n2rjt's Journal: I invented skysurfing

Of course, I've never done it. And I can't claim to be the only person to come up with the idea.
I first wrote a short story incorporating the sport of skysurfing in 1975. I further developed the story during the summer of 1976, resulting in a short novel. It was a science fiction book. The environment of Earth had been ruined, so some nice aliens intervened. They showed up, announced that the Earth would be cleansed, and all life would have to be relocated for the next 15 years. They provided the transportation, and relocated all Earth life to a sparsely populated planet which we Earthlings came to call Utopia.
The natives of the planet were humanoid, but much thinner and lighter, almost like birds. They were beautiful! Not in a sexual way: we humans were a bit awed by them but no more attracted to them than a dog would be to a cat. Anyway, the Utopians had a sport of skysurfing, and taught it to the humans. Utopians could skysurf very well, almost flying. Humans basically were in free-fall with a board strapped to their feet. The board was kind of the size and shape of a snowboard, but thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges. The Utopian atmosphere had strong wind currents (we called them Jet Streams, but they were stronger and more localized than Earth's jet streams), and we could take a balloon to just above one, then drop into it and surf it. The best human skysurfers could go for a hundred miles or so.
Anyway, I had about 450 hand-written pages, and was working on the ending, when I lost the whole thing while moving. I've often thought it would be fun to write it again, but whenever I've tried, I've been frustrated because the book I remember is so much better than what I can recreate.
I invented skysurfing, though.