Wake­board Bind­ing Wins Dyson

Julian Schloe­mer, a 23 year old indus­trial design gradu­ate from Mas­sey Uni­ver­sity, last night picked up the James Dyson Award for emer­ging product design. His inven­tion, Lucid, aims to reduce the incid­ence of wake­board­ing injur­ies, which are on ACC’s list of top ten adven­ture sport claims in New Zealand.

“I’ve exper­i­enced a knee injury from wake­board­ing, which is com­mon when a wake­board hits the water at full force, with one foot com­ing out of the bind­ing while the other is still attached to the board. Cur­rent wake­board bind­ings are designed to hold feet onto a board, even after a fall. This increases the chance of injur­ies when one or both feet can­not be freed.

“Lucid’s main dif­fer­ence is its release mech­an­ism guar­an­teed to let go of the rider’s feet when cer­tain pres­sure is applied,” says Schloemer.

The Christ­ch­urch designer says his product’s release sys­tem is also designed to make get­ting in and out of wet bind­ings much easier than cur­rent wake­board bind­ings. It can dif­fer­en­ti­ate between tricks and falls by the rider’s angles, and by pro­gram­ming an adjuster that opens bind­ings easier for novices.

More inform­a­tion on Schloemer's win­ning design here.

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