Air jackets

I have a Hit Air, I'm now on my second one after replacing my first after it became "too old" to service, at 5 years, and was assured that it was because it was an old style. I bought my new Hit Air to then discover after a few months the very small print on one tag that says it is only guaranteed for 3-5 yrs. There is no noticeable difference visually at all between the two hit airs I have. So like ycbm says they only guarantee them for 3 yrs. I will not be replacing current Hit Air with another Hit Air although it's very likely it will last for my remaining riding time.

They have possibly changed to do a service on an older jacket now but the Hit Air service consists of a visual check, inflation and clean of the outer only, or it did when I asked them. They cannot replace any air bags. I was definitely told they could not service my 5 yr old jacket as I explained above.

It is a shame as I much prefer the fit of the Hit Air to the P2 and the Hit Air is also considerably lighter although I haven't tried on a P2 recently. When I went to buy my first Air jacket I specifically went to a shop that stocked both to compare and I would have liked to have both inflated on me as well. However the shop would not inflate either jacket even with me covering the cost of replacing the canister, I assume as then they would not be able to sold as new. Or they couldn't be bothered 🤣
 
I've got a P2, I don't find it heavy and it's much more comfortable to ride in than my racesafe BP. I've had quite a few falls in the P2 and have come out of them in good shape. It inflates very fast and is always much bigger than the one the child is wearing in the video by the time I hit the ground. The first time I fell I was a bit alarmed as it did grip me quite tight until the air starts releasing. It's OK if you don't hyperventilate and start waving your arms around crying "get it off, get it off" though. I've had a couple of falls in just the bp, one I cracked a rib and another has aggravated my arthritis quite a lot.

I've set mine off dismounting, no need to get it serviced, just fit another canister and see it as a self test of the air bags! If you dismount slowly the lanyard unravels and you can unclip unless you or the horse walks away.
 
I prefer the hit air … I find it more comfortable to wear over a back protector and I personally think the neck
Protection is better but as you can see people think strongly on each side of the coin . When this happens it usually means that neither one is particularly better … it just which someone prefers.

If one was massively better than the other the other would go out of business
 
I have a P2, find it comfortable to wear - I hack in it mainly.
Easy to use, super easy to get serviced & their customer service is great.
 
Sorry to hijack this thread but I'm selling a 2013 never been worn Point 2 Air Jacket Pro Air 2 as in pictures on behalf of a friend who has gone into a care home and husband is selling some equestrian items.

As we are on the subject of air jackets can anyone suggest a price I should ask please? TIA
 

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I have a P2. I don't even notice I am wearing it. I wear it every time I ride, and it has saved my bacon once so far. When I sent it for service, I sent it on Friday & it was back with me on the Wednesday, complete with new air bag.
Their customer service is brilliant.
 
blitznbobs said:
I prefer the hit air … I find it more comfortable to wear over a back protector and I personally think the neck
Protection is better but as you can see people think strongly on each side of the coin . When this happens it usually means that neither one is particularly better … it just which someone prefers.

If one was massively better than the other the other would go out of business
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100% agree neck protection is better imho with the HA.

I would also like to point out that my pov is that I find the fact the Hit Air rises above the base of the neck as an added bonus, as without fail when I have fallen off I have landed on my right hip/back and my head has followed through striking the surface with the back of my head.

I am therefore hoping that in the event I have a similar fall in the future, that design feature will prevent my head hitting the floor with such momentum. I know you can't negate injury when you ride or compete but I could really do without another TBI to my name as Bailey ensured I was a regular contributor 😅

I don't know if the HA do claim they reduce the chance of concussion in this type of fall, I am only assuming this is the case with this design.
 
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I always had the Hit Air, much preferred it and more comfortable to wear let alone the very good neck and lower back protection. However the first one I had in 2014 was supplied from a shop here with a too long lanyard and I contacted HitAir Japan to ask if they could send me a shorter one as at that time it was very difficult to get parts here in Ireland.

They requested pics which I sent them and they were very concerned how long I had been using it with the incorrect length lanyard! They then requested I returned the whole vest to them in Japan for a service at their expense, very odd but I happily sent it off to them. It arrived back very quickly with every component replaced apart from the actual Hi Viz outer and also included two new shorter and two longer lanyards. Not sure how old the air vest was then, but far from new. Their service was excellent, but obviously things don't sound quite so good now from what you are saying here. lanyard 2.jpglanyard.jpg
 
GoldenWillow said:
When I went to buy my first Air jacket I specifically went to a shop that stocked both to compare and I would have liked to have both inflated on me as well. However the shop would not inflate either jacket even with me covering the cost of replacing the canister, I assume as then they would not be able to sold as new. Or they couldn't be bothered 🤣
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I bought mine from Your Horse Live in Nov 2014. I went to the P2 stand first and looked at their air jacket on a mannequin. I then went to the Hit Air stand and met with Rachel Ricci the MD of Hit Air.

