Remember when Andy and Bruce and Rasta wore magical
plastic bracelets?
(Editor’s note: Seven years ago, I
employed Lewis Samuels to drive a dagger through the heart of the
charlatans at Power Balance, a Californian company that said its
plastic bracelets gave wearers super powers. Bulllshit, of course.
But the number of athletes, including surfers, who wore ’em, who
believed it, who were evangelistic in their support for ’em was
staggering. One surf company who didn’t buy into Power Balance was
Rip Curl. They were approached by Power Balance and asked if they’d
sew the little holograms into their suits. Rip Curl laughed ’em out
of the room. Now, read, Lewis at his investigative best,)
The heart of the product is a diminutive holographic
Mylar sticker, about half an inch in diameter. Embedded in the
sticker, reportedly, is an electrical frequency. According
to Power Balance, one of the companies that sell these stickers,
this frequency, when it comes in contact with your body’s energy
field, produces the following benefits: “Faster synaptic response
(brain function), enhanced muscle response (in both fast and slow
twitch tissues), increased stamina (better oxygen uptake and
recovery), more flexibility (faster recovery) and vastly improved
gravitational balance.”
Translation: buy this holographic sticker, and you’ll surf
better. Andy and Bruce Irons endorse the product, as do Dave
Rastovich and Brett Simpson. There are video testimonials from
members of Da Hui and Da Wolfpak. Billabong recently rolled out
bracelets with holograms beneath the Billabong logo as part of a
licensing agreement with Power Balance’s main competitor, EFX.
According to EFX’s president, “In surfing, the product is
everywhere.”
Seriously?
I went on to hypothesise that Andy, Bruce and Rasta believed
in Power Balance because they had the mental capacities of small
children, and speculated they were perhaps, like cats, also
impressed by shiny objects in general, prone to chase wadded-up
balls of tinfoil across the floor.
When I first heard that a holographic sticker could improve my
balance and cure my ills, my response was, “Bitch, please.”
Literally – I wrote an opinion piece for PostSurf.com titled
“Bitch, Please…” in which I suggested that Power Balance believers
were “bat-shit crazy and/or gullible.” I went on to hypothesise
that Andy, Bruce and Rasta believed in Power Balance because they
had the mental capacities of small children, and speculated they
were perhaps, like cats, also impressed by shiny objects in
general, prone to chase wadded-up balls of tinfoil across the
floor.
I was extremely skeptical about the efficacy of holographic
stickers. Do you believe in magic? I don’t. But, if you want to
believe in magic, all you have to do is believe; magic works on
faith, suspension of disbelief. The trouble is, I stopped
suspending my disbelief in the surf industry long ago.
But everyone deserves a fair shake, and with that in mind, I
went on a mission to uncover the truth about these
performance-enhancing holograms that are infiltrating the global
surf scene.
The Test
As the old expression goes, the proof is in the pudding. One
of the key selling points of Power Balance and EFX is “The Test,”
in which a representative of the company proves the product’s
efficacy via a few simple balance tests. Whenever I expressed
skepticism to a proponent of the product, they’d say something like
“I used to doubt it too, but then I did the test, and it works. I
don’t know why, but it works. Try it.You’ll see.”
The demos work like this: a company rep has you stand with
feet together and presses down on your cupped hand until you go off
balance. Then, they give you a Power Balance bracelet, and try to
push you off balance again. Mysteriously, you’re more balanced the
second time around. Search for Power Balance on YouTube and you can
find multiple examples of surfers who are convinced after
undergoing balance tests.
In one video, filmed in a North Shore yard, Jamie Sterling
marvels that, “Power Balance has some kind of secret that’s keeping
me glued to the floor.” Kamalei Alexander comments, “I’m convinced
it works.” Eddie Rothman of Da Hui goes further: “Dis ting works
good. Really good! I’m gonna eat ‘em. I’m gonna swallow this
fucking thing.”
Convincing stuff – who in the world would dare con Eddie
Rothman, and then post the video on YouTube?
Recently, I did the balance test myself with Mike LaBrae, a
rep for Power Balance. Mike pushed me off balance easily the first
time. Then, he placed a bracelet on my wrist, seemingly applied
even more force, yet had a much harder time pushing me off
balance.
Proof, right?
I discussed the experimental validity of these balance tests
with A.L. Stier, who does her doctoral research in U.C. Berkeley’s
Psychology department. Stier shook her head after watching the
video.
“They’re not actually testing the efficacy of the product,”
Stier explained. “You can’t tell whether the superior performance
the second time is because of the hologram or because the subject
got some practice on the first trial.”
Stier noted that counter-balancing — that is, alternating
whether the subject did the test first with or without the hologram
— would prevent this problem. I’d heard this same complaint from a
skeptical participant when I watched a demo.
“You don’t know how hard they’re going to push the first
time,” he noted. “The second time, you’re ready for it, so you’re
more balanced.” Stier saw a second major flaw in the balance tests.
“The subjects know when they are being tested with versus without
the stickers. The only way to reduce a placebo effect to make the
trials ‘blind’: keep subjects from knowing if they are using the
product or not.”
