While it's significantly more difficult than buying a commercial boat, one of the beautiful things about building your own is that you can pick what it's made from. In the case of this "Aquatic Pod-Racer," Joey Ruiter used three months and $20,000 to cobble it together all from recycled materials. The forward pontoons each have a 215 horsepower jet-ski engine inside and, with no external propeller, the boat can skim along in only five inches of water. He made it to zip around where conventional boats have trouble and the craft's agile pontoons allow enable it to pull of hair-pin turns.

We salute Joey Ruiter for his use of entirely recycled materials to build his craft. It's worth noting, however, that some jet-ski engines are major gas hogs — some barely out-performing your average city bus. — Kevin Hall

PopSci, via TechEBlog