She explained the jacket in detail and I tried it on and she then pulled the lanyard and set it off so I could see what it was like. I was impressed with the detail and to my untrained eye the P2 didn't even come close to the quality and additional coverage of the HA.

I think it cost £440 and I got three canisters and a spare lanyard in the deal. The month before I'd been catapulted out of the saddle and had actually done a 360 in the air before landing on my back. I was incredibly lucky not to have ended up seriously hurt - as it was I was left with traumatic injury to my left s.i joint which has plagued me ever since. This was the reasoning behind me buying an air jacket.

I set it off once on purpose, another time I had a very minor fall in it and never really did much competing after this point due to unrelated issues.
 
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Mrs. Jingle said:
I always had the Hit Air, much preferred it and more comfortable to wear let alone the very good neck and lower back protection. However the first one I had in 2014 was supplied from a shop here with a too long lanyard and I contacted HitAir Japan to ask if they could send me a shorter one as at that time it was very difficult to get parts here in Ireland.

They requested pics which I sent them and they were very concerned how long I had been using it with the incorrect length lanyard! They then requested I returned the whole vest to them in Japan for a service at their expense, very odd but I happily sent it off to them. It arrived back very quickly with every component replaced apart from the actual Hi Viz outer and also included two new shorter and two longer lanyards. Not sure how old the air vest was then, but far from new. Their service was excellent, but obviously things don't sound quite so good now from what you are saying here. View attachment 160976View attachment 160977
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Sorry I'm being stupid here probably, but why Japan ? I thought it was a British company?
 
Sossigpoker said:
Sorry I'm being stupid here probably, but why Japan ? I thought it was a British company?
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I have no idea now, perhaps now it is? but I think at some stage it may have been taken over or they had by then got an official outlet in the UK. I wanted a Hi viz and at that time it was very difficult to get hold of one anywhere.

I had my first Hit Air and changed that for the Hi viz I bought here in Ireland there was no contact for them from the place I bought it from, long story short I traced the supplier to Germany. They gave me the email contact for their contact at HitAir Japan. I emailed them hoping they would just send me a shorter Lanyard, as above, they were superb and I couldn't fault them.
 
Sorry to jump on this thread but does anyone know if the hunter showjumper point 2 fits similar to the pro air? I think I am due an upgrade on my pro air point two and thinking of changing to the hunter showjumper version.
 
I have the Helite gilet version as I'm vain and it looks far more 'normal' than the others. I've 'used' it twice and been very pleasantly surprised by how little I felt the effects of the falls, both at the time and afterwards.

I think Point 2 make a gilet version too now but it still looks a bit air-jackety to me.
 
Sossigpoker said:
I had mine serviced and it was way older than that.
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Actually I have too, mine must be 7 or 8 years old now. I love my HitAir, and it's quite literally saved my neck (and my ribs, and collar bones) in an absolutely crashing fall onto stubble from a gallop. I walked away with "only" concussion - I blacked out for a few seconds but could see later from the dirt patterns that I must've basically bounced off the ground a couple of times while banging my head.

I'm sure that @ycbm is right that HitAir don't replace airbags, so if you're going to fall off a lot, or land on pointy things, then a Helite probably would be more cost effective. But I don't. Mine probably goes off once a year, including accidental inflation. I assume that if an airbag is found to be less than 100% on inspection they'd inform you that the jacket is a write off, but that hasn't happened to me yet, and if I can get ten years' use, or another hideous fall, out of it then I'll be happy.

So horses for courses IMO, much like most things really.
 
To clarify the situation re Hit Air jackets, servicing and whether the air bags can be replaced at service time. It was me who directly contacted Hit Air. I own a Hit Air jacket.

This is what I posted in an earlier thread just after I had heard back from Hit Air in 2022.

Tiddlypom said:
I've heard back from Hit Air. The air bags are not routinely replaced when an air jacket is sent in for servicing, but are replaced as necessary if the jacket is 5 years old or newer. It is not done in older jackets as 'technology has moved on'.

IMHO 5 years is a decent expected working life for an air jacket.
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I have contacted Hit Air and they tell me that they now service older jackets, which is an advance.

So the situation is that nobody ever knows if their jacket will actually go off, all they know is that it did when it was last tested or went off in anger.

So if you have a P2 and have it serviced yearly as recommended, then your 6/7/8... year old jacket has a an airbag a maximum of one year old in it. And if it springs a leak it will be replaced.

