To the person who drops it into a bucket of water: it doesn't bounce in that way. It skips over the water the same way a flat stone skips over the water except that it skips higher and requires no skill. Just throw it at an angle - the height it skips depends on how hard it is thrown and at what angle.
To the people who say that it doesn't last and that the cover comes off: you have to tell your kids that they should not bounce it off anything except water. It says that clearly on the box. If you bounce it off the sidewalk or off the sand or off the side of the pool it's not going to last. I throw it out into a pond and my dog loves to swim out after it. She won't swim out after any ball but this one (and the other Waboba balls we have). It also says on the box that it's not a dog toy, and if your dog likes to chew hard on his toys then this is not the toy for you. My dog chews lightly and gently on it as she brings it back and it has held up well.
To those who say that it won’t bounce: you must not have been using the Waboba Surf. There are a couple of other Waboba balls. They have different sizes, but the main difference is that the Surf is a lot squishier and it bounces higher and farther than the others when thrown at slower speeds over shorter distances. I guess the additional squishiness flattens better against the water at slower speeds. Conversely, the other balls are faster and would be better if you are looking for speed or distance but they have to be thrown very hard and I have had unsatisfactory experiences with them. Also, if you throw the ball with an arc, or with no force, so that when it reaches the water it is basically coming from almost straight up, then it will not bounce. Throw it at an angle, hard enough to make it flatten against the water, and it will bounce very well.
One time when my dog was standing on a dock I bounced the ball to her and she caught it in her mouth. She loved that game so much that she spontaneously brought it back to me and ran back to the dock for another. (See the short video of this that I added above. Click your right mouse button on it as it is running and choose "Show all controls." Then there is a button to expand it to full screen and another for slow motion.) The Surf is perfect for this but the Extreme and the Pro balls are unsuitable. I think it just requires standard reflexes and an alert dog. It also can be done across a swimming pool. For some reason it seems to be easier for her to catch it that way, even when thrown hard, than it is for her to catch it when thrown through the air. Anyway, it's a great toy. Just use the Surf, don't give it to your dog to chew on and don't bounce it off anything but water.
If you use this ball to play with your dog the cover is eventually going to come off, especially if you play in an area where other dogs get ahold of it once in a while. The good news is that you don't have to throw it away at that point. It still does what it's supposed to do, although the inner rubbery material feels a bit slimy when wet, making it harder to catch. In fact it bounces truer without its cover than it does with a cover frayed and half-way off. Waboba has come out with a version for use with dogs: Waboba Fetch Dog Pool Ball . However, that ball does not bounce nearly as high/far as this one and costs 35% more. Jury is still out on how much more durable it is.