I don’t know what to say. Other than sick riding, this teaser video has some of the best camera work I’ve ever seen. There’s some awesome editing work in there too. The ending of the teaser is gut wrenching. I’ll be picking it up later.
Tonight I’ve been on the hunt for a good camcorder to bring with me to Chile next Friday. I’ve been flip flopping between hard drive cameras and MiniDV. For a while, the Panisonic (like Gavin’s) was sounding very tempting. They’ve got this nifty optical stability system. Still, the idea of a hard drive keeps appealing to me. I’ve been told that a hard drive based camera runs a higher risk of freezing up than a MiniDV cam. That’s where this next product comes in with a big win.
DogCam has a couple of helmet cams that hook into digital recording devices. This means you can carry the recorder in your pocket – near your body heat. The PVR-500r reads to have an amazing spec, but I haven’t really found much material outside of DogCam’s website. They claim some very impressive quality recording options and up to 5 hours worth.
Back to the cam itself for a moment, DogCam provides some videos on their site. Snowboarding through the trees came out particularly neat, imho. The cam is a bit fish-eyed and there’s no zoom option so the camera wouldn’t really cover all of the same bases a camcorder would. Still, it’s a very tempting option. I would love to hear more from anyone who’s used one!
Last year I posted about a pavement board with a snowboarding like ride called the T Board. I was really stoked about the idea. Not long after, Froggie posted to DallasSnowboarders.com about the Freebord. It seems to be a much better option. Another member of the site, Sublivious, actually bought one and tried it out. It was a painful reminder of the lack of big hills in the DFW area! Still, he was able to get his groove on in various parking garages. Here’s the promo vid on the product:
It seems that the Freebord is the off-snow ride of choice. The biggest improvement of the Freebord over the T Board is the addition of side wheels what allow the board to lock in and hold a carve. It seems that it allows for a more natural carving motion – although I’ve not had a chance to try either. I do recommend watching the above video – it gives an awesome overview. The only thing I can’t get out of my head are the high speed wipeouts on pavement. Yeouch! Check out more on the official Freebord website.
So last night I setup my brand new Wii and tried out Wii sports. Working in the gaming industry, I’ve heard so much about Wii Sports that there wasn’t much there to really surprise me. Still, it was pretty fun and I’m happy with my console purchase. My previous console was a PS2 and before that a SNES, so while I do buy machine – I don’t buy every machine that comes out.
So why did I buy a Wii? There were lots of games that were getting me excited about the console. The new Zelda title was high on the list. But, it was the announcement of SSX Blur that pushed me over the edge. I love the SSX series and own Tricky for my PS2. When SSX originally hit, I was really surprised at just how fun the game was compared to other snowboarding games I’d tried. I’ve heard that better snowboarding games have landed since SSX, but it took the Wii’s innovative interface to get me thinking about investing the time into a new snowboarding game. I can’t wait to try this game out!
I picked up this pair of ski gloves. The tag says they’re not recommended for snowboarding… Are they serious? Why in the world would that be?
I found an ad for this thing while researching a movie full of snowboarding ladies called “As If“. Now, I’m not sure who the target market is for this product. While I’m sure an all female cast will appeal to all those young ladies dreaming of becoming a snowboarding pro… I somehow think it might appeal to a whole lot of the boys. I’m not so sure about that box cover though…. So, back to the topic…
While researching, I happened across a press release for something called the T-Board. I’d reference the site I found it on if I could find it again. Anyway, thing looks like large inline skateboard. It actually looks like a whole lot of fun, regardless of how close to snowboarding it actually is. The only problem is, if I got one, I have no idea where I’d ride it… I live in a relatively flat area. Maybe I could get someone to pull me with a bicycle and tell people we’re land-wakeboarding???
While reading Gizmodo, I ran into an odd product. The Motorola Bluetooth Hat lets you use your bluetooth devices (re: cell phone) hands free on the mountain. This reminds me of a rather annoying moment on my last new years snowboarding trip. Some dunce busted out his phone in the front of the busy lift line and started chatting it up. His conversation had him engaged to the point where he had no interest in getting on the lift, yet he stood there blocking up the line. The lift operators had to grab him and physically move him out of the way. As far as I’m concerned, they should have kicked him off the mountain. Maybe if he had this hat, he would have been able to jump on the lift during his oh so important call – likely with his mommy.
As I’ve mentioned before, there are a LOT of snowboard manufacturers, and here are a few. The first name on that list is, without a doubt, the biggest name in snowboards, Burton. Burton was there when snowboarding was just getting started and they’re well known for high quality gear. I have heard some say that, when you buy Burton, you’re paying for a name and can get a comparable board at a lower cost elsewhere. However, everyone agrees that buying a Burton means buying a good board.The best source I found for information on boards thus far is the 2004 Snowboard Buyers Guide from the editors of TransWorld SNOWBoarding. The various top ten lists in this zine include these brands: Academy, Arbor, Atomic, Burton, Flow, Forum, Option, Ride, Rome, Salomon, Sims, and Unity.Although I can’t really afford it at the moment, I’d really like to get an Arbor Mystic. This board really impresses me. The most notable thing is it’s bamboo construction. Its light and strong with lots of flex. The only drawback is the fact it’s designed for half-pipes so it has a stiffer tail than I probably need. But that’s ok, cause the ’04 board has a sexy graphic.