- Kona is, the big dance of the year in the triathlon world.
There's not really any other race comes close to it.
So, on that note, pretty much all of the brands do something
a little bit special in the expo.
So, we're going to take a wander in there to find the special
stuff that has been made
specifically, or custom should I say, for Ironman Hawaii.
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So, what better way to kick off a Kona custom expo tour,
than the Kona edition Ventum One.
Ventum, being the bike partner
for Ironman World Championships here, so.
We got this completely unique, and special paint job
here on this Ventum.
Which, looks stunning.
So, hopefully we see a few of them out on the racecourse.
Another quick point to note about the specific
hydration carrier that you have here on these Ventums.
That one here is yellow, but you can choose your own color
aprantly, when you choose a Ventum.
And, then they've got a whole array of different colors
here that you can see as well.
If you wanted to change your color box as well.
So, Roka is the swim partner for Ironman Hawaii
and, they have decided to create this entire range
of everything you need for being in the water,
or beside the water at the beach.
In their colors and designs for this 20 9 Ironman Hawaii.
So, we've got towels here, swimming caps, swimming trunks,
swimming cossies, board shorts.
Everything really you need, I guess to feel like you're
really getting into the swing of being here in sunny Hawaii.
So, we find ourselves at the Rudy Project stand now.
And, this is right at the center of the expo,
here in Hawaii.
You can hear all the hubbub going on behind me,
but literally right behind me you can see the special
Kona edition helmets that Rudy project are selling
here in the expo.
And, there's some really nice designs that you can see here.
All specially wrapped as they call the technical term
for covering a helmet in your own specific design.
And, there is a company that is doing that for Rudy Project,
and it's called Birdworx.
You can see their little logo here, and they're a company
based in Calafornia, and they can essentially, the owner
was telling me, wrap anything.
Helmets obviously included.
In a design that you can come up with,
or they can come up with.
And, right up there you can see a frame that has
their wrap design from one of these helmets.
Highlighted, just in a different fashion so
that you can really get an idea of all the matching colors
that you can have.
You can have your helmet, your bike, even your wheels
apparently wrapped in all the same design.
Which, for some people
is a really, really slick trick to do.
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So, we're here at the BlueSeventy stand, which is
a swimwear company that's pretty synonyms
with doing fun things in Hawaii.
For example, every year in the harbor they
have a coffee boat that sits a few hundred meters
off the pier that swimmers start on race day.
And, you can swim out there, grab yourself
a little shot of coffee.
Which, I'll be honest does taste
a little bit funny with the salt water in your mouth.
But, that's a fun thing that loads of people like to do.
And, they've got some T-shirts here
which have got the coffee boat logo on there.
So, that's fun.
Another fun thing is what they've done
with their standard cossies, and swimming trunks,
and jammers for the men.
They've added Hawaiian themed designs.
So, got some pineapples here on this cossie.
We've got some palm trees.
You can see them on the trunks behind me.
And, they've also added flowers
onto some of their designs as well.
So, very Hawaiian.
- Right, I'm just going to jump in here now
and take over Fraser's video for a second.
Just because I've spotted this.
So, this is this Sebastian Kienle's Scott plasma paintwork
for the Ironman World Championships here in Kona this year.
This obviously isn't his bike.
It's got a different cockpit on his bike etc.
But, this is the same paintwork
which is really, really nice.
In addition to that we've also got Zipp 858 wheels
in custom colorway to match the paintwork here.
And, of course with his name on.
Imagine that.
- So we're here at the Felt stand, and you can see
behind me there's quite a lot of the worlds top
pro athletes chatting to the media.
So, we managed to grab Josh Amberger from Australia
who is very well know for his swim speed out in the water.
In fact, first out of the water here last year.
This is his race suit that is made by his sponsor
Wattie Ink, and this is what he will be wearing
under his swim skin when he's out in the water.
Now, both this race suit that you can see here,
and his swim skin have got custom printed
flower designs that mean something to him.
Because, as he tells me, he's a little bit
of a horticulturist hobbyist.
He's a fan of the flowers.
So, he's got the eucalyp flower on here.
Which I have heard of,
but this bright yellow one is the wattle flower.
Now I don't know much about Australian flowers,
so that was new to me.
And, just some other really nice colors on there too.
