Patagonia's Cardiff-by-the-Sea store opens a four-day surf event Thursday, Sept. 10, marking the first stop on the company's Out the Back tour for its updated big-wave safety vest.

The PSI Vest 2.0, an inflatable vest worn under a wetsuit, launched Wednesday, Sept. 9, according to a Patagonia press release. The vest can be inflated multiple times during a surf session, giving riders added flotation after wipeouts and hold-downs.

The Patagonia store at 2185 San Elijo Ave. in Encinitas is the tour's first stop, running through Sunday, Sept. 13. Big-wave surfers Greg Long, Paige Alms and Ian Walsh are among the featured athletes, Stab Magazine reported.

Thursday's schedule opens with a 6:30 p.m. happy hour, followed by a 7:30 p.m. film screening and a Q&A with surfers, Patagonia designers and Stab Magazine filmmakers. Live music from Austin Burns, screen printing with Sean Tully and a gear raffle round out the evening, according to Fox 5 San Diego.

Friday, Sept. 11, starts with a pre-surf workout led by Alms from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. She returns with surfer Annie Reickert from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a foiling tips session. Wetsuit repairs and dry-ons run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 12, brings a breathwork course from the Big Wave Risk Assessment Group (BWRAG) at 9 a.m. and a ding repair workshop led by Alms at 11 a.m.

A two-day BWRAG Surf Responder and Ocean Safety Summit also begins Saturday at Mission Bay, led by instructors Long, Jon Hoover and Kaipo Kelley. Completing both days earns participants CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) certification and a BWRAG Surf Responder Certificate. Registration is required.

That certificate matters. Patagonia requires surfers to complete BWRAG training before purchasing the PSI Vest 2.0, a policy in place since the original vest launched in 2017.

"Big-wave surfing has most certainly gotten more crowded and more popular in the last decade," Long said in a Sept. 10 Stab Magazine article. "And you can absolutely attribute a lot of that to the fact that we've developed incredible safety equipment."

Hub Hubbard, Patagonia's line manager of Oceans, said in the company's press release that the updated vest reflects more than a decade of development and input from the company's athletes and partners. The PSI Vest 2.0 adds an expanded size range with gender-inclusive fit, a reconfigured bladder that eliminates extra chest layers while maintaining air volume, and CO2 valves relocated to the back.

Patagonia's R&D team began developing the inflation technology after big-wave surfer Sion Milosky died in 2011. The company earned a U.S. patent in 2014 and released the first PSI Vest in 2017.

Sunday, Sept. 13, wraps the Cardiff stop with wetsuit dry-ons from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and FCD surfboard demos from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Out the Back tour continues at Patagonia's Ventura store Sept. 17–19.