Sjø Protection is the result of a surfing trip Thomas Klingenberg had to Ervik, Norway at the end of 2021.

The waves were mostly closing out in the beautiful bay as far west as you get in Norway. Thomas’s lip was already swollen from hitting his board mid-air the day before. Wanting more waves Thomas paddled for a wave that would become a fast right. Taking off, the board ended up too far below Thomas for him to set the rail his body already was relying on. The board therefore flipped towards his face. Thomas covered his face with his arms avoiding the first hit. He then got violently tumbled around in the wave with his board hitting every part of his body, until the board hit the back of his head.

As a former competitive mountain biker Thomas has broken more than 30 bones in his body. However, that hit in the back of his head gave him the worst injury he had ever experienced; a concussion that did not seem to have an end.

After 5 months Thomas was finally able to live like normal again. He tried a water sport helmet, but quickly saw its limitations. Being a mechanical engineer he began building prototypes out of viscoelastic material as he believed water sports helmets could greatly benefit from more advanced materials.

After being granted 200 000 NOK from Aneo, NTNU Discovery, and Innovasjon Norge, the prototypes were taken to testing at the Research Institutes of Sweden’s helmet testing labs. The helmet proved superior results, cutting g-forces experienced by the headform in half, compared to the EN1385 standard and competing helmets. This means 20 times lower concussion risk given the impact speed.

We are now working on finalizing the helmet and production, so you can take delivery of the best surf helmets soon.