Placebos’ efficacy are related to the perceptions and
expectations of a subject. If an inert substance is viewed as
helpful, it can improve a patient’s condition – especially their
subjective perception of their condition. Simply put, athletes
might feel their balance improve when using holograms simply
because they expect it to improve. If they believe it works, it
does work.
When I saw Mike LaBrea demo Power Balance, he started with a
long personal testimonial – a story of how he’d started out a
skeptic until Power Balance improved his balance, cured his back
pain, improved diabetes in family members, and cured his wife’s
restless leg syndrome.
The final issue with balance tests is that the demonstrator
(usually a representative of the company) might vary the amount and
direction of force they use to push the subject off-balance. “In
order to take the results seriously, they need to reduce the
influence of demonstrator bias. The balance test needs to be
double-blind: the demonstrator shouldn’t know if the subject is
using the hologram either,” Stier noted. For instance, if you push
slightly out during a balance test, instead of straight down, it is
much easier to knock a subject off balance. A demonstrator might
consciously or unconsciously “improve” the balance of a subject by
pressing straight down when he or she has a hologram on.
The Horse’s Mouth
Trends are an interesting thing. The concept of cool is spread
by word of mouth, and for most surfers the endorsement of a trusted
friend or hero is more important than the fine print.
There are testimonials from Rasta and Bruce Irons. In one
video, at a tradeshow, Jeff Clark and Mikala Jones express their
belief. The entire marketing team from Reef follows suit, along
with Sanuk Sandals founder Jeff Kelley, who proudly notes he was
the first to put Power Balance in a sandal model.
When I first began researching Power Balance, I was shocked to
see how many surf industry titans – athletes and executives among
them – were happy to endorse Power Balance, on video, after a quick
demo. There are testimonials from Rasta and Bruce Irons. In one
video, at a tradeshow, Jeff Clark and Mikala Jones express their
belief. The entire marketing team from Reef follows suit, along
with Sanuk Sandals founder Jeff Kelley, who proudly notes he was
the first to put Power Balance in a sandal model.
However, when I started performing interviews for this
article, surf industry insiders were much more hesitant to discuss
Power Balance on the record. Dave Rastovich and Jamie Sterling did
not return emails on the subject. Blair Marlin, manager of Bruce
and Andy Irons, explained that in light of my Power Balance posts,
the Irons were choosing to decline my interview requests. Marlin
offered a bit of context – Bruce and Andy were “only trying to help
out friends,” and it was “safe to say they’re not cashing in on
it.”
Later, a Power Balance employee confirmed that athletes
featured on the Power Balance site only receive “small incentives
to make their endorsement official.”
Interestingly, some of the only people willing to talk on
record about hologram frequency-embedded technology were the owners
of the companies. After a bit of back-and-forth with Power
Balance’s PR agency, I arranged an interview with Troy Rodarmel,
who co-founded Power Balance with his brother Josh. Later, I spoke
with Randy Largent, president of EFX, a company selling a similar
product, created by an ex-Power Balance employee.
I was interested to hear about how the product worked, in
their perspective. I wanted to know whether they considered their
products scientifically verifiable, or if they worked by, well,
magic.
When reading through explanations of the “technology” on the
websites of Power Balance and EFX, all sorts of vague explanations
are given, which can be perceived as science, pseudoscience, or
quackery, depending upon your perspective. The EFX site touched on
electromagnetic fields, acupressure, energy centers, chakras, and
meridian channels. The Power Balance explained it like this:”The
totality of our existence depends on the efficient exchange and
balance of positive and negative electrical charges called ions…
Power Balance®, after years of research and development, has
produced a system to safely restore and optimize the
electro-magnetic balance within the human body…
IMMEDIATELY. POWER BALANCE’S Mylar Holographic Disk (the same
substance used to keep static electricity from damaging electrical
components) has been imbedded with an electrical frequency that
restores your body’s electrical balance…When the static Power
Balance Hologram comes in contact with your body’s energy field, it
begins to resonate in accordance with each individual’s biological,
creating a harmonic loop.”
When I talked with Troy Rodarmel, who created the Power
Balance technology, I tried to get clarification on the concept of
beneficial frequencies. Troy, who grew up in Orange County,
California with holisticminded parents, was happy to explain.
“There’s certain tests that you could even hold a banana or an
apple and you’re stronger… You don’t even have to eat it. Your body
likes what’s in there, those frequencies that are in there resonate
with your body and show a positive effect. Adversely, if you hold
sugar, it’s going to make you weaker. My mom always used to do that
same test on us, just to show us sugar’s bad – you don’t even have
to eat it, you can hold it and feel the effect.”
Speaking with Troy, it became clear that he was a typical
SoCal surfer, who believes passionately in his product. Troy didn’t
try to blind me with science, instead he suggested that he wasn’t
entirely sure how exactly Power Balance worked – he just knew that
it worked. “It’s not that we’re these scientists – we just put two
and two together. There’s these things that are beneficial –
minerals, fruit, vials – but not functional. We thought, ‘There’s
something here that we don’t understand at all, so how do we make
it functional?'”
