Unintentional Inflations, Five Prototypes and a Few Failed Tests

“Paige Alms put the vest on and … it blew up on her,” remembers Andrew Reinhart with a laugh. Our Patagonia Surf ambassador and field-tester “had it halfway on when it literally inflated and she got stuck in it. We were like, alright, we got some work to do.”

But, before we get into other mishaps with our new PSI Vest 2.0, let’s hit rewind.

Roughly 15 years ago, a couple of product innovation cowboys developed Patagonia’s first PSI (Personal Surf Inflation) Vest in the Forge, Patagonia’s R&D facility, at HQ in Ventura, California. Hub Hubbard, product line manager of surf apparel and wetsuits, had previously worked with big-wave paddle-surfing pioneer Shane Dorian on Billabong’s version of the inflation vest in Orange County before a southerly wind blew Hub up to the 805. Around the same time Hub, Shane and Billabong were working on their vest, Kohl Christensen had come back from a big, drown-y day at Mavericks (coincidentally with Dorian) and pitched us on developing personal surf inflation.

“I remember my first day at Patagonia, when I walked into the Forge and there were 50 vests they’d handmade on-site,” says Hub. “It was so far beyond what Shane and I were working on. I just thought, ‘Holy shit.’”

With the blessing of Fletcher Chouinard and then Head of Patagonia Surf Jason McCaffrey, the inflation vest arms race was officially on. It would allow Andrew, Hub, former R&D designer Casey Shaw and Senior Manager of Field Testing Walker Ferguson to develop a revolutionary piece of big-wave surfing equipment. The whole process took place largely off the books. “We basically had to backdoor the whole thing,” says Andrew.

“It was a product that didn’t exist. Nobody knew what to do with it or wanted anything to do with it because it was so complicated,” says Hub. “In the end, it changed the way Patagonia looks at product safety. It amplified our awareness of global safety standards and initiated more rigorous internal and external testing across our gear. This brought us back to Patagonia’s Chouinard Equipment roots in building climbing equipment, and from this, we created new protocols and guidelines specifically for this product.”

Since then, our inflation vest has become the “it” item for surfing waves of consequence, worn and sought out by the best big-wave surfers in the world, which is rare in surfing. Any big-wave surfer will tell you our vest has potentially saved them from drowning in heavy water. There are few pieces of equipment developed in surfing that have changed the way big-wave surfers look at waves and safety, and that have allowed them to surf bigger, heavier waves, more than our PSI Vest. It’s one of the most game-changing pieces of equipment in the big-wave realm since surfboards, leashes and PWCs … to be able to say that without puffery is kind of an insane feat.

The vest came in response to surfers drowning and dying at breaks from Mavericks to Pe‘ahi and beyond. Looking at the timeline of big-wave (particularly paddle) surfing, you can see the bar raise in conjunction with the inflation vests coming to market. And over the past decade, that level has gone nuclear; it has allowed surfers to go harder in waves of consequence and has set a new stage of what’s possible in big waves around the world.

When building a piece of gear that surfers rely on for their lives, these things must work. With the first version of the PSI Vest, not a single big-wave surfer has drowned while wearing our vest—a stat that we’re afraid of advertising.

“I think the reason the first version was so successful is because we spent six years working with almost 600 big-wave surfers to bring it to market,” says Andrew. “It was one of those projects that was done when it was ready. It wasn’t about moving the needle in terms of revenue; it was all about safety.”

And that’s the biggest catch of this vest. It’s not a moneymaker … if anything, we lose on it, but the win is something larger. It adds an extra layer of safety in the most dangerous surf conditions out there.

Over the past few years, we’ve spent countless hours meeting with our big-wave surf ambassadors, getting feedback and learning what we can do to make the new PSI Vest 2.0 easier to paddle in and surf in and be more streamlined. The product innovation know-how of Andrew, Hub and team, combined with the heavy-water learnings from Ian Walsh, Greg Long, Paige and Kohl led us to rethink the vest and develop many rounds of prototypes. The original version is a tough act to follow. Which brings us back to Paige’s premature inflation situation off the coast of O‘ahu’s North Shore.

Last winter, we had all our ambassadors ready to go out and test the vest, photographers lined up, skis and a boat locked in. The only problem was that the prototypes hadn’t quite made the deadline. “I thought we were going to show up to Hawai‘i with at least eight prototypes that were completely done, but of course they weren’t,” laughs Andrew. “Last minute, Hub threw a Hail Mary and was able to grab a couple prototypes right before he flew out.”

“I had my flight that night and was waiting at the office for them to arrive,” chimes in Hub. “We met at Kohl’s barn the next morning. [Photographer] Daniel Russo and Kohl were unloading the skis and getting everything ready, and Andrew was in the dark in the early morning, literally assembling them in the barn. It was the design we all decided on, but had realized quickly we had to rework it. Ideally, that was the moment we’d be good … but it didn’t go that way.”

On the North Shore, we found plenty of issues to work through. “It was a critical learning moment in the development process,” says Hub. These learnings are the reason we put so much time and effort into everything we make.

“It was cool though,” adds Andrew. “We had Paige and Kohl to give input. We had Ian Walsh, who’s been with this vest since the beginning and is one of the most prepared big-wave surfers out there. Then also Greg Long, who’s basically the core lord of big-wave safety and surfing. All those hang-ups didn’t affect our development that much. We were able to go back to Kohl’s barn, meet on it and continue thinking about what we can redesign, how the vest feels and moves on body and on boards, whether we should remove a layer to improve performance and weigh out the benefits. We still had some wins on that trip.”

“The fact that we were still working and fine-tuning the new prototypes at that stage really speaks to the original design,” says Andrew. “We’ve been trying to unpack it and make it better than the old one. I think that’s special, and it doesn’t get more innovative than trying to do something like this.”

Sifting through five full working prototypes, countless iterations of the bladder and outer covers, the team took feedback from our big-wave ambassadors and the big-wave surfers who rely on this vest to redesign a more streamlined, higher-performing version of personal inflation—with each component being specifically designed for the new vest.

“Handles, pull cords and CO2 canister tabs are all custom-designed,” says Hub. “But the most unique development is the bladder, which the CO2 canisters inflate, material itself. The TPU material is built to withstand extreme pressure underwater and never pop.”

“In the redesign, we learned that not only the women wanted to get the canisters and components off the chest, but a lot of the men had them digging into their chests as well,” says Andrew. “And all of the women who used the vest said they only used two canisters and removed the ones on the chest to keep them from pushing in.”

To fix this problem and enhance fit and improve performance, the new PSI Vest 2.0 has all four canisters in the back, while still maintaining the two-­handle pull system surfers are familiar with.

“We wanted to make this thing more performance oriented,” continues Andrew. “We used thinner ­materials to reduce heat, and to get away from the feeling of doubling up on your wetsuit when the vest is worn—as it is designed to be worn—under a wetsuit. We also built it to work as a system with our new Impact Wetsuits that will be coming out next season. We’ve upped our Impact styles from three to six, and they all fit seamlessly with the inflation vest.”

We’ll be rolling out our new PSI Vest 2.0 at the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational Ceremony at Waimea Bay, O‘ahu, in December 2026, and the vests will be ready for purchase in early 2027.

“Stepping back and looking at all this gear that’s helped change ocean safety over the years, and has also changed product safety for Patagonia,” pauses Hub, “it’s crazy to take it all in.”

To learn more about our new Personal Surf Inflation Vest, head here.