zoa-pl1Read: < 1 min

PL1 portable rope tow for backcountry riding

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Making turns in the backcountry is the reward of countless hours of conditioning and preparation. Food, travel, logistics, gear, safety and more. The actual riding is short, but often unmatched with untracked lines through a white wilderness.

Imagine if there was a cheat code – a way to get even one additional run with minimal effort. That’s what the PL1 Portable Rope Tow aims to provide in a compact package weighing ~10.5lbs.

With the ability to tow the average (weight with gear) skier/boarder ~2,600 vertical feet on a single charge, this Canadian-built product from Zoa Engineering hardly falls under essential gear, but if the extra weight and a price tag of ~$1,000.00USD (based on pricing information from their successfully funded Kickstarter) doesn’t dissuade you, then sign-up for updates on their website to be informed when they become available, most likely for the 2023/2024 season.

Posted by: Lawrence

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revl arc 4k action camRead: 2 mins

Revl Arc – stabilizing 4K action cam

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=helKtdl9N6U

Another interesting prospect has arrived in the already crowded action camera market. The Revl Arc stabilizing 4K action cam differentiates itself from the competition primarily with their image stabilization, which uses a built-in gyroscope, barometer, accelerometer and magnetometer. It also has built in connectivity, assisted editing (see the Bitness article on Trace for another take on this) and an app that allows you to track what friends are up to – all look promising and there is significant innovation here worth getting excited about.

I was less excited when I started the video and saw bungee jumping… how extreme. But watched in disbelief bordering on horror when the action progressed to car surfing, hanging out of car windows, taking narrow shoots in a speedboat full of people at nearly 40MPH and editing your footage while driving.

While we don’t condone any of those activities, we can recommend you take a look at the Indiegogo page for the Revl Arc and consider investing in it.

Other features include…

  • Records 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 120, 60, 30fps and 720p at 240, 120, 60fps
  • Live-stream at 1080p
  • Shockproof and waterproof to 10 feet (3 meters) without a housing
  • Stores to microSD cards (up to 128GB supported)
  • User replaceable battery
  • Up to 90 minutes recording time at 4K (without Wi-Fi)
  • Standard tripod mount as well as specialized mounts created for the camera
  • One-button recording
  • Revl mobile app for live preview and controlling the camera and its settings
  • Apple Watch support
  • 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0

revl arc 4k action cam

Availability: December 2016

Posted by: Jason

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nixon mission watchRead: < 1 min

Nixon Mission watch

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Built for Surf. Built for Snow. The Nixon Mission watch was designed to prepare you to charge the elements with live mountain (via Snocountry) and surf reports (via Surfline) and withstand the elements while shredding. It’s water resistant to 100 meters, shock resistant, constructed with Corning® Gorilla® Glass and stainless steel bezel.

Powered by Android Wear™ with Google Fit™ activity tracking, voice search, gesture/music control and more, the Nixon Mission watch is also customizable with different band options, bezel options and casing.

Another very useful feature is the Nixon Mission watch pairs with Trace technology, allowing users to track sessions and easily view stats during activity.

Visit the Nixon Mission watch website to sign up for an alert to let you know when this watch will be available.

Price: $400.00 (estimated)
Availability: Later this year

Posted by: Lawrence

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crafting corduroy southwestRead: < 1 min

Outside’s 2016 Ski Report

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Outside magazine has released their 2016 North American Ski report and despite the so far dismal conditions in the east, the west (where I currently sit here writing this post from Snowbird in Utah), Alaska and other NA locales, it looks like we still have something to look forward to and it may last well into March.

Better late than never!

Your guide to North America’s best skiing. Inbounds and out.
Fresh terrain is opening up, a new megaresort beckons, and a Godzilla El Niño promises major storms. Why should you be amped for winter? Let us count the ways.

Read the Full Article

Source: Outside magazine

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tiny homeRead: < 1 min

Mike Basich Gets It

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Pro snowboarder Mike Basich has built himself an off-grid tiny home (228 sq ft) about 10 miles outside of Truckee, California (USA). Basich lives here when he’s not snowboarding or photographing throughout the world. The house has solar power, wood-fired hot tub and other amenities, but non as cool as the single-chair chairlift he built with friends to cart him back up to the cabin after boarding in what he calls his private resort.

Source: Seeker Daily

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garmin virb bitness.comRead: < 1 min

Gamin VIRB – Not just another wearable action camera

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The Garmin VIRB, is touted as a “go-anywhere-endure-anything 1080p action camera with: built-in color ChromaTM display for setup and playback, 2000mAh battery (up to 3 hours of HD recording), and a 16 MP image sensor.”

Enclosed in a ‘rugged’ waterproof enclosure, the VIRB also provides heart rate, altitude and velocity to help set it apart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6CGI3XkAiQ&feature=youtu.be

Cost: $299.99 USD

Posted by: Lawrence

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trace bitness.comRead: < 1 min

TRACE – The Most Advanced Activity Monitor for Action Sports

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Trace makes action sports measurable, sharable, and comparable. Using advanced inertial sensors and GPS technology, Trace gives you detailed information about every session you have.

Trace can identify a tre-flip down 10 stairs, detail every turn on a 100-yard Rincon right, and measure a backflip off a 20-foot kicker at Mammoth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wvDRO7jPx8

Donate to Trace on Kickstarter

Posted by: Franz

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g-form bitness.comRead: < 1 min

G-Form G90 – phone to GoPro in a ‘Snap’

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I’m a big fan of G-Form products and not so long ago we reviewed the G-Form Elbow Pads which I now wear religiously for snowboarding.

G-Form announced during CES 2013 that in June of 2013, they will sell the G90 waterproof phone case with a 90° angled lens/mirror with up to an impressive 140° field of view (your existing smartphones lens will determine the exact field-of-view you’ll get). Because smartphones are so narrow, the G-Form set-up is more aerodynamic and poised to give GoPro, Vholdr, Drift and others a run for their money.

Posted by: Lawrence

Source: Gizmodo

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zeal optics bitness.comRead: < 1 min

Ski/board like a cyborg with Recon Instruments

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A few years ago Zeal Optics came out with the Transcend HUD (heads up display) goggle that used GPS to track speed (maximum, average, and current), lat/long, temperature, total vertical distance traversed, number of runs and total distance. The maker of that HUD is Recon Instruments and now their HUD technology can be used in other ‘Recon Ready’ goggles from Uvex, Alpina, Zeal and Briko.

The HUD technology has been improved and now comes in two models, the MOD and MOD Live. The MOD includes mostly features in the existing HUD found in the Zeal, whereas the MOD Live also offers jump analytics, buddy tracking, smartphone connectivity, music, temperature, navigation and more.

The idea that you can locate your friend who sailed-off into a glade only to emerge on the other side of the mountain is more than appealing (especially since I’m usually the guy who sails off). This coming winter bitness.com is headed back to Snowbird with a bag of goodies to test. I look forward to doing it terminator style with goggles outfitted with the Recon Instruments MOD Live.

I’ll be back…

Posted by: Lawrence

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