​Ride Engine Defender Vest Review

Hey guys, welcome back. This is Jake with At a Glance. Today we're going to be talking about the Ride Engine HF impact vest.

This is the Defender vest from Ride Engine and it's meant for foil use. You're going to notice right away this isn't cut away like a lot of other impact vests, so it's not going to accommodate a harness quite as nicely. What's the point of this vest? Really, it's to protect you from the foil from the board in those higher impact situations.

When it comes to fitment, you can look at the size chart. Generally, you can go off your t-shirt size. I'm a large, so I grabbed a large vest. We'll go ahead and sling this bad boy on. Ride Engine likes to say this is going to give you gladiator-level protection out on the water. Would I trust this thing in the arena? Probably not, but on the water I think it's going to be more than sufficient.

So you notice I bunch this up a little bit to get the material to stretch a little bit extra, and up she goes. Again, you want this thing to to be tight. You don't want it sliding around; you want it to protect you, so it's going to be pretty tight.

Again, when you have this vest on you're going to notice that it's stiff, but it's well-protected so when you take a hit from a foil this should help protect you. If I do my little pirouette here, you'll notice it's pretty tight all the way around. It really feels like a posture control device with how tight it is, but again, this is the right size. When it gets a little bit wet, over time it is going to stretch out a little bit, but you want it tight. If I went with an extra large and I fell off the board and sunk in the water, the last thing I want is this thing pulling up.

Overall, a good accessory to have when you're wing foiling. We generally recommend a helmet and a vest. You're not always going to see people out there with them, but when you do get konked by a foil, you want to stay intact. You want to be out there to fight the next battle, have the next session out there, and if you get injured you just can't do that, guys. Get the right equipment, have fun.