Interview notes:

Common modes of head injuries:

• Hit head on reef + rocks a lot
• Getting hit on head by surfboard a concern for a lot of people → more common for beginner surfers though
• Once was surfing really shallow reef break → drydocked on reef and went face first into reef and got a bad concussion

Want control over when deploys?

• Patagonia: Pull down inflates, pull up deflates
  • it’s important for trigger mechanisms to be fast to reach (i.e. close to body)

On design ideas:

• Looks almost like substitute for life jacket
• important to have inflation on head and back of neck
  • If someone can foresee that going to be in bad situation
  • If someone was going out into dangerous surf spot → if stuck in bad position
• NEED TO BE CAREFUL IF SOMEONE KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS —> WILL BE FACEDOWN
  • Patagonia had same issue and had to redesign inflation to be from chest

Pull strings vs hands over head deployment?

Pull strings:

• Pull strings very familiar and common
  • Happens so fast that so a security measure for after initial wipeout