And, Josh basically said, "they're pretty, I like
having them on my suit, and I'm in Hawaii, so why not?"
And, really nice big hit.
Almost it seems every pro athlete is lucky enough
to have something custom with either their kit,
and, or their bike frame.
Well, Josh Amberger has both of those.
He has custom kit for racing, and he's got custom
paint on his Felt AR TT bike.
So, can see that here right behind us.
That's his chosen color scheme for here on race day,
and it's certainly different.
Those of you that follow the channel
will maybe have seen this bike before.
Because, we featured it in our ocean side tech tour
back in April time.
So, here it is again, so.
Unmissable frame design, but there is a couple
of little additions to this that I want to chat about.
First up here we've got here some ceramic OSPW
oversized chain rings that match
the color scheme on the frame.
So, that's always a fun little addition to bikes,
but the helmet.
I hadn't spotted the helmet that was being worn
last time that we saw the bike.
But, that helmet there has
a really interesting story behind it.
Great grandfather of the rider that owns this bike
was stationed here in Pearl Harbor, on the Hawaiian Islands
during World War two.
The plane he flew had that design on the side of it.
So, all in all, pretty eye catching.
Not going to be missed on any transition area.
So, glad that we could feature it.
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Right we're here at the Wattie Ink stand now.
And, this place is bursting with color,
and really exciting designs.
It's kind of what this brands really well known for,
and they've stamped their mark on the market
in terms of designs that nobody else is coming up with.
So, this bright yellow that you can see here.
Well, that's been on the go all season.
But, they have come up with this new Hannah design,
which they have made specially for Kona.
It is Japanese inspired, but the floral design
has definitely got lots of associations with
what you get out here in Hawaii as well.
So, very fitting, and this is that design that
you'll see probably quite a few athletes wearing
from now on.
- All right, it's me jumping in again
on the custom Kona tech talk.
Because, we've got a couple of exciting products from Kask.
And, were going to start with this helmet here.
This is the Utopia.
We've got a turtle on the front here,
and a nice subtle Kona on the back.
Nice white with some nice vibrant graphics.
But, not so overstated that
you wouldn't want to wear this all year round.
Now, this is actually a really good option
for here in Kona.
Because, it is an aerodynamic helmet,
but it's got plenty of ventilation.
But, if you really want to go down the aerodynamic route,
then we have this.
This is the Bamino Pro Evo.
Which, we don't actually see all that much of.
It's the same shell as the Bambino,
just with a slightly longer tail
with a little bit of a curvature on there.
The same graphics.
This helmet in fact, was actually developed with
some pro cyclists.
Team Ineos have been riding with it.
But, yeah a superb helmet.
And then, In addition to that we've got these Hilo glasses.
I've just got one set here in quite a colorful color.
These are my summer glasses.
So, here we are in Fi'zi:k booth at the expo.
And, what we've got behind us here is a collaboration
between Fi'zi:k and Ventum bikes.
And, Fi'zi:k Tran Zero shoe has had that colorway
for some time.
But, with this collaboration they've taken
that colorway, with the blue, the white, and the red,
and a bit of the black.
And, created a colorway for the Ventum One.
That's the standard Ventum One race bike.
So, you can see that kind of nice colorway through
the frame set, and then mimicked again up there
on the Fi'si:k saddle on the bike too.
Now, if you are so inclined and have the spare cash.
This whole package here is available
for 10 and a half thousand dollars.
So, we're here at Deboer wetsuit stand, and this is
a new piece of kit that I haven't seen yet
from the guys here at Deboer.
This is their Tsunami Speed Suit, which I'm quite certain,
a very select few, very fast pro athletes, like Yamferdina
will be wearing this on race day.
But, another athlete that will be wearing is,
Laura Sudale from the UK.
And, you might be wondering why we're looking
at this one here.
Which, although is very nice, isn't custom.
Because, Laura actually has a custom one that has been made
by an artist adorning all sorts of quotes, or motivational
quotes that she asked some of her fans to send in.
And, they've printed all over the swim skin
for her to wear on race day.
So, that was a whistle stop tour of the expo here in Kona.
And, we've got our hands on quite a lot of very custom kit,
that hopefully you guys enjoyed seeing.
So, please give us a thumb up like button
if that was the case.
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And, if you want to see another video about here in the expo.
Well, you can find that here.