Marcus Butler
25 March 2015: A team of University of Canberra designers have cheered on Australian Olympic snowboarder Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin as he claimed the world number two ranking in the Snowboard Cross World Cup.
Industrial designers, including Stephen Trathen, Eddi Pianca, Carlos Montana Hoyos and Bill Shelley from the University's Faculty of Arts and Design designed and produced personalised snowboard bindings for Mr Pullin.
Assistant professor in design, Eddi Pianca said the final competition for the World Cup season was held in Spain in near blizzard conditions, but his team were cheering on Chumpy the whole way.
"With the season cut back to just three competitions because of poor conditions around Europe, we knew that a first or second placing would have handed Chumpy the world number one ranking. He finished third at La Molina and we're proud of his performance," Dr Pianca said.
The bindings are made from a composite material which includes Kevlar, a material normally used in military and police body armour.
The UC designers hand-crafted four sets of bindings for Mr Pullin, including a prototype as well as sets for training, competition and a back-up.
"The bindings for Chumpy are made to measure and the feedback we've received so far is that they are really responsive and now to have been used in claiming the world number two ranking, well that's a great result," Dr Pianca said.
The snowboard binding project has been fully funded by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the designers are now working on bindings which could be used for the whole Australian snowboard team, including Belle Brockhoff who finished fourth in the finals at La Molina.
"Between the University and the AIS we're keeping the design and manufacture of these bindings under wraps, we want to give our Aussie athletes the competitive edge," he said.
Read more about this exciting project and others here.
