A Paddle Boarding Vest that Does It All: Hydrates, Floats and Supports Cancer Research
Mason Gross alumna designs innovative life jacket to promote safety, cancer awareness
'Paddling is good for breast cancer survivors, for strengthening the upper body, chest, arm muscles and the core.'–Shannon MacDowell
As a longtime stand-up paddleboard instructor at the Manhattan Kayak Company, Shannon MacDowell enjoys the freedom of climbing onto a board at the West 44th Street boathouse on Pier 84 and heading out on the Hudson River. There she loves the feel of the shifting swells and eddies along the vast current as she paddles her SUP.
But spending time on the river and in the harbor with its fast moving water and gusty wind has made MacDowell especially aware of the importance of safety and the need to not only teach her students to use their flotation devices, but also to stay hydrated.
Yet MacDowell, who graduated in 2009 from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts, knows that not everyone puts on their life jacket or wears them correctly.
“Most people think they are bulky and uncomfortable,” she says as she ticks off some of the complaints she hears about how jackets inhibit movements and make SUPers hot. “They don’t feel cool wearing them.”
To change hearts, minds and temperaments, MacDowell and her fellow instructor Carey Bond are taking part in the Boat U.S. Foundation, the Personal Flotation Manufacturers Association and the National Marine Manufacturers Association’s Innovations in Life Jacket Design Competition.
MacDowell and Bond run a firm called Suplogix, and seeking to win the event’s $10,000 first-place prize they have devised the Infinity Vest, a lightweight and adjustable flotation device that holds up to two and a half liters of water.
“We are combining two devices in one in a minimal and comfortable way that will encourage people to wear it so they can move the way they want to,” she says of her prototype.
Their design is one of 14 entries culled from the competition’s initial submissions. It allows for a full range of motion, has an easily accessed water compartment and there is a pouch for snacks. Most important, the design – developed with safety products manufacturer Eastern Aero Marine – can be fitted with one of two different possible inflation devices, the first draped around the collar, the second strapped on the chest.
And since MacDowell also works as a personal trainer, where some of her clients include breast cancer survivors, she decided to couple her design with a message about cancer awareness. She incorporated the Susan G. Komen for the Cure pink ribbon shape into her vest, and plans to donate the winnings to the foundation.
“Paddling is good for breast cancer survivors, for strengthening the upper body, chest, arm muscles and the core,” she says.
Such a device, though, is needed for everyone taking part in the sport, which has seemingly come out of nowhere in the past decade. SUP now boasts weekly competitions along the east and west coasts, Hawaii as well as in Europe and Asia, and according to a 2013 report by the Outdoor Foundation, can claim the highest number of new participants of any outdoor sport.
“It is easy to learn, and it is for all ages and on all waters, from lakes to white water and big waves,” says Kristin Thomas, executive director of the Stand Up Paddle Industry Association.
As a veteran of this new sport, MacDowell’s passion for SUPing is a clear outgrowth of her time paddling and canoeing as a child in Anchorage, Alaska, and during family outings along that state’s coastal waters. Leaving the Last Frontier for the Garden State, she enrolled at Rutgers in 2005, earning a degree in dance in 2009. She then became a member of the Amy Marshall Dance Company. But when she first stepped on a paddle in 2011 it was love at first stroke. “I wanted to do it all the time,” she recalls.
Fortunately, her dance studies at Rutgers proved invaluable as she mastered the sport, becoming a full-time instructor in 2012. “Dance is a great foundation.” But SUPing, she notes, is not just for modern and classically schooled dancers. “Anyone can do it, from a kid to a senior.”
MacDowell’s innovative vest isn’t her first venture in helping to ensure that her sport is safe and fun. At Suplogix, she and Bond have been studying the biomechanics of Stand Up Paddle Boarding to better understand muscle activity. In 2013 they partnered with Rutgers, Manhattan Kayak and BTS Bioengineering Corp. for the first ever electromyography study of the sport, running their research out of the Class of 1914 Boathouse on the Raritan River and at the school’s Werblin Recreational Center pool on the Busch Campus.
The winning life vest design will be announced at the 2015 International BoatBuilders’ Exhibition & Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, in September. Regardless of the outcome of the competition, MacDowell plans to move full steam ahead with bringing the vest to market with engineering and manufacturing partner Eastern Aero Marine.
“This is something that we wish we had now,” she says. “I want people to wear it and feel comfortable, like putting on a watch in the morning.”