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GANDY/SUN BAY SOUTH - When Chris Barrs kicks into inventor mode, he forgets to eat and can't sleep.
When he was an industrial design student at Auburn University in Alabama, 90-hour weeks weren't unusual. He worked through the holidays and spring break. At Thanksgiving, he made it home to Tampa for about 24 hours.
He's famous for the time he fell asleep at an Auburn-Alabama football game.
To stay grounded, he looks to Kimberly Lackey.
"She's my total support system," Barrs said. "I don't think I could have made it without her."
When his career took him to Maui to design equipment for kite surfers, she went, too. With her unwavering support, he has four patents pending, some potentially lifesaving.
"Whatever the adventure, I want to go along with him," Lackey said.
She put a broadcast career on hold and got certified to teach elementary school so both wouldn't work crazy hours, she said. No one knows Barrs' intense commitment to his work better than she does.
Barrs, 27, and Lackey, 25, met along the Gasparilla parade route when they were students at Plant High School. They stayed friendly when he left for college and reconnected when she enrolled at Auburn University in 1997 to major in communications. That year, Barrs coincidentally transferred to Auburn from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
Day and night, Barrs worked in the design studio. Lackey brought him food and dragged him outside to throw a Frisbee. "MacGyver," Barrs' nickname from the inventive character on the TV show, missed meals, movies and most of a social life.
"I don't think our relationship would have lasted if we didn't already have that high school friendship base," Lackey said. "My sorority sisters didn't even know who he was."
One assignment at Auburn in early 1998 landed Barrs an internship with a NASA contractor, Sverdrup Technology. The problem: storing tools in zero gravity. All 36 students in the class had to come up with 10 ideas. Out of 360 proposals, NASA chose Barrs' belly pack, which became the Payload Equipment Restraint System (PERS), similar to a carpenter's belt. He spent the next summer developing it in Huntsville, Ala.
A big fan of windsurfing, kitesurfing, kayaking, snowboarding, mountain biking and rock climbing, Barrs devised a personal kite-powered watercraft for his senior thesis. His research and development had him "surfing" in an Alabama hay field in a white-water kayak attached to a kite.
After graduating from Auburn in May 2000, the university asked him to join the faculty, teaching the same Industrial Design class he had taken a few years earlier.
Finally, as an instructor, Barrs had time to devote to Lackey, who had another year of school to go. A diehard Auburn football fan, Lackey worked for a radio station and interned with ESPN, interviewing players and researching stats her senior year.
A Barrs family trip to Hawaii in May 2001 set the next four years in motion for the couple. During a layover in San Francisco, he met Joe Koehl of Naish International, manufacturers of windsurfing and kiteboard equipment.
The next day, Koehl's boss, Robby Naish, happened to be on his flight to Oahu.
"I couldn't believe it," Barrs said. "He's the Michael Jordan of windsurfing; I recognized him right away."
Even more amazing, Naish had heard of his work. He rushed to baggage claim as soon as they landed to unpack his portfolio. Naish looked it over while leaning on a luggage cart.
A few months later, in September 2001, Barrs moved to Maui to work for Naish. While he was eager to make his mark in the fast-growing extreme sport, his parents "were not very happy about me going to a work in board shorts and flip flops," he said.
Lackey joined him as soon as she graduated in December 2001, working first at a Maui radio station, then as an event planner for the chic Four Seasons Hotel. Accustomed to his long hours, she soaked up the Hawaiian history and culture, taking hula classes and performing at a halau recital covered in leis.
In November 2003, while Barrs was in China overseeing kite production, he e-mailed Lackey to book them a room in Hana, a romantic town near a rain forest.
At the hotel, he lured her outside to look at the stars. Close your eyes and count to 10, Barrs instructed her. When she opened them, he was gone. Glow sticks lit a path through the garden. A poem was attached to each stick.
The last couplet took her into a custom-made tent, one of his latest inventions. There, beneath a Noni tree, Barrs was waiting on one knee with a bottle of champagne and a diamond ring.
A delighted Lackey knew he would invent some sort of clever proposal.
The couple decided to marry in their hometown, and in a whirlwind trip to Tampa, Lackey bought a wedding gown, booked the Tampa Museum of Art and reserved a caterer for 275 guests.
When they returned to Hawaii, Barrs resigned from Naish. Being 7,000 miles away from friends and family was just too far.
But they didn't rush right home. His cousin in Portland, Ore., gave them a 1979 Dodge van with 179,000 miles on it and they took a three-week cross-country trip to see the Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Nashville, New Orleans and old friends at Auburn. They camped out every night, except one when Lackey won $200 at a slot machine in Las Vegas.
The couple married Aug. 7 at St. John's Episcopal Church and live in an apartment off West Shore Boulevard.
Barrs designs interactive exhibits for RBK Architects in Ybor City. Instead of the Pacific Ocean, Barrs will be windsurfing on the Hillsborough Bay.
Mrs. Barrs plans to teach, and like Mrs. Thomas Edison, will be there as he harnesses his next great idea.
- To pass along tips to Amy Scherzer, reach her at 226-3332 or scherzer@sptimes.com
DATEBOOKSEPT. 13: VIVO! Membership Mixer, That's Amore, 700 Harbour Post Drive; 5:30 to 8 p.m. Meet Susan Haig, associate conductor of the Florida Orchestra; $10; 503-2341.
SEPT. 15: VIVO! Jazzmatazz series, An Evening of Ellington; 7:30 p.m.; Hyatt Regency Tampa; $35 VIVO members, $45 nonmembers; 503-2341.
SEPT. 17: Dessert First benefits Girl Scouts of Suncoast Council; vote for the best dessert made from Girl Scout cookies before dinner and auctions; 7 p.m.; Renaissance Tampa Hotel at International Plaza; $135; 262-1759.
SEPT. 18: Cultural Carousel Ball benefits 10 health, education, arts and cultural charities; 6 p.m.; Indian Conference Center, sponsored by the Patel Foundation for Global Understanding and JPMorganChase; $300; 471-4380.
SEPT. 22: Florida Orchestra Guild Tune-Up Tea; 1-4 p.m.; Culbreath Isles home of Jane Strom; new members welcome; 989-0044.
SEPT. 23: Florida Prostate Cancer Network Celebration of Hope Gala; 6 p.m.; Hyatt Regency Tampa; $150; honoree Al Austin; 806-2800.
SEPT. 25: Tampa Hispanic Heritage Inc. and the Mayor's Hispanic Heritage Committee honors man and woman of the year; 6:30 p.m.; Marriott Waterside, $60; auction and casino games; 967-1413.
SEPT. 26: Here for the Heros dinner and auction benefits Easter Seals and the Florida Orchestra; 5:30 p.m.; A La Carte Pavilion; $150; 988-7633.