ExtremeSportMED, together with Foiling Week, has set up the first scientific project on foiling
that has three speficic aims:
– to provide foiling event safety guidelines,
– to guide the development of specific protective equipment such has helmets, footwear, suits, quick release systems and so on.
– to analyze the boat design and understand how to improve the ergonomics and avoid man-to-boat injuries
In approaching foiling from a medical point of view, we should assume that foiling has transformed sailing into an extreme sport because it involves high speed and acceleration, exposing crews to the risk of high energy traumas.
In fact, this discipline has key features, typical of extreme sport.
– The importance of environment-related variables
– The use of hi-tech equipment, including materials such as carbon fiber, Kevlar or dynema
– The showmanship that attracts media attention and the fashion world
Such a project needs to be executed by highly specialised persons in this field.
ExtremeSportMED consulting team is agile, versatile and multidisciplinary and includes physicians, engineers, physiotherapists, rèsearchers, and statisticians with specific experience in extreme sports.
It uses cutting-edge methods and technology, often developed in the experimental field and unavailable elsewhere.
Foiling Week is the first and only series of global events dedicated to foiling boats.
Foiling Week involves not only sailors, of course, but also boat and equipment designers and builders.
Establishing a suitable system with which to study foiling is no easy task as it involves so many variables:
environment-related and equipment but of course also human factors (physical, tactical and strategic).
Nevertheless, this incredible series of regattas takes place in specific locations which can be assessed from a geographical and meteorological viewpoint to define environment-related variables.
Foiling Week involves different sailing classes and this helps define the role played by different equipment items.
Finally, the meticulous organisation of this event means that participants can be involved in data collection: this includes anthropometric and psychological data, helping us shed light on the influence of the human factor.
For these reasons Foiling Week is a perfect laboratory for the scientific study of foiling.