Our partners at Silver Star Freestyle Club have been working on producing some media for us these last few weeks helping us generate some marketing material to help drive sales as ski resorts start to make their budgets for the next year. Recently they forwarded two e-mails in particular that really touched me. The first was an e-mail and a video from a 56 old. The e-mail reads:
“This is one of my first back flips on a snow jump in 19 years… into an airbag built by Katal. Its sloped landing pad reduces the forward momentum shock encountered by skiers and snow boarders. This was shot this morning.”
Here is the video he sent us as well:
Getting e-mails like this are just so gratifying. So much work has gone into our research and design process, when we get acknowledgment that our products are doing exactly what they were designed to do and with such high praise, it reminds me why we started Katal in the first place. Our goal was to build the next generation safety training device to help skiers and snowboarders everywhere safely unlock their true potential for progression. As this gentleman describes here, having a downward slope built into the shape of the bag not only add to the realism of the environment they are training for, but it’s design is much better suited for safely absorbing the impacts.
The second e-mail I got though, really hit home with me. As you may or may not know, I started Katal with my partner Stephen after I suffered a tragic accident snowboarding that left me a quadriplegic. This accident gave me the inspiration and motivation to use my ingenuity to stay a part of the sport and even help in the evolution of snowboarding’s freestyle progression, though in a different way than I originally imagined. Before my accident I dreamed of being a pro snowboarder, using my skills to push the limits of progression. Now I use my innovative skills to create the perfect safe training environment for all riders to push their personal progression and also in that way, push the progression of the sport. It wasn’t even a written e-mail. It was just these photos here:
Seeing the airbag that we designed help someone with a similar the condition to mine enabling him to pull off a backflip in his sit ski… all because of what we invented… it honestly it brought a tear to my eye. It was really something special. Mad props to this guy. Really stoked we could make it possible. Thanks to the guys at Dared to Dream Photography for the photos: www.daretodreamphoto.com.
-Aaron
Great work. I can understand what you are feeling, sometimes its so moving that you almost can cry when you see what you have achieved.