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A local ski and snowboard junkie has invented a smart new helmet to help people stay connected on the slopes.
Stephen Catterson quit his job in investments to turn his big idea into a reality and create some wireless headgear fit for the pistes.
He came up with the idea back in 2013 and started work putting together crude prototypes in his garage. He's since spent the last two years travelling around the world to find the right team to make his dream a reality - designers, engineers, creative people, manufacturing partners and of course investors and to try and get it onto the market before anyone else came up with a similar idea.
The Linkpro Explore1 is now ready to move mountains in the world of snow sports with its FM/ smartphone technology.
Stephen said: “I always listen to music when I ski or snowboard, but it’s very difficult when it’s very cold, you have to take your gloves off, you can’t wear headphones.
“It will completely change the way you are able to communicate on the slopes, from distances of 10 metres to 3 km, it will make planning a route so much easier, and we’ve packed a number of extra features into it as well.
“It will help you look good and be safe. It's got an avalanche reflector beacon inside so they can locate you in an avalanche. It's also got MIPS technology - a layer that goes inside so when you have an angled impact it acts like the skin on your scalp so if you hit your head, you won't hit it so hard.
"It works even better than first anticipated, I can’t wait to have it in full production, you won’t go back, it’s so convenient.”
Stephen and his Linkpro team have launched this Kickstarter campaign where you can pick up one of his helmets in a range of colours to match your ski gear for about £199 but they need to raise £100,000 in the next few weeks to help cover the cost of production.
He said: "We want to get people to back it, you can back the project from as little as £3. Even if you don’t want to buy a helmet we’d love you to back the project for a Jersey boy."
You can see just how hard Stephen's journey has been to turn his idea into a reality here, here and here.
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