Tag Archive for: Roam Elevate

Jon Weisberg

The Future Is Here

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Among the thousands of reasons the abrupt end to the season is a bummer is this: Those of you who were planning to demo the Roam Robotics Elevate will need to wait until we’re back on the hill.

Roam Elevate backpack and control device

Elevate is world’s first computer-assisted knee exoskeleton for skiers.

I had the good fortune to try the device toward the end of February. I met DJ, a company representative, at Deer Valley on a bluebird day and we spent much of the afternoon trying the Elevate on a variety of terrain.

If you missed our earlier article reporting on Rick Hovey’s experience with Elevate, click here. I think that Rick, a PSIA II instructor and a person with a serious knee condition, reports more thoroughly on the many benefits Elevate delivers.

But I wanted to go on record with my positive experience and encourage any skier with knee or other orthopaedic conditions to give Elevate a test run.

DJ helped me get the exoskeleton on my legs; a simple procedure involving a few easy-to-fasten straps. It’s a good-looking product that the company keeps refining. 

Next, I hefted the pack containing computer, battery and air compressor onto my back and attached air hoses and power connections. The initial sense of weight and bulk disappeared quickly. That said, DJ explained that next season’s version will be lighter and sleeker.

We skied to one of the lifts and took a few runs. DJ asked if I could tell the difference. Elevate is supposed to anticipate your moves and send puffs of air to the exoskeleton to relieve pressure on the knees. I told him I didn’t feel a thing.

Then he asked me to turn it off. The control is a device mounted near the shoulder. I did what he said and immediately and dramatically felt the difference. Elevate had been assisting me in such a subtle and effective way that I couldn’t tell until I turned it off. Amazing!

Then we entered a field of moguls. DJ had suggested moguls farther down the hill that weren’t quite as big. I took that as a challenge and went where I shouldn’t have gone. Not that I don’t ski moguls. I do. But that day was the first using new skis (I had the bindings mounted that morning) and I was a bit tired, and…enough with the excuses. I fumbled my way down and felt foolish.

That was me, not the Elevate. By then I was ready to call it a day and we headed back to where we began.

Bottom line is that Roam Elevate is approaching the end of its development stage and will be ready for primetime and purchase next season. If the season were still going, I’d strongly recommend that anyone trying to avoid knee surgery for a while try Elevate. I’d also recommend it to anyone wanting to add more ski days to the week and more ski hours to the day.

Roam Elevate is an entirely new approach to assistive ski devices. Unlike others that wrap around the knee or use springs or pistons, Elevate uses intelligence to inform how it functions in real time. The manufacturer has been using its demo centers at nine major resorts in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Utah to educate future purchasers, to collect more data, and to further refine an already highly developed piece of equipment.

It’s the future. And as all of us realize, especially at this moment, sometimes the path to the future has some bumps. The difference is that the people at Roam know where their path is taking them and they’re using this time to refine and miniaturize an already elegant solution to a common problem for older skiers.

Knee issues? Wish you had greater stamina? The solution is here and getting better. Tune in this fall.

seniorsskiing

“I Felt Like I Skied One Run, Not Eight”

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Roam Elevate is a computer-driven exoskeleton that anticipates turns and adjusts knee and quad support to aid the skier’s natural motion. It helps people ski stronger and longer by offloading up to 30% of the user’s body weight from the skier’s quads and by reducing painful knee joint compression.

Elevate can be rented at several Western ski resorts and will be available for sale next season.

To get a better understanding of how Elevate works on the hill, we asked Rick Hovey to give it a test drive.

Rick Hovey and his signature turns.

Rick is 65 and is a longtime resident of Park City. A Level II PSIA instructor, he skis 100+ days a year. Last season, despite a diagnosis of chondromaiacia patella (arthritic knees), he skied one million vertical feet. 

Rick has put off recommended partial knee surgery, opting instead for Physical Therapy. He has given up teaching and reduced his time on the hill.

He tried the Roam Elevate a few weeks ago and submitted this report.

Clay, the Roam Robotics rep, showed me how to use the straps to attach the exoskeletons to my boots and then to my lower and upper legs.  It was simple.  

The product uses a slim backpack that contains a lightweight laptop, battery and compressor. Two connectors per side come out of the pack to attach to each exoskeleton. One connection is an air hose; the other is a connection to the computer.

While walking, the apparatus felt light and unencumbering, even if the exposed carbon fiber and wires made me feel a bit like RoboCop. 

We clicked into our skis as Clay explained the available settings. The controller is mounted on the shoulder strap and easy to use with gloved hands.  There are levels of assist and speed adjustments to suit your style and desired terrain. The speed adjustment sets how fast the computer tells the compressor to release the assistance pressure. In general, the idea is to quicken the speed adjustment for short radius turns or where unweighting is needed quickly. 

As soon as we pushed off I lost the sense I had an exoskeleton on and that it was assisting the load on my legs. It felt completely natural and improved my sense of stability.

There is a noticeable vibration from the compressor in the pack, which Clay says to think of it as a massage for your back (bonus!). The vibration became less noticeable after one lap.

A few runs later, we played around with different settings. I really liked the high assist and slow speed setting for the easy cruisers with long radius turns. I felt stronger and forgot about protecting my arthritic knee and I experienced more complete turns with less effort. It also gave me the confidence to lay down deeper carves than I would without the device.

We then changed the settings and tried linked, short radius turns on steeper groomers. I was impressed with how well this worked with no encumbrance of the inside ski hanging-up because the pressure was released right when needed. I used this same setting on a long bump run and was equally impressed. 

Roam Elevate backpack and control device

The apparatus always seemed to agree with what I was doing, while enhancing my skiing in a controlled and predictable way. 

I should mention the “chop.” Rough snow was on the edges of the groomed runs, just enough to rattle the bones if going fast… this is where I would normally take the first exit to Smoothsville. The Roam Elevate seemed to absorb the bumpiness; no jarring of the knee joints or loss of control. It was like a good suspension on a mountain bike.

After numerous fun and various runs, Clay and I did a final, fast top-to-bottom cruiser. At the bottom, I told Clay my legs and knees felt like I just skied one run, not eight! 

I would recommend the Roam Elevate to any skier who has knee and/or leg strength issues. And, if it helps you avoid surgery and extends your skiing life, the value could be great.

The Roam website is taking first-come, first-served reservations for a slimmed down, next generation product for $3500 (includes a 30% discount). To learn more, click on the Roam Elevate ad on the home page.