By sharpening the tool that is your mind, you can lead the life you dreamed about. My dreams centered around becoming a big time surfer. The problem was I grew up in one of the worst places in the world to be a surfer – South Florida. The waves were tiny and surfers were treated like criminals.

Nevertheless, I stuck with it and I am now in my 26^th year of living in Hawaii and surfing huge waves on the North Shore! The art of riding a wave is very similar to achieving your goals in life – it all comes down to “Board Speed and Ball Weight”. You need to get your board moving as fast as you can (Board Speed) in order for you to catch the wave and you have to have the guts (especially in the case of large/hollow/dangerous waves) to be willing to take off on that wave without backing out. In life as in surfing, Board Speed is obtained by one simple thing – PRACTICE! You have to be in good enough shape (physically and mentally) to be able to go fast enough to catch a wave or take advantage of an opportunity in life (remember, “Let your mind become a tool”). In surfing, you practice by TRAINING: paddling, eating right, and by exercising other parts of your body. For inventing (or school or work in general), you practice (TRAIN) by learning as much as you can in school or on your own. You need to be ready for when that days comes when you are in position to take advantage of a situation (wave, school opportunity, invention opportunity, business opportunity, etc.). You need to “let you mind become a tool” and equip it with the most and best BRAIN JUICE you can!

The other rule is NEVER QUIT YOUR DAY JOB! The day job can be an actual job or school, either way you get A’s in your work and school and then you are free to do what you want in your spare time. In the case of inventing, you pursue you invention in your spare time until it is making as much or more than your day job – than you can quit your day job and become a full-time inventor! That is the goal and by sticking to that rule you will not put too much pressure on yourself to be a successful inventor. When I was a student, by getting all A’s (and it’s not that hard to do if you really try hard and are willing to work hard), I was able to do whatever I wanted in my spare time and my parents or teachers could not complain at all! In fact, a lot of my friends where shady characters and would never have been allowed to hang out with them, surfing and staying on the edge of trouble if it wasn’t for the fact that I got all A’s in school and therefore, no one could touch me!

Whether we like to admit it or not, school/surfing/life are all about competition. You are competing for waves, grades, lifestyle throughout your life. If you train and achieve the required “Board Speed”, you need to have the Ball Weight to carry through and go for that wave or invention or life style. You can’t be afraid to fail and in fact, some of our best learning experiences come from failing. If you get used to competing and “going for it” you get better at dealing with failure and success. To look over the edge of a 30 foot face wave and have the Balls/Guts (Courage) to drop you and your surfboard into it takes a lot of preparation (Board Speed) and an internal desire and drive to go for it – even if there may be a big penalty if you don’t make it. In inventing, as long as it is only a spare time effort and not an endeavor that threatens your day job or educational career, there is little risk. In actual surfing, if you trained and prepared to get to the point of being comfortable making that drop, then you have done everything you can and you will be confident that can handle it. Of course, you don’t just start as a beginning surfer going after 30 foot face waves. You work up to it, in surfing, inventing, and in life. I started out surfing 1 foot waves nearly 40 years ago and kept progressing and pushing myself with the correct training and preparation for the next level (e.g., from 1 foot to 2 feet to 5 feet to 10 feet to 20 feet to 30 feet over the course of 40 years). It’s not easy and you have to be committed to your goals, however if you work hard, you can achieve your goals. I think the important thing in life is to work hard and go for your dreams, even if you don’t become a big wave surfer or famous inventor or whatever dream you have, at least you know you tried to achieve your goal and you went for it – you will have no regrets when you are on your deathbed! I am confident that many of you reading this book will achieve your life goals and perhaps even become rich and famous doing it, however I know that at the very least, all of you that do read it and try to reach your goals will be rewarded for at least going for it! 

In fitting with the transition to the ocean lifestyle, Through Ken and Mr. B, along with their associates the Hawaiian “K’s” (pool manager of the Sun City Motel nearby), we learned the Hawaiian ways of surfing, diving, and fishing. After we set up the lounge chairs and umbrellas for the tourists in the morning, we were usually free to go surfing or diving. We would dive for fish and lobster and sell them to the tourists for spending money to supplement our pay/tips from the pool boy gig. It was a great life, another irony being that one of my favorite ways to make spending money to this day is selling fish I catch here in Hawaii! I guess you are very impressionable in your teen years and having the imprint of Hawaiian-style surfing, fishing, and diving was indelibly pressed on the hard disk in my head.

The other major advantage of the job was the tourist girls. I was never much on dating, the girls used to chase me around in elementary school, but I didn’t want any part of them, especially when it came to holding hands in the halls and other long-term public hassles. The tourist girls were always leaving in a week or two and that created no hassle, not that we ever dated that many, but we sure chased after a lot of them. It wasn’t until I read the classic book, “How to Pick Up Girls” and learned that the key is to at least go for it (as in life)…say “hello” or anything, but just say something. The Beach Boy lifestyle was larger than life, even in Miami. The bonds that grew between us, the Pool Boy Underdogs, was permanent and is just as strong today, 35+ years later!

