Flashlight illuminates night sky -- with fun!

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 12, 2005 | by BILL HARTFORD, THE GAZETTE

You can play with the Flashlight day or night, but it's most fun when darkness has descended.

The Flashlight is a lighted flying disc from Boulder-based Nite Ize. Although it's not the first flying disc to light up the night sky, "it's really the best flying lit disc out there," says Bill Wright, immediate past president of the World Flying Disc Federation.

Wright is also owner of The Wright Life, a store in Fort Collins that sells flying discs, skates, boomerangs and other alternative- sports merchandise. He praises the Flashlight for its simplicity and its handling ability.

"There's not a lot of parts to break and it's a very light battery," Wright says.

Typically, lightup discs have used bigger, heavier batteries, which require larger housings. As a result, Wright says, "not only does the disc fly bad, but it's bulky and heavy for what it is."

The Flashlight is water-resistant and illuminated by a single LED and nine fiber-optic strands. It comes in red, blue, green and multi- colored "disc-o." Batteries are included; the red is powered by one CR2430 3V lithium battery and the others by two CR2016 3V lithium batteries. The red is the most long-lived, with as many as 120 hours of light from one battery.

You'll find the Flashlight at Gart Sports and REI stores, or you can order it online at www.flashflight.com/index.shtml. It costs $20 to $25.