In reply to Flatlander:
Oddly enough, last night I discovered Southern Sandstone bouldering (it’s actually not that bad!) and as I didn’t fancy the traditional descent path gained by doing a boulder hop, I decided instead to downclimb a warm up problem. I left my Bit bouldering mat at the base of the descent beforehand in case I got it wrong and I did end up having to jump on it a few times.
My conclusion is that the Bit doesn’t absorb anywhere near as much shock as the Highball, but saying that it is a lot better than nothing! From what I gather it isn’t designed to be a primary mat, rather its uses extend to ‘traverse & up’ style problems where you can place the ‘beefy’ mat under the ‘up’ section and use the Bit to protect stuff nearer to the ground. I used the Bit mat mostly to pad out uneven surfaces on rocky ground as commonly encountered in the Llanberis Pass and for sit starts. Until last night, I hadn’t taken any significant falls onto it.
If I had a new BD Dropzone to hand I would have compared the Highball to it :-D