Gary from Ride Engine gives a look inside the brand’s new “Concept Lab” — an open, work-in-progress display of products still being developed, including a parawinging vest built with Foil Rat’s Dan and early thinking on deployable flotation aids for long downwind crossings.
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro: with Gary from Ride Engine, a brand always dreaming up new ideas
0:06 Genuinely innovative — first to market with the Hyperlock
0:08 Also first to market with the hard shell harness
0:11 The Reel Leash has been a big development for them too
0:15 Also working on a helmet — the Charger lid
0:18 A brand that’s good at developing new ideas and running with projects
0:21 Gary invites us into his “dream corner” — where the magic happens
0:27 They call it the Concept Lab
0:32 The idea behind it, here at this show
0:37 The show’s grown into a genuinely international event — people flying in from the UK
0:41 Packed with top, professional athletes across every wind sport and e-foil-assist discipline
0:53 The amount of feedback on site is immense
0:57 So they’re showing new products that are still in progress
1:00 Over the last couple of years, especially in wing foiling and parawinging, things are moving fast and people have great ideas
1:07 So they decided to add a layer of transparency to their design process
1:12 The Concept Lab: products at various stages of development, not fully baked yet
1:18 Put them out there, get people looking, get the concepts moving and the feedback flowing
1:26 Example: the vest Gary’s working on with Dan from Foil Rat — genuinely cool
1:37 Front stow, back stow, a bit of flotation and impact protection
1:42 Inviting feedback: what would people want added, or done differently
1:49 Dan’s already thought it through in real depth — he just wanted to partner on it
1:55 Ride Engine were keen, but Dan wanted to open it up to the wider world too
2:01 The aim: build the ultimate parawinging vest
2:05 Gathering feedback on it right here at the Concept Lab
2:09 Also looking further ahead — as people take on longer downwind missions and crossings
2:17 Flotation aids are likely to become a real thing in this space
2:21 Scenario: 1-2km into a crossing, you blow a leash or a leg rope
2:28 Suddenly there’s no board left for flotation
2:33 Could be worth a small, deployable flotation aid to help out until your group notices you’ve dropped back
2:39 …and works out a recovery plan
2:45 So: gathering feedback, having fun with it, genuinely excited about where it goes
2:49 Could extend even further — looking at bringing in outside input more broadly
2:56 A nod to Slingshot, who pioneered this with their Project Drag foil, opening a Discord channel
3:04 That proved huge for getting feedback to make the product the best it could be
3:11 Same goal here: get more people involved
3:15 Wrap-up: thanks to Gary
More info: https://rideengine.com/
