Feature Friday (week 8)
Ride Engine
Welcome to our eighth feature Friday. This week we will be taking a more in depth look at a major innovation in kiting brought to you from the lovely team at Ride Engine
Ride Engine Hardshell Technology
Back in 2010 Ride Engine started with a Santa Cruz waterman Coleman Buckley. Buckley, an avid tinkerer, started experimenting with designing kitesurfing harnesses. No harness on the market met the expectations or demands he and his friends had, so he set to work creating one himself. In a makeshift lab in his garage, Buckley experimented with several Frankenstein designs, dissecting various harnesses, stitching together their components and bringing them to life, this is when the first hard shell harness was born.
With eight years of development and investment from 7 nations, Ride Engine are now the forefront of hardshell harness tech.
What is a hardshell harness ?
A hardshell harness is a contoured armour shell that is moulded to lock in to your back. The idea behind the hardshell harness is to distribute the load of the kite seamlessly from the spreader bar to the armor shell, preventing harness from buckling or pinching at the side that you may get on a standard material harness.
Due to the strength of the shell hardshell harnesses can be made allot smaller so they do no sit under the rib and give you allot more room for manoeuvrability.
The evolution of the hardshell can be seen in the market now with nearly every brand making a copy, or similar product to ride engine however none have the same stiffness in the shell as ride engine which leads to greater load distribution and a better overall feel when riding.
This is one of our favourite products at Unity and we have been a fan of Ride Engine since day 1
If you would like more info on the Ride Engine Range please get in touch. hello@unitywatersports.com
