Ask the folks living near a beach and most of them would tell you that one of the most thrilling water sports is surfing, where you hop on to a wooden board and surf the waves till they die down. However, just as with ever adventure sport, even surfing comes with its own sets of danger and the most persistent one being drowning. Hence, one of the most accomplished surfers, Shane Dorian has now teamed up with Mustang Survival to bring out a revolutionary new product in the form of  ‘Billabong V1’, the world’s first inflatable wetsuit. This remarkable lifesaving contraption was conceived after a near death experience suffered by Shane last year during a surfing accident, wherein he nearly drowned. This Billabong V1 has been designed and developed to be extremely easy to use, as the wetsuit’s mechanism can be easily activated with just a tug on the ripcord. This initiates the inflation process that in near real time brings the victim from the depths of the water body straight to the surface to be rescued.
The Billabong V1 was put through a series of strenuous tests to prove its mettle, where in these test runs were first carried out  in calm waters and then the device was taken to larger wave settings. In the month of March this year, this remarkable lifesaving wetsuit was finally put to the ultimate test in a real life situation, when Shane Dorian caught a 57-foot wave and went under. That was the time when Shane pulled on the ripcord and found himself on the surface floating within a matter of seconds, thus proving the efficiency of the Billabong V1. Though there have been a numerous sorts of unconventional swimsuits in the market such as the corset swimsuit, gold swimsuit, compostable swimsuit and even a world’s fastest swimsuit, yet Billabong V1 stands out as the most versatile and necessary of all swimsuits.
Via Gizmodo
