Driven by function and use by experts, a purity of materials, the direct design purpose results in a minimalist beauty based on function and resulting in pure performance.
X is building equipment for a new targeted user for season 2017. For 2016 our operating theme was built on #serious, a serious approach to contrast with economy plastic approaches to hydroflight. We have always placed a high emphasis on proper engineering and a ease of use. We are doubling down this year on our core values and the core pursuit of building the world’s best performing, most awesome hydroflight equipment. We love building cool sports gear and we just had to pursue building the ultimate gear we could think of.
With industrial design, and every engineering effort and design, there are compromises. A series of choices on where to put the emphasis in a design. X has always built products to fit the widest range of users, emphasizing ease of use, safety and durability. In 2017 with riders capable of a higher level of riding becoming more prevalent, X has taken the direct riders feedback and continuously evolved its Jetblade and Jetpack line to meet their ever increasing demands.
At this point, a complete new line of product in the X line has been developed to take this shift in the market one step further. A re-balancing of the core aspects of the design approach has opened up possibilities for higher performance Jetblades and Jetpacks.
We have the distinct pleasure of working with the top riders in the world on both Jetblades and Jetpacks since the early introduction of our gear. Some of the riders stripped down some of the gear, decreasing the swing weight and water resistance. As we began to design, one word emerged at the top of the list, minimal. We concentrated on letting the function drive the design, everything else was secondary. By redefining the emphasis of the pro equipment, the beginning baseline of our new Jetpack and Jetblades was pure performance for high level athletes. The highest strength material was chosen as a basis, carbon fiber.
Prototypes were built and tested, the best riders refining and offering feedback. We look at our competitors and took note of any advantages that were incorporated in their products. The one positive aspect of the plastic board that was mentioned was the lighter weight, we took design notes.
We minimized and minimized, keeping core functions such as variable stance width available, but minimizing the “weight cost” of adjustment, by offering single, puprpose built variations of each stance width. We lowered the mount plane of the bindings down to the top of the bearings, and engineered a top down system of anchoring the reduced the thickness needed for screw hold down under the binding to zero.
One size fits all? No. Smallest common denominator? No. Each pro rider deserves the optimum solution for hydroflight performance. This was our challenge and we are proud to build and empower our athletes with gear that they can have confidence in riding to the top.
What are the “costs” of this design re-balancing? With race equipment and experienced riders, convenience takes a secondary role, Safety, our goal is to provide all of the requisite safety, with the caveat that only experienced riders will be using this equipment. They will be able to handle situations that they have trained for. Durability, expert riders take care of their equipment, where we design “normal” Jetblades and Jetpacks to be rented and stand up to the abuse that the worst location can dish out month after month with hundreds of riders, Scorpions and Falcons are designed to be maintained by experts for expert use. All in the pursuit of optimization. You would not rent an F1 race car or leave it out in the winter, pros take care of their equipment, this gave us the chance to build lighter from more exotic materials.
We are proud to release the new members of the X product line, the Jetblade Scorpion and the Falcon Jetpack, the lightest weight, highest performing hydro flight gear ever designed. We feel this is an unique initiative in this market where the emphasis has been on reducing prices and quality by building cheaper. X will be the most expensive gear on the market without a doubt, it has been an equal expensive to develop but we feel it is a vital pursuit for the growth of the sport. The level of hydroflight riding deserves the effort to build for the next levels. We build for you to mobilize futures. That’s X’s strength and commitment to hydroflight.