Bouldering is a style of rock climbing without rope, often on natural boulders, hence the wordbouldering. The climb is normally short and very intense, rarely higher than a few meters. Asprotection against injuries, a crash pad is placed on the ground, providing a shock absorbing surfacefor the falling climber. The size of the crash pad is an everlasting compromise between how biglanding area that is needed and what is possible to transport. The purpose of this project was toinvestigate a partly new design for a crash pad, targeting this specific issue.The product development process started out with a pre-study, including market research, interviewsand a web based-survey. The conclusion was that; when boulders buy a new crash pad, the absolutelymost important features are the foam quality and size, i.e. protection against injuries. A benchmarkingprocess was also carried out where twenty-one different medium-sized crash pads where compared interms of size, weight, material, folding, harness system and additional features.Following the pre-study, a functional problem breakdown, ensued by a requirements list, were set upto support the product development process.The creative process started with a concept generation regarding the energy absorption. Through theAssociation-Discussion-Method and the Catalog Method, used within the group, as well as a Work-Shop, with non-climbing participants, a number of concept ideas were generated.In consultation with Ben Moon at Moon Climbing a Self-inflating Air-Pad Concept was selected.An information deepening process was carried out regarding theories, materials and technologies aswell as trials of functional prototypes.The final concept consists of a layer of closed-cell foam on top of a self-inflating air mattress,enclosed within a common shell of durable fabric. The concept also includes an evolved harnesssystem and graphic proposals which in addition can be adapted directly on the current range of MoonClimbing Crash Pads.The basic principle of the concept is that a part of the traditional foams shock absorption is exchangedfor a controlled deflation of air, making it highly compressible and at the same time lighter, which inturn enables a pad with larger landing area, while maintaining easy handling to be used.