Team Geared Up

SINGAPORE - Well it’s a bit warmer in Singapore today than it was in Vail, Colorado, USA last December. Part cold, part wanting a camera-mounting, part I was about to throw myself off a few black diamond runs… I decided to buy a ski helmet. In the USA its different - everyone has helmets. Everyone. Helmet = ‘cool’. Helmet with camera on-top seemed to = ‘ultra cool’ or so the comments I got suggested.

I bought a Boeri Vortex (own one? click [Add To My Gear] above if signed-in) The helmet is in the low-mid range, I think I paid close to US$89 + tax for it. It’s very comfy. Nice and padded. Very warm ears (important in CO!).

I can’t tell you how it performed on impact as I didn’t have any - but it felt very secure, nicely fitting and snug. My goggles sat over it perfectly and had no loss of ventilation affecting de-misting. I wore a Rat Race Buff underneath it to protect my neck & chin as the temperatures were hitting -12C. So cold the Buff would come off frozen in one solid piece the shape of my face!

So the interesting bit is the camera. It’s a small security camera with an A/V output. It’s attached to my helmet with a large elastic band (so it can break off if in a fall) through the vent hole. Three leads come from it (audio, video, power) which run down under the padding on the inside through the vent and out a vent at the back where the small 9V battery to power the camera sits under my goggle strap. The Audio & video leads run down my outer jacket collar and under my right arm into the chest pocket on my smock where the AV Recorder (very simple video recorder I bought in Bangkok) sits in the warmth to preserver batter power. Here I can easily pull it out to watch playback while on the lifts.

It really works well. Video quality is pretty rubbish - but it’s only an experiment for the web. Here’s 2 embedded videos take on the first day of the trip.

Part 1.

Team Geared Up: Vail, CO. (Part 1) from Robin Blandford on Vimeo.

Part 2.

Team Geared Up: Vail, CO. (Part 2) from Robin Blandford on Vimeo.

Homemade video camera work well. But what I really want is the O’Neill Backpack Alx reviewed.

-Robin.

(Image & Video Credits: Vail, Colorado in December. By author with thanks to Aoife for the shots of me!)