It’s all about heat! Rip Curl’s H-Bomb is the world’s first power heated wetsuit. It’s a wetsuit designed to keep you super-warm by positioning a source of heat on your upper back. This heats your core and allows your body to experience warm blood to your extremities.
The heat is generated by two coated fibre elements positioned on your upper back. The elements conduct electricity that generate the heat which warms the blood. Simple. The elements are made of fibre there’s no metal here so there’s no electromagnetic field generated by any metal component and there’s no metal to corrode when it’s in salt water and you’re in the barrel. Imagine adding the warmth of the H-Bomb to your current suit type say, a 4/3mm or a 3/2mm to let you surf longer and get more waves, or bend your mind a little further and imagine dropping back to a 2mm E2 for more flexibility without sacrificing warmth.
A thin layer of neoprene lies between the elements and your back to spread the heat evenly and protect your skin.
What does it feel like?
It’s an infrared heat with a therapeutic heat quality usually used to relieve muscle soreness and tension so it keeps you loose. Our first test pilot was 2005 WCT number 7 Nathan Hedge. The Hog reckons It’s one out of the box, it feels sooo good! You keep really warm, even on the low setting and it just keeps you feeling warm all over throughout. I didn’t want to give it back after the R&D session.
How is it powered?
Rip Curl’s H-Bomb is powered by two Polymer Lithium Ion 7.2v batteries. These are the same batteries found in your mobile phone, ipod and laptop computer. There is no danger of exposure to these batteries by radiation, electric shock or explosion even if it is called the Bomb! The batteries weigh 0.12kg each and are positioned on your lower back where they are cushioned against your body by a layer of neoprene sponge so you can’t feel them.
In November of last year two Rip Curl riders Adam Wickwire and Hawaiian Elise Garrigue headed away from the warm waters of the Pacific Ocean on a secret product-testing mission in the icy, unexplored oceans of the Arctic Circle.
Wickwire and Garrigue spent eight days searching for waves in the freezing North Atlantic Ocean, testing Rip Curl’s new “H-Bomb” power heated wetsuits.
The H-Bomb is the world’s first power heated wetsuit, designed to keep a surfer super-warm (despite the chilly temperature of the water they’re surfing in) by positioning two fibre-heating elements, which conduct electricity that generate heat and warm the blood.
The H-Bomb underwent enormous levels of testing during its production stage, but even the science labs couldn’t simulate the conditions that the Rip Curl Search team faced in the Arctic.
The air temperature averaged between –5 to –10 degrees Celsius (23 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit) during the trip, with wind chill temperatures reaching as low as –20C (-4F). The water temperature was measured as low as –1C (30F) during the surf sessions, which equalled perfect conditions for the H-Bomb…
Adam Wickwire and Elise Garrigue keeping warm in the Arctic Circle.
“It was so cold, it’s kind of hard to explain how crazy the trip was,” said Wickwire. “It was so cold that when we went surfing we couldn’t even get changed into our wetsuits outside – we’d have to get changed in the car and then sit there until the H-Bomb started to heat up. Once the rubber heated up it was easy to get into the water with our hood, booties and gloves though.”
“The cold wasn’t even a factor when we were surfing, because the wetsuits are that good. The only time you felt the water is when you got flushed and that actually helped because the water circulated around the wetsuit and helped distribute the heat. It was just like surfing in normal water.”
“It was the most amazing adventure,” added Garrigue, who spends the year travelling the world with Rip Curl’s Search team. “I have never been to a place that cold, but it was so beautiful. The waves were awesome and the H-Bomb wetsuits allowed us to surf in places people have never been able to experience before.”
The Rip Curl H-Bomb will continue its rigorous testing program right up until the wetsuit’s pending release date in mid-2007.
More info: http://www.ripcurl.com/hbomb/