Fish were going nuts as usual in rough seas. I even got bit by an ono (Wahoo). I gaffed it over the engines during the heavy seas and the fish was swinging it’s head with razor teeth AND the gaff at me – I had a choice of getting gaffed or taking a shot from the ono. I took the shot. (note that the blood on my shirt was not from the ono, but from wrestling the beast mahimahi’s we got.

on the way in, we almost hit several whales. at one point i had to pull the throttles back to neutral from 20 mph and a whale had to kick it’s tail hard to avoid us. we watched the two whales under the boat as we glided over them.

Flipper (TV Show) on steroids…

While my on-shore incarnation manifests as an accomplished scientist and inventor (Dr. Robert Yonover, @robyonover,“RescueStreamer“), the real me is a primitive water-ape, with a unique perspective on life in general and (an intelligent Ape approach to) problem-solving more specifically. By approaching problems with a loin-cloth mentality, I am able to get to the root of the most basic solution – Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) is my mantra and the SEE/RESCUE Streamer (“RescueStreamer”) is a perfect example. A little background might help you understand the animal you are encountering on the other end of this keyboard.

I did not talk much as a kid and always felt more at home deep in nature and/or among wild and domesticated animals. As a small child, I was turned on to the ocean and surfing and I became a black tar addict! (Thick Face, Black Heart: “Embrace your perceived negativity”) The problem was that I grew up in one of the worst places to surf in the country (besides inland locales) – Miami. The waves were tiny and girls were mean – a Double Loss! In the meantime, the place was tropical like Hawaii and we were on the receiving end of surfing movies and magazines – the ultimate tease! The result of being deprived for all those formative years was that I had to become HARDCORE (pronounced, “HAAARDCOAR”) – it was the only way to survive.

One cold night, hanging with the boys, getting amped on the possibility of surfing in the morning, we started to wuss out relative to getting up early and getting into ocean while the cold front was kicking in, the fateful words that change my life were uttered in a slow drawl by a “real surfer” whom we all looked up to in a hooded sweater and chucka-boots as he leaned back against the wall in a classic surf bro stance, “You gotta be HAAAAARDCORE!” He was right that night and that message to “always charge with everything you got with NO excuses” has rung true for me ever since in every aspect of life.

Fast forward 35 years, and you have encountered the result of living a HARDCORE life – a primitive, ultra-competitive, driven, passionate beast. Being HARDCORE is not easy, especially if you strive for a HARDCORE life relative to mind, body, and soul. No one gives it to you. You have to work for it. Train everyday, go deep into nature – testing and pushing yourself to the limits on every front: physical, mental, and emotional! I try to share this unique primitive perspective with regular land-dwelling people – most people don’t get the whole thing, but usually just enough to be intrigued and inspired. Welcome to my world! Aloha, Rob

rocking, rolling and trolling along, got a big hit on the long line. as I started to real it in, the short corner got blasted. two fish on, holding on in the heavy seas. i went for the short line and got a 25 lb ono. gaffed it and let it flop around as I went back to the long line, fought it for a while, but it popped. it was another ono and it bit through the line. while i was putting the ono with the razor sharp teeth in the box, the bimini top attachment broke off. got the fish in the box, but had to take the top down and find my hat for the new conditions.

the line i leave on the ground against the bimini top strap was no longer functional. i had to modify the set up with rope. luckily, i decided to tie in the rod to the boat, because about a half hour later a monster hit on that line. it was tearing line out and heating up the reel. i thought it was a marlin, but no jump. perhaps a spearfish? I had to fight it standing up for a while until i could manuever it to a tangle free area with respect to the other 4 lines.

i got it close to the boat and still thought it was a spearfish when it dove down again. i got it close again and i got out on the back platform and planted the gaff in it’s head (by this time i knew it was a huge ono). once the gaff made contact, the ono went nuts and pulled me straight down and the gaff went underwater up to the handle. the scary part was that this all happened right next to the running motor. I thought the fish, the gaff, or maybe my arm would get chewed by the motor (don’t worry, i would let go of the gaff instead of letting my arm get any closer).

i held on for dear life and finally swung the monster in, however he only made it halfway out of the water and got wedged in front of the motor on the platform. He was going nuts and swinging his horse’s size head. i pushed back and forth and saw the gaff was about to tear loose. i went with one large motion and pulled him in as i fell backward into the boat. it was surreal having us both flopping on the ground with him looking at me snapping those jaws (and teeth).

barely fit in the box. seas started to calm down later in the day, but then it got even rougher to the point where there was some strange deadly currents/waves. exciting day. Ended up with 2 ono, 2 kawakawa, 1 aku, and 1 rainbow runner. the beast weighed about 46 lbs. (it looked and felt bigger, and perhaps my technique of holding it on a house scale is flawed?).