In the course of the conversation, I suggested that Power
Balance demos might be biased by order effects. “That just happens
to be what we have on videos,” Troy responded. “Anything we do is
going to turn out that way because we’re trying to push a product.
It doesn’t really matter the order you do it. But we do it that way
for the sake of video purposes. It’s like ‘Dude I get it.'”
Later, when I suggested that the placebo effect might be an
issue, Mr. Rodarmel countered with this explanation. “This guy had
a dog that would get motion sick and the dog would throw up every
time they’d get in the car. They put the actual hologram on the
dog’s collar and the dog stopped throwing up. They’re like ‘Dude,
the dog does not throw up in the car.’ And, actually the guy works
for us, and said, he’s all ‘I had the worst weekend, we put the
dogs in the car,’ and his wife was totally skeptical, she took the
hologram off the dog’s collar and the dog throws up all over the
back of the car, all over their stuff, And he’s like ‘Oh crap,
something happened, it didn’t work,’ and he went over to check it
on the collar and he’s like ‘Hon, where’s the power balance?’ And
she’s like ‘I took it off this morning cause I wanted to see if it
actually like did something.’ So he was, like, ‘Now do you believe
me?’ We’ve had so many dogs that it’s worked on and I don’t know of
a better placebo test than putting it on a dog, cause it’s not like
you can tell the dog “Hey, you’re not gonna throw up when I put
this thing on your collar.'”
Case closed.
Instead of double-blind trials, Troy accounted for the placebo
effect with anecdotal evidence from an employee’s vomit-prone dog.
Later, I spoke with Randy Largent, president of EFX, who had teamed
with Billabong to offer hologram bracelets at ASR. Randy, a
gregarious older gent, seemed more than happy to discuss EFX with
me, although he was more careful with his words than Troy Rodarmel.
An industry insider had told me that Billabong’s answer to Hurley’s
blockbuster Phantom boardshort was a Billabong Hologram-embedded
trunk.
When I asked Largent if EFX was going to do a boardshort with
Billabong, he sounded a bit dejected.
“We’ve been leaving each other phone messages… and I hope to
get together with those guys in the next couple weeks. There have
been conversations, but for me to presume to know what they want to
do could aggravate them… so we’re not there yet.”
When I contacted Billabong’s marketing team about EFX, they
declined to be interviewed, ignoring the maxim that there’s no such
thing as bad publicity.
When I asked Randy Largent about scientific testing, he noted,
“We’d like to do testing but we’re a small start-up and don’t have
the money to do it. But if you want to start making claims there’s
a tremendous responsibility to back those claims up with testing.
We want to be a fun product, help a little with balance, but also a
fashion accessory.”
Later, I questioned Largent about the placebo effect and he
didn’t mention any vomiting dogs. “We do think the placebo effect
comes into play, there’s a certain amount of that,” Largent
admitted. “I wish I could be more direct but there’s really no
benefit for me to make any kind of claim. We’re not trying to take
advantage of anybody. I’m not saying there is a benefit, but if it
helps a little bit that would be great. I wish I could say more but
we’re extremely paranoid, that’s not the right word – hesitant – to
make claims… That’s why it would be great to see some controlled
studies. That’s why I hope we don’t get chased as
charlatans.”
The last person I interviewed for this piece was Brett
Simpson, who was in Brazil, making a final push for World Tour
qualification. Brett recently signed up to endorse Power
Balance.
“I can’t lie,” Brett wrote me, “i wasnt wearing it during the
Us Open but i definatley couldnt say it would have hurt!! Other
than that i have been surfing the last month with it and its been
great! Havent fallin yet! Haha.”
I asked Brett if he thought Power Balance worked on a
testable, scientific level, or if it is more of an unquantifiable,
alternative medicine thing. “Wow, im just a surfer not a
scientist,haha,” Brett wrote me, “but from the little balance test
and behind the back one i did im a believer! Whether of not its a
palcebo effect or not its the edge that counts!!”
I almost felt bad using Brett’s quotes. He’s a well-meaning,
likable guy. So is Andy Irons, who I had mocked for having the
intellectual capacity of a small child. It’s hard to tell who, if
anyone, is getting conned – the surfer who buys Power Balance, the
surfer who endorses it, or both.
Troy Rodarmel was incredibly nice too, as was Randy Largent.
Both seemed to believe in their product, and both noted that if
people didn’t like their product, they were happy to give their
money back.
I thought about trying to explain the scientific method to
poor Brett, but decided not to. I would have felt like the smartass
older kid who tells kindergartners that there’s no Santa
Claus.
What’s the harm in believing in things that aren’t verifiable?
What’s religion, after all?
The placebo effect is a verifiable phenomenon. If you believe
holograms can improve your surfing, or cure your back pain… they
will. Like Brett says, everyone’s looking for an edge.
If you notice a balance in my prose, it’s because I’m wearing
five Billabong EFX bracelets right now – one on each limb, and one
around my cock. Can’t hurt, right?
