hard boot powder / GoPro

[philw]

I bought a steadicam so I can mix the GoPro up with other footage, but it's a challenge to ride with that much weight. The technology isn't quite there for me yet.

Here are a few GoPro clips of powder riding. Needless to say all the soft booters were at least having issues in this stuff. I can only assume they like the challenge of it all.

Powder Mountain Whistler (Cat boarding)

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/34238334?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/34277797?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

Blue River, Heli boarding

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/34533771?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

[Steve Prokopiw]

Fun to watch and good music too.

[Gcarve]

Nice pow vids! You've got me wishing for some decent snow, instead of the above average temps that we are suffering thru right now (at least in California).

[Futahaguro]

Great videos! I love the pole mount, I need to try that this season. Is that just a pole mount with a GoPro stuck to it? No steadicam thing? It was really smooth!

As usual, watching those makes me wonder why I live in Minnesota.

[ktv]

Hey Phil,

The pole looks like it has sections and can be compacted. What pole is that?

Thanks.

Khanh

[icebiker]

Fun to watch and good music too.

Love the Dickies! (1st vid)

The "from above looking down" view in the 3rd vid is very cool.

[philw]

It's a mark 1 GoPro (ok, given to me by the GoPro guys: thanks chaps) stuck on a pole. I really like the way they work. Sure, there's the ego issue, but then this is the only thing which comes close to showing how it is. I've shot stills professionally, and for me no still can capture the feel you get from these.

The snow there was actually the second worst I've had in about 25 years of riding BC powder... you can see it's kind of slushy/ sloppy not white smoke. So it goes: it's all good.

Last year I used a ski pole, but if you look at the shots you can see it's a challenge to get the rider in if your pole is too short (!). I did my research, checked out all ski poles and alternatives and came up with a non-pro "monopod" - A Veblon L50. That is the lightest I can find (300g), and it is about 1.50m when extended, both of which are key characteristics. The catch... well the catch is that today I was riding face-shot over-the-head stuff and my pole is knackered... after only three weeks it's pretty much toast, with the sections either not moving at all, or moving all on their own - it wasn't usable today.

Maybe I can fix this pole, once it dries out and defrosts. Perhaps 20 days is more than enough for most people, and it worked pretty well when it worked. I will try to find another pole or fix this one.

A folding pole is handy - I can stick this one in a shovel pack or even my jacket if I don't want to ride with it.

The Dickies... Yay! It's kind of the way it feels, to me. The downside of that is that a week or so ago my room-mate was playing that video at 02:30 in the morning. I think he had jet lag: I was sound asleep. So I practically hit the ceiling as the Dickies started up... the best bit was he could only laugh as he didn't expect the sound and couldn't find the volume control in the dark. Well that was his story anyway!