Your 6/7/8 year old Hit Air, meanwhile has a 6/7/8... year old airbag in it that you are trusting with your life, and if it springs a leak you will need to buy a whole new jacket.

These are facts. Don't shoot the messenger.
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Or your Point2 could develop a leak the day after it comes back from service. Maybe it gets thrown in the post , maybe you drop it.

In any case , just reminded me to send my HitAir off to service as it thankfully hasn't gone off in over a year
 
Sossigpoker said:
Or your Point2 could develop a leak the day after it comes back from service. Maybe it gets thrown in the post , maybe you drop it.
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As I made clear in my post, that is the case with every air jacket. You only know it was safe the last time it was inflated.

I've had a P2 spring a leak. It still worked but it went down much quicker than usual. So I would say if you have any suspicion at all that your jacket went down a bit quick, the airbag needs replacing.
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ycbm said:
As I made clear in my post, that is the case with every air jacket. You only know it was safe the last time it was inflated.

I've had a P2 spring a leak. It still worked but it went down much quicker than usual. So I would say if you have any suspicion at all that your jacket went down a bit quick, the airbag needs replacing.
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Therefore it makes no difference if a perfectly functioning air bag is replaced in a service or not , as it could spring a leak the next day.
 
Sossigpoker said:
Therefore it makes no difference if a perfectly functioning air bag is replaced in a service or not , as it could spring a leak the next day.
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Look this is entirely your choice, but my choice is that i will not take that risk with a 5/6/7/8/9/10.... year old airbag as I believe it's a much bigger risk than a <1 year old airbag in a 5/6/7/8/9/10... year old outer.

You do what you want.
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ester said:
It's interesting as having only ever carried other people's P2s they seem really heavy to me.
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The weight of the P2 compared to the Hit Air was one of the deciding factors that swayed me to buy the Hit Air originally, I did find the P2 heavy.

Good to know that Hit Air are now servicing older models but I do wonder in the value of it as when I enquired about service of my newer one it is a visual check, inflate and clean only.

My main issue is that Hit Air do not tell you that the life span of the jacket is 3-5 yrs, and did not tell me when they specifically told me that they could not service my original jacket because it was an older model therefore, to me, implying that my new one would be able to be serviced and not have a limited lifespan. As other Air jackets do not have this limitation it is not unreasonable that people won't know about it, it's not the same as riding hats as all hats are recommended to be replaced at 5 years max which is widely known. Would it have altered my purchase of the Hit Air if I'd known I'm unsure as I am really happy with the jacket itself but I would like to have had all the facts to make that decision.
 
Yes - I agree with all that @GoldenWillow . Love the jacket but I didn't know when I bought it that it was time limited in a way that others are not. When mine gets to the end of its life I'll need to have a good think about what to do.
 
GoldenWillow said:
The weight of the P2 compared to the Hit Air was one of the deciding factors that swayed me to buy the Hit Air originally, I did find the P2 heavy.

Good to know that Hit Air are now servicing older models but I do wonder in the value of it as when I enquired about service of my newer one it is a visual check, inflate and clean only.

My main issue is that Hit Air do not tell you that the life span of the jacket is 3-5 yrs, and did not tell me when they specifically told me that they could not service my original jacket because it was an older model therefore, to me, implying that my new one would be able to be serviced and not have a limited lifespan. As other Air jackets do not have this limitation it is not unreasonable that people won't know about it, it's not the same as riding hats as all hats are recommended to be replaced at 5 years max which is widely known. Would it have altered my purchase of the Hit Air if I'd known I'm unsure as I am really happy with the jacket itself but I would like to have had all the facts to make that decision.
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Not sure what else they can do but a visual check as they won't start taking it apart. They do check over the inflation mechanism for damage as people don't realise to necessarily look it over if they don't need to change the canister.
 
I went with the hit air because it was much cooler, lighter and had better neck and lower back protection. I wanted one from another make built into a gilet at one point but it was far too hot and heavy so I didn’t bother.


My previous one did fail after 7 years of very regular use - the tube blew out of the mechanism but I hadn’t had it serviced in a while. It would have been expensive to repair so I did buy a new one. It didn’t owe me anything - I’d had many flying lessons in it and never hurt myself while wearing it (with a airowear and later a kanteq body protector). The “new” one has been used much less, and is now about 6 years old and the serviced it a couple of months back ok. Combined with one of those very light new racesafes you don’t really notice it.

Not sure why people feel the need to get so tribal about them. Try them all and make a choice.
 
Ok guys, an interesting topic and lots of differing views. Thank you all. 😀😀 So at risk of causing some more discussion it seems the hit air has better neck protection but the P2 is equally as good depending on how comfortable you find the fit.
 
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