Every year we see new gadgets and gizmos come into the market. It’s hard to keep tabs on what’s hot and what’s not with so many new additions, so allow us to help. Here is our top 8 must have’s for the 2015/2016 season….
Grimnir Helmet , Sweet Protection
In 2013, Michael Schumacher was crossing an unsecured off-piste area above Meribel when he fell and hit his head on a rock. Later, suspicion fell on the GoPro camera attached to his helmet as one of the causes of damage to his brain.
Sweet Protection’s Grimnir helmet is made of plastic reinforced with carbon fibre and made even stronger behind two dedicated mounting points (on on the forehead for the GoPro and one on the side for a Contour camera) which helps them from being shoved through the shell upon impact. Screw in mounting points on the Grimnir help by being a lot more removable than the stick on 3M pads that most people use with their cameras, easy detachment means less chance of the protruding camera causing you to twist your head or neck.
Snowboarders may be able to relate to the common issues of freezing, stretching and even snapping boot laces. Well, a group of Utah snowboarders have come up with a fantastic Kickstarter campaign to put a stop all of the above problems.
WAXD laces are pre-shrunk and pre-stretched to make sure that every time you tighten your boots will be just as snug as the first time. Treated with a hydrophobic coating, WAXD laces are guaranteed not to soak up water and freeze, and are made with extremely durable paracord that will not snap. Aluminium tips give them a stylish finish.
Electric Defog Goggles, Abominable
As we all know, if you can’t see, you can’t ski (the exception of course being blind skiing!). Imagine standing at the top of a run, ready to set off down for a spot of lunch when suddenly the worst possible thing that could happen, does. FOG. Fogged goggles help no one, but with Abominable’s new Active anti-fog technology means those days are over.
With just the click of a button, a battery send an electric current through an invisible film placed between a two-part lens. This heats the lens and keeps the fog away. Just a one hour charge will power the battery for 7 hours, meaning no need to keep wiping your lenses, turning on any silly fans or adjusting any vents. For those less tech-savvy, the most important thing is that they come in 6 colour variations!
There are plenty of applications floating round on the various app stores that can give you some insights into how you ski or snowboard, how far you’ve been in a day and your top speed – always handy for some bragging over dinner that evening. The creators of one of the most popular apps in this field is Trace Snow (previously Alpine Relay) available on both iOS and Android app stores. They have now created a fantastic piece of technology, the Trace Action Sports Tracker, a gadget designed to take the pressure off your mobile phone and its battery, and to introduce a few more features.
With a 10 hour battery life and being 10x more accurate than your phone, Trace’s Action Sports Tracker will provide you with everything you want to know about your performance, including GPS mapping, number of runs, speed (maximum and average), distance, calories burned and time. It also includes air time, jump height, jump distance and will soon feature rotational tricks for all you daredevils out there.
What’s more, and the best thing about it in my opinion, is that it will sync up with your GoPro footage, cut out all your runs, colour correct the footage and also overlay stats such as speed and height of jumps etc. It really does look fantastic and saves you spending hours trawling through boring GoPro footage of you poling along the flats. Click here to see an example.
Bluetooth Wireless Ski Helmet Audio, CHIPS
For the unsocial or lone skiier who likes to listen to music whilst shredding, it can sometimes be tricky to access your phone stashed away deep in a pocket somewhere to change volume or skip a song you don’t like. If someone calls you, most of the time you won’t feel the vibrations in your pocket to let you know, then it’s a race against time to find it and answer, ‘Hi Mum’.
In steps the CHIPS Bluetooth kit. Slotting into any helmet with an audio liner, this great piece of tech makes listening to music and accepting calls on the go a doddle. Easy to use buttons on the speaker pads are responsive when using your gloves or mitts. Tap the left ear for power, play and answer call. Tap right for skipping tracks forwards and backwards and changing the volume. Simples.
Bluetooth Snow Gloves, BearTek
With all this talk of easy connectivity and Bluetooth mumbo jumbo anyone would think we’re on the set of a Terminator film. This gadget will certainly make you feel like you’re half robot, half human. The BearTek Bluetooth Snow Glove is simply incredible, one of the coolest things I’ve seen since Candide Thovex popped a 180 into a bubble lift. Using some technology you’d expect to see in a Star Wars film, you can control your mobile phone and GoPro just by touching your thumb on a different part of one of your fingers. Start recording, take a picture, skip song, answer calls. It’s got every function you need without even having to think about getting your phone out. Watch a video of how simple it is here.
Unfortunately for all of us, skiing can be a dangerous sport. Whether just cruising a blue, whacking your way down a black or maybe hitting kickers in the park. At some point with so many people doing a risky sport in one area, someone is going to get hurt. Each year, 70,000 skiiers injure their ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) because of their feet not releasing from their bindings. The way alpine ski bindings work mean that rearward twisting of the knee doesn’t force the boot to unclip from the bindings. Consider that problem solved!
The Knee Binding recognises the loads and forces that create these extremely painful and expensive knee injuries and allows your boot to release laterally in the heel before the injury takes place. Worth forking out a bit of money to keep yourself safe, avoid the ridiculous foreign medical bills and the knock to confidence that can come with knee injuries.
I’ve been a massive fan of GoPro since buying their first HERO camera a few years ago now, back when headcams weren’t quite as popular and you looked a bit of a plonker walking around with a box strapped to your helmet. Technology and social understanding of strange people who want to film themselves skiing has, however improved (luckily) with some astounding results. 1080p video recording, and 8mp pictures in a camera the size of just a few sugar cubes is just incredible. It certainly makes it easier to attach to your helmet, skis, chest, pole, you name it….stick it on there and you never know you might end up going viral yourself! See some examples of its uses here.
Don’t forget that the GoPro can be combined with both the BearTek Bluetooth Gloves and the Trace Action Sports tracker for a real techy holiday!
