Lets Get Going!!

Lets say that either you've crashed out half way down a slope, or alternatively that you've simply stopped half way for a breather and an admiration of the local scenery.  No need to unstrap as you'll be setting off in a mo...
Trouble is that you can't go because try as you may, you can't get back up and onto the board.

The reason for this may be because you're attempting to get up from a sitting position where your current centre of gravity is relatively far from where you need it to be (i.e. directly over the board).

[It's hard to get back on your board from this position]

No need to unstrap at this point.  Simply roll over onto your knees with the board on the downhill side of the slope.

In this position, it far easier to position your centre of gravity over the board, stand up and ride off and looks far more dignified in the process.

Now ride on and try not to fall off this time!

Movies, Movies, Movies!

If a picture paints a thousand words, then video must be a whole dictionary or something, and something I hope to be doing a bit more of now that my Contour HD has arrived!!!!!

Been thinking of buying one for a while and in all honesty, liked the look of the GoPro, but did get a bit confused by the various options - I still don't quite know what the 'naked' model involves.  On-line opinions between the GoPro and the Contour seem a bit Marmite but I do think the GoPro comes out on top on many of the youtube comparision videos.  However, the GPs do seem to be generally more expensive and not being the most flush for cash right now, I needed to hunt around.

Contour 1080p's seem to be reasonably cheap right now with three newer models available: the 'Roam' that seems to be a bit more automated but doesn't offer 60fps, the  'GPS' that tracks your route simultaneously, and the '+', a higher end camera with more professional features such as HDMI output.  The 1080p spec looks pretty good and most come with 2 Gig card as standard, which would do me for starters.

http://jtote.com/product_info.php/contourhd-camera-p-10466

Jane's Tote seemed to be the cheapest with the price fluctuating on an almost daily basis, but I was able to buy at £117 with a maximum price observed over the past two weeks of £130.  Although based in the USA, Jane's Tote will post to the UK for free so this didn't need to be considered, though there is always the possibility that I'd be stung for Import Tax when it arrived in the UK.  Only a possibility though because I don't know quite how these things really work......   Anyway, as a comparison, the cheapest that I've seen the same model for sale in the UK is £149.  So question is, do you want it quicker, or cheaper?

Cheaper of course!  Made the purchase through JT who accepted payment by Paypal.  This made me pretty optimistic that should items not arrive or should the wrong items be delivered then hopefully my money would be safe.  Put the order in on the 6th of this month and it arrived today on the 19th - just under two weeks, which considering it came from Los Angeles for free, is not bad I reckon.

Tracked delivery (included in the free postage) gave me confidence that things were moving and informed me of delivery.  A nice touch was writing the Customs Declaration form stating that the total value of the goods was $16, the main reason I think that I wasn't charged any additional postage by Parcel Force.

So, so far so good and I hope to have some moving footage for you all soon.  Lets just say the the test footage shot so far looks pretty good, but I'm not going to share shots of the office!  I'll update this post with any issues should they happen (non touch wood) so watch this space.....

More Stuff and Things!

Sorry for lack of content recently.  It's not even been from the lack of motivation or lack of material to work with - there's about 5 posts that just need prettying up and posting but finishing stuff right now seems to be the issue.  Still, life keeps rolling on in the background so I've incorporated a few things I wanted to mention into this post.  No particular order so lets start with.....

www.mountainboarding.info

www.mountainboarding.info 

...is still in it's early stages but is well worth a visit. Roger S describes the project aim to 'provide a community-generated, comprehensive, accumulated resource of all the mountainboarding information we can find'. There certainly is plenty of knowledge out there so if you have some spare time in front of a computer and want to help, please contact Roger.


UK Snow Map

I like this amalgamation of  existing technology.  uksnowmap.com searches Twitter for real-time snow reports and displays them on the map.  In return, all that twitter users have to do is to tweet the hashtag #uksnow, their location (postcode, town name or geotag), and rate the snow that is falling out of ten (0/10 for nothing - 10/10 for a blizzard).

Nothing up there right now, but then it's probably not snowing right now.  When it does though, it could be a really useful resource.

Mountainboard Tutorials

After compiling an 'Ultimate Mountainboard How-To Video Guide', Jasper of OneDayMedia has been a busy, busy chap producing not one but two guides covering both scrubbing, and how to drop-in on a hill.

Jaspers Channel with all of his work is linked to below so that you can go and 'like' him:
http://www.youtube.com/user/0neDayProductions#p/u/0/9pl4pjmyhVk

Mapping Data

So, if I understand things correctly, (and there's no reason to believe that I do), elevation data used to produce those lovely 3D Google Earth images is set to become a lot more accurate and detailed.  The project joint funded by NASA and Japan can be read about on NASA's page here, but the interesting detail that 'Each elevation measurement point in the data is 98 feet (30 meters) apart' improves nicely on the existing 50 meter resolution.  Far more applications use this data than just Google and given that the data can be freely downloaded, should mean that everyone wins.

The Annual Official Surfing Dirt Pumpkin Carving Contest... 

...is back again, and goes to show that when out in the woods, you just can't be too careful.  Don't have nightmares!
http://www.surfingdirt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4926


Master of the Hill 2011 Trailer?


Master of the Hill 2011 Trailer from all4ride on Vimeo.

That must mean that the full video must be on its way soon!

Random Blog

http://www.great-rock.co.uk/blog/
Forget the bikes - just look at the scenery.  Plus I have beard envy.

My word, this blog post has been random!  Best get out riding and enjoy those Autumn leaves!  Feel free to inspire me with your lovely messages or let me know what I've forgotten to mention today, cheers!