Sports Technology Review focussing on new sports technology and innovation world wide
Extreme sports
Kelly Slater Showcases Quiksilver’s Innovative Wetsuit
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Eleven times ASP world surfing champion Kelly Slater is the first to try Quiksilver’s Xplosive prototype wetsuit during the pipeline maters in Hawaii. The R&D team at quicksilver have integrated POWER LINES into the suit design based on advice from leading physiotherapists and engineers. The principle of these power lines is to store and release elastic energy back to the athlete through activation of major muscle groups.
“The power lines have been designed to mimic the naturally-occurring stretch reflexes within the body, by adding these lines to the already established reflexes, we can amplify the body response of action and reaction”.
Quiksilver also claim their suit improves proprioception and has injury prevention properties.
“The athlete’s awareness of their body is both complemented and enhanced by the suit. The wetsuit aids the control of major muscles during explosive actions and also allows for smooth movement. This is highly important in injury prevention.’
Quiksilver are not the first to add an elastic material to sporting apparel, indeed adidas were the first to market with their TECHFIT™ PowerWEB™ boldly claiming figures of improvements in power of up to 5%.
Whether the Xplosive suit is assistive, or indeed resistive remains to be seen until or if scientific data is published, wetsuits are almost resistance suits in themselves due to the nature of neoprene wrapped around the joints. Whether it reduces injury may be a question for Mr Slater as a long term and large scale study would be required to properly get a handle on this.
Article by David Rogers
Sportswear for emergency workers?! – PeakZero
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
About time our emergency workers got some sportswear. Check this video out!
Your next longboard…..from Loki Longboards
Friday, August 5th, 2011
Established in 2010, Loki Longboards is a British company based in sunny Devon. They are skilled cabinet makers (their words) and manufacture their longboards from recycled timber – whether that is an old table, cupboard or otherwise. Their hardwood boards are coupled with Paris Truck Co trucks and Seismic Skate System wheels to provide you with a ‘good looking, hard wearing design classic….’.
Not ridden one but sounds cool. Check out their stuff at www.lokilongboards.com.
Article by Sian Slawson
Endomondo sportstracker review – first impressions
Friday, June 24th, 2011
Slightly difference kind of product review, this is my first impressions of my Blackberry sports tracking app. First thing to note, this is not just Blackberry but can be downloaded on iPhone, HTC, Nokia…..etc. Also important to note is I am very lazy with my phone set up, so if I say it is easy then it seriously is.
I downloaded the free version of Endomondo to my Blackberry with no stress logging in via facebook seemed the easiest option but alternatively you just pop an email address. The basic concept of Endomondo (as will be millions of similar apps) is to enable real-time sports tracking, be it cycling, running, walking, etc. I have just returned from a local ride on the mountain bike and have to say this was easy to use, click ‘start’, click ‘stop’ and job’s done. Immediately you finish you can view basic statistics, e.g. distance and time, and a map of where you have been. The app has a ‘lap’ function, however, I have not yet worked out how it defines a ‘lap’. The only function that seems to be missing from the free version is ‘graphs’, which I assume will give you the ability to graph things like speed and elevation.
The next question I had, was whether I could export my track to open in something like Google earth, enabling me to see graphs of elevation, etc. I was pleased to find that this again is very simple. Going onto the website:
I logged in and could view my elevation and speed in a Google map format, in addition I could choose to export the track as a gpx or tcx file if I wanted to. The interface of the website reminds me of a ‘map my run’ type format, where your workout is posted onto a calendar and saved. There are options to share routes and view other routes members of the community have uploaded. There are ‘challenges’ that you can accept to help with motivation and an ‘events calendar’ full of races/events that are happening across the country if you fancy a finding a bigger challenge.
Overall, first impressions of this product are excellent. Easy to use + free = winner. The online functionality gives you a way of tracking your training with hardly any effort. Out for a ride, carry my phone isn’t too much of an issue, possibly a plastic bag would be a good idea to protect the phone in damp weather, so Endomondo gives me an easy way to monitor ‘progress’ or lack thereof. I feel like out for a run the information would be good, but carrying a phone may be more of an issue, but then that is the nature of all phone apps.
Article by Sian Slawson
The Atherton project comes to Loughborough
Friday, June 17th, 2011
Ever heard of the Atherton project? No. The Athertons are three very talented Downhill (and other) riders. They came to Loughborough University before the World Cup to get tested and their fitness benchmarked. Here is the video, form the Atherton project! Have a look.
