Keoni Watson is a big wave legend and our rep in Hawaii. He's also the Vissla and Catchsurf Rep. He's a rabid snowboarder so he fits right in with our crew. We couldn't have created the Grill Mount without him. He named it as well. Here he is testing a 3D printed prototype with Freesurf photographer Sean Reilly.
3D Printing let us sculpt the Grill Mount so that by the time we got to the final version, the 7th generation, the Grill Mount fits perfectly in your mouth and hand. Other than where your GoPro mounts to the Extra Beef Camera Mount, and where the heat moldable EVA is attached to the Grill Mount, I don't think there is a straight line on the mount.
That's what we mean by sculpted. We'd imagine it in Illustrator, draw it in Solidworks, and then print it and go surfing and test it.
The ability to take millimeters off the design here, add a millimeter there until it was exactly what we wanted, was what made the Grill Mount fit so well in your mouth and hand. It's by sculpting we got the fit and feel perfect where the mount rests between your fingers when you paddle and duckdive while filming your friends.
The other good thing about 3D printing was we "had" to go to Hawaii to test each round of prototypes and our crew of pro surfers had to test each round in Bali, Pohnpei, Tofino and Australia to make sure the design changes did what we wanted, felt like we wanted and that the Grill Mount worked like we hoped, but in the real world.
It's amazing how 3D printing allows you to fine tune your creation so that when you build it you are stoked that it's as perfect as you can make it. We didn't just print it on any 3D printer, we partnered up with Camosun Technology Access in Victoria, BC to make our ideas real. From Illustrator to Solidworks to printing. Their lab has incredible $250,000 Stratasys Fortus 400 MC 3D printers that let us get the feel and function and material as close to the final product as humanly possible. I think in the end before we pressed "Go" we printed well over 100 prototypes. It took us longer than we thought to get the GoPro Surf Mount we now called the Grill Mount dialed but we know that once you try it, you'll feel where the time was spent.
3D printing is also great for letting you try ideas that never again see the light of day because they didn't work like we'd hoped, but at least we tested it so that when you get your Grill Mount you know that we've taken the design as far as possible then brought it back to what works and now you're getting the ultimate GoPro Surf Mount.
Super tech, super tested, super light, super rugged, multi functional and super dope. Order yours from ProStandard.com. All that tech is only 29.95.
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