philw Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 I think the question is not really what happens "given enough time and abuse", it's more "do they fail in normal use?". In my direct experience of many people using them for rentals and daily riding my answer is simply: "no". The standard mounts are really good. Follow the instructions and they work as advertised. The only person I've seen loose a GoPro lost the whole camera plus the ski pole he was carrying it on in deep powder. By the time he remembered he didn't have the camera, it was somewhere in the 1,000 vertical meters he'd just ridden. I think I'd say that's "rider error"; you can't sensibly use straps in the trees, and even old-fashioned "powder straps" would be pretty useless when you don't know where to start looking ;-) As with all this stuff, it's just a question of how you assess the risks. If you're fastening a camera to a tapered ski-pole, then I would advise using duct tape as a security measure for that reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Ace* Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 For anyone that DOESN'T know, I actually lost my GoPro the first day of SES this year. Took a digger in some really soft snow off piste and the camera went flying. Before I realized it was missing I was already on the next chair lift. I must have stopped to look for the camera at least 5 times for a good 15 minutes each time with no luck, even had friends help me look. One of the biggest problems when you do actually lose, is that you have a general idea where it could be, but if the snow is soft at all and the camer is buried, well then good luck! I ended up finding the camera out of shear luck 5 days later, after a bunch of new snow too. I barely spotted the black locking mechanism in my buddy's footprint as we were about to stop looking for good. Truly lucky that I found that camera again, because it had traveled a good 10ft down the hill after my crash in soft powdery snow. I used one of these as my leash. Available at Home Depot for like $2, and come in some high visivility neon colors. I secured it under the camera's pivot point. Works like a charm! Yes the mounts work under normal use just fine, but when sh*t hit the fan, they don't stick. Its kinda like saying "Hey, I'm a good driver, WTF do I need insurance for?" Sh*t happens, better to be prepared for it than not. JP1, I had the same sort of idea having the 'powder strap/tail' but didn't know how to execute it and figured just having a leash would be fine. Interested to see what you come up with though. **Edit** Crappy cell phone pic: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philw Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 Fair point: if you're going to nut things with it I can see that you'd actually *want* it to break away, which I've no doubt it would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queequeg Posted March 12, 2011 Report Share Posted March 12, 2011 Great Ideas Ace! I have one of the black Vholdr cameras (which has not yet gotten much use as I always seem to have the wrong mounts with me). It comes with a leash, but the leash is too short and I stopped using it because it got annoying as hell. I'll be replacing that with something more like what you have. Painting the camera a neon colour is a brilliant idea!!! I'll be doing that too. There was a guy in the GNAR movie who had pink stuff all over his camera ... now I know why. One of the things that I like about the Vholdr is it's relatively low profile, which seems like it would make it less likely to break off your helmet in a fall. It seems like the go-pros are more popular, possibly because they've been around longer and have more versatile mounts? but I like the low profile design of the Vholdr and how easy it is to turn it on and off while it is on your helmet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Prokopiw Posted March 13, 2011 Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 I mounted the camera straight to the nose today after using a nose-mounted boom yesterday(too much vibration but working on that one) Well,it did alright most of the day until I caught some good air and landed fairly flat.The camera case broke off at the eyelets that the bracket screw uses.The camera dissappeared so quickly that I thought flipped into the trees or rolled down the run.I didn't look for long as I thought the search would be fruitless.On my way up the lift I saw a kid digging it out of the snow right below the lip where I caught the air! The camera broke off and the board rode right over it within a millisecond! Camera is ok since the case stayed closed and the old school 'method air' looks good in the vid:) I now need a new case and a stronger way to hold the camera.The rider-facing view from the end of the 210 is really cool.I need to use some of Johnasmo's magic antishake software to smooth it out a little but surprisingly good footage nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawndoggy Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 So I haven't been visiting much because I've been riding softies more this year (gasp!), but I came back because I too launched a surfboard mount yesterday. I've had luck with the