Make your photos tell a story. Here Alex Meyer and Shingo Ohkawa wait out the settling forest fire smoke with an endless chess session.
We’ve all been there: a few days after your friend gets back from a week-long trip, he invites you and the rest of his buddies over to check out a few photos. He starts up his slideshow, and you know by the third frame that you’re in trouble. By the 30 minute mark, you’ve seen at least a half-dozen fuzzy shots of the same moose, camp from every angle, and even one shot where the camera accidentally went off in the backpack.
You are experiencing the worst post-trip torture there is: Death by Slideshow. Every frame of the entire trip is in your buddy’s presentation, nothing has been edited, and although all the shots are in chronological order, there is no storyline other than the standard, “Oh yeah, I remember that” when your friend is surprised by which shot came up. You don’t want to risk subjecting your friends to this same fate after you go on an epic trip, so put a little effort into your own presentation and get them stoked instead of putting them to sleep. Here’s how….
If you’re like the rest of us here, then Monday mornings aren’t exactly your favorite times. All you want is for it to be Saturday again. You want to be out riding, climbing, hiking, or just about anything but sitting in an office. But you know what always cheers us up? Passing around a video of a good old-fashioned slam session.
So, we introduce the first installment of the Monday Slam Sesh. Today, we had a hard time decided between this segment of a particularly sketchy corner in a UK cross country bike race …
Alaska native, Backcountry.com athlete, 4FRNT pro skier, and product manager for the 4FRNT White Room series skis, Cody Barnhill doesn’t just cut clean lines and land terrifying airs. … He also presses a badass pair of skis. Last summer, we visited Cody at the 4FRNT facility and got to see how his Renegade ski is made. Peep the video to see what goes into hand-building a pair of highly coveted skis in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Thanks to GoPro, and the GoPro HD Helmet Hero, helmet cams are now commonplace on the mountain. But sometimes you want to capture more angles than the standard perspective. Sure, you could buy a GoPro Ride Bike Handlebar Mount, but what fun is that when you could make your own with 50¢ and 5 minutes? Plus, that thing costs $20. There are lots of different ways to make a ski pole mount, but I chose two that give you options. The first option is a little more involved, but has the advantage that you can take the GoPro off with the quick-release. That way you can switch up quickly between your helmet and pole. And also it means you can remove the camera easily if you’re touring. Read More …
If the Internet is the great equalizer of the 21st century, democratizing the power of data, then POV action sports video cameras like the GoPro Hero and Contour HD are the equivalent video camera revolutionaries of our age, giving everyone from 3-year-old rippers to gray-haired veterans the chance to share their ski footage with the world.
Inspiration
Videos created with these cameras have the potential to wow your audience, but don’t be intimidated or tell yourself you have to be the ripping-est shredder on the hill to produce compelling footage. With a simple shot list of angles to get, followed by a couple of hours of filming and a modicum of commitment toward editing, you can ditch the bored-to-death ’60s vacation slide show stereotypes and keep your audience glued to their screens.
Caveat: This is not meant to be the definitive syllabus on shooting with a POV camera, but simply a starting point for those who eschew the thought of becoming the latest blip in the YouTube universe. Read More …
Salt Lake City — Most self-respecting gear junkies will submit to nearly any dare to get a pass to the Outdoor Retailer show held every winter and summer in Utah. Fortunately we didn’t have to chug a gallon of milk or eat a plate of raw chicken to get into the Salt Palace convention center to scope out the show to get you a sneak peak. Showcasing the world’s finest outdoor brands and their seemingly endless smorgasbord of samples of next year’s gear, the winter OR is probably the coolest place where those of us addicted to ripping waist deep cold smoke can hang out when we aren’t be in the mountains. This year we walked the floor, checked out the on-snow demo and got the chance to link up with a few of the backcountry.com-sponsored athletes. From Greg “2mill” Hill, to Chris Davenport and Julian Carr, the 2010 Winter OR was teeming with heavies happy to give us some of their time and spread the good word on what to look for in 2011.
Happy Friday; only a few short hours exist between you and your weekend. Be strong, push through, and while you’re killing time, check out the videos featured below.
In follow up to Wednesday’s Full Mental Jacket: Finding Your Ideal Touring Shell article, we’ve included a series of videos below. Each video outlines a different portion of the article, with the first being an introduction, the middle three being overviews of the respective jackets, and the fifth and final video representing a conclusion and overview of the Outdoor Research jacket I finally decided on.
Special thanks to Sam Peters of the Backcountry.com video department for shooting, and editing the videos below.
With the MLB playoffs looming, ESPN.com found time to give props to the best of those other athletes: 2010 ESPN Action Sports Ski and Snowboard Video Awards. This list of editors’ picks compiled by Liam Gallagher (that couldn’t be this Liam Gallagher, right?) and Megan Michelson, focused on awarding “the 10 best in the most coveted of categories based on talent, creativity, gnarliness of tricks and terrain, editing and overall impact.”
Grizzly bears will also usually move along if they sense a human nearby. Try to make your presence known as often as possible when you travel through grizzly territory. Human noises work best, so try to keep a conversation going, or shout “Hey, bear! Coming through!” if you see signs of a bear in your vicinity.
When surprised, grizzlies attack more often than black bears, but the same “threat” mentality applies. Back away, speaking in a strong but soothing voice, showing the bear that you mean it no harm. Read More …
Make noise while you hike. Most mountain lions will leave if they hear people coming.
If you see a mountain lion, do not run. Running will stimulate the “chase and attack” instinct, and four powerful legs outrun two human ones.
Do not approach the lion. Give it a way to escape. Most mountain lions will avoid confrontation (unless they have cubs with them or are very hungry).
Maintain eye contact and face the mountain lion. Make yourself appear larger by raising your arms, opening your jacket, or holding your backpack over your head.
Keep your distance from the snake – most rattlers will leave you alone.
Go around the snake at a safe distance if the terrain allows. At best, rattlesnakes can strike a distance of two-thirds their total body length (this means a three-foot-long snake can snarf a bit of your leg within two feet of where they lie). Play it safe and give them a wide berth.
If you can’t go around, throw a few small pebbles around the snake from a safe distance (this is not a squash-the-snake game, you’re just trying to get the snake to move).
