https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1847051333/sick-sequence-climbing-ultra-portable-crash-pad/description
What does everyone think? Is this concept appealing to anyone else?
Test out some of these last weekend as a friend had taken the plunge a bought a couple.
First thoughts below (disclaimer that the test was done in HK summer conditions of 34 deg C and 90% humidity so i may not have been in my 'happy place'):
Size/Weight: Each pad packs up to about the size of 2/3 a typical dry bag, so not too big or bulky but not small either, especially as you'd really want to using two or three of them to make their use even remotely worthwhile. The pads are pretty light to be fair, as is the pump that comes with them - although the pump is pretty bulky too so your pack would be quite full by the time you had 2-3 pads, pump, plus bouldering kit.
Note: the inflated pads are pretty lightweight so any strong winds will have them blowing all over the place unless you either: a) have normal pads on top; or b) use the velcro strap attachment thingy to try and tie them down.
Pad Construction: They 'seem' reasonably robust but we didn't do the "put them on top of some pointy rocks and then jump on them test" yet. Size is about the same as a typical organic Full pad (maybe a touch smaller). Probably about an inch thicker than a normal organic pad when fully inflated, which'll make those sit starts a bit easier (especially if you can get a bit of a bounce going too - whole new can of ethical worms to open with that one...). Each pad has vecro strips around the sides allowing them to be connected to adjacent pads with a pretty sturdy strip attachment. This attachment also has a built in handle to help you move things around.
Inflation/Deflation: Takes something between 3 to 4 minutes to inflate the pad so, a bit of a faff but no massive issue (although doing three or four of them would be a pain). Deflating was pretty easy - think old school thermarest type approach of rolling the air out and then using the extraction function of the pump to vacuum the last little bits of air.
Maneuverability: Once inflated, its a bit of a pain in the arse to move them around to be honest as the only strap/handle is on the velcro strip. Unless all the problems you want to do are really close together, they'll start getting a bit annoying - especially if it means repeated inflation/deflation cycles.
Falling on them: The bit everyone want to know about. I'll be fair, they do work but landing feels weird and is highly dependent on how hard you inflate them. Too much air and its a hard, shocking and bit bouncy landing. Too little air and, whilst the cushioning effect is better you can bottom them out quite easily. Takes a bit of trial and error to get an inflation level that feels workable (a small pressure gauge would help you baseline this but that's not included).
Once the air level is such that you get a bit of cushion, but not enough to bottom out, they're okay to land on provided you hitting the central air and the air can distribute around all sides of the impact spot. Landing anywhere towards the edges felt quite sketchy as the air primarily moves inwards in the pad, leaving you on a sloping edge - which can then bounce you away from the pads a bit. For this reason i think you'd need a bunch of them all strapped together to provide a much larger landing surface than normal and take away the risk of landing on the very outer edges.
The landing itself is a bouncy and weird, but i guess with time you'd adjust the way you let your body impact pads to accommodate this. It didn't feel right/comfortable from the one session i've had on them so far though and i certainly wouldn't be comfortable taking any big falls directly onto these pads alone. Using a Blubber on top of them helped a bit, but kind of offsets the 'no need to carry a big bulky pad' aspect of using them in the first place...
Summary: Overall performance was pretty much as you’d expect - they don’t really cushion the impact that nicely and have a slightly bouncy feel to the landing that could lead to knackered ankles if you're coming down slightly off balance etc. Whilst i'd be happy using them as either a base beneath normal pads to help give some extra thickness to my landing (they do pack up reasonably small and don’t weigh too much) or as secondary pads off to the side of the area i'd expect to land in, for anything other than problems less than 2-3m in height I’d be reluctant to have them as my main landing material…