tiny flat sticky mount in the past, so I thought the surf mount would be fine. And in fact I've had the surf mount stuck to the board for the better part of two years. I just haven't been filming much. Anyhow, about 8 turns in the camera and surf mount ejected. Still my favorite vantage point for the gopro. Good thing I leashed it. <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-tnRpgMO0D4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Very curious whether there is a true solution or if I just got lucky doing it this way in the past. That boom idea would probably produce good video results but I'd sure hate to be impaled by that thing in a crash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davekempmeister Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 ....on the nose of the board (Shawndoggy style) has been the small flat mount plate provided with the camera purchase. The trick to keeping it on has been to buy some 3M spongy two-sided tape much like what is already on the mount, but softer and gummier (red peel away film on the roll). Cut a piece to size and sandwich it between the clean and warm board laminate and the mount plate (with it's existing two-way tape still in place and sticky exposed). Then for good measure, and extra hold, a bead of GE clear silicone around the edge with 12 hours dry time. To mildly stabilize, I've used a little plastic from a sandwich bag around the fastener that slides and clicks into place to mount the unit. Rattles around a little less. The surf mount's plastic fractured on me in sub-zero temps. No guarantees, but this has worked for me on icy crud and hard landings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawndoggy Posted March 15, 2011 Report Share Posted March 15, 2011 ....on the nose of the board (Shawndoggy style) has been the small flat mount plate provided with the camera purchase. The trick to keeping it on has been to buy some 3M spongy two-sided tape much like what is already on the mount, but softer and gummier (red peel away film on the roll). Cut a piece to size and sandwich it between the clean and warm board laminate and the mount plate (with it's existing two-way tape still in place and sticky exposed). Then for good measure, and extra hold, a bead of GE clear silicone around the edge with 12 hours dry time. To mildly stabilize, I've used a little plastic from a sandwich bag around the fastener that slides and clicks into place to mount the unit. Rattles around a little less. The surf mount's plastic fractured on me in sub-zero temps. No guarantees, but this has worked for me on icy crud and hard landings. Thanks Dave. I was really really surprised to see the surf mount come un-stuck. It didn't crack or break or anything... just came off of the board entirely. Especially weird given that it's been stuck to the board for almost two years... plenty of time to "cure." I know exactly what you are talking about regarding the small mount and vhb tape, and that's what I had the most success with a couple of years ago too. I guess if we get some firm snow in the next couple weeks I'll have to give it a go again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp1 Posted March 19, 2011 Report Share Posted March 19, 2011 shawndoggy, if the mount worked good for 2 years, I'd guess that the adhesive on the tape just deteriorated over time. What I have always had good luck with as an adhesive is Silicone Sealer (as in GE Bathtub Caulk type silicone). Scrape or peel off the existing double sided tape on the mount you want to use and clean the mount and the area on the board you wish to mount it to thoroughly (I like Lacquer Thinner for this). Apply a liberal amount of Silicone Sealer to the mount, set it in place and wait at least 24 hours for it to set up. Some nice things about Silicone Sealer are, you can build it up thick enough to make up for any inconsistencies in shape between the mount and the board, the Silicone Sealer acts as an isolator between the board and the mount, and it can be removed easily if necessary, using a fishing line to cut it off then either thinner or just aggressively rubbing the sealer off with your thumbs. Works for me............:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caspercarver Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Here are some photos of my boom setup. works quite well so far. used 3/16th steel plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gcarve Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 The mounts worked well in version 1.2 of my design (a few changes from the first). Lift operators were impressed and didn't give me any grief. The video was decent and I'm working on get the shots from v1.2 up on YouTube.http://www.rockerbinding.com/Snowb._Mount_behind_v1.html Intersting GoPro idea Rocker_Binding! Cool soft boot bindings too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gcarve Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 Here are some photos of my boom setup. works quite well so far. used 3/16th steel plate. Great looking boom holding plate. Definitely bypasses all the potential issues of adhesive tape failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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