Ski & snowboard helmets with built-in speakers are nothing new but Sweden’s POC brand stepped it up by partnering with Beats by Dre on the sound. They also included a microphone for taking calls and put controls on the cord for volume, switching songs, etc. Available January 2013.
Colorado’s homegrown, handmade ski company Icelantic, is known for producing high-quality, high-tech skis. You might have to be a little Rocky Mountain High to order up a set of boards featuring an up-close portrait of legendary Colorado hippy John Denver on them, but that’s perfectly legal in Colorado now. via
If you thought driving while texting was deadly, wait ’til you point your skis down a vertical chute while reading the digital display inside your goggles. Oakley has introduced a MOD Live Android-enabled heads-up display inside its goggles allowing you to track speed, vertical drop, navigation, track friends, even connecting to your Contour camera. Unfortunately it won’t warn you when you’re about to fly off a cliff.
You don’t play tennis with a wooden racket or catch fish with a wooden rod so why take to the hills for the extreme winter sport of sledding with toboggan technology from a hundred years ago? You shouldn’t. The Snolo is a high performance carbon fiber sled that glides and corners like a rally racer. Fold it up, strap it to your back and hit the backcountry.
With snow already on the ground in places like Tahoe, Colorado, and Washington, winter is rushing in. Before you know it, you’ll be freezing your ass off but if you get a pair of these heated, fleece-lined leather gloves, at least your hands will stay warm. Heating is regulated automatically and they recharge via a cable in the cuff, just like your phone.
Cruising around the ski resort with a camera suction-cupped to your helmet looks about as cool as those stripes shaved into the side of your head. Sure, YOLO but why not keep your video-selfies to yourself? These new goggles with a 170º fisheye HD cam built into the frame offer a more stealthy way to capture your POV pow-shredding.
Some people head to the mountains for skiing and snowboarding to disconnect. Yeah, these people actually want to get away from talking on their phones. For the rest of us, there’s a new gizmo called the Speakgoggle that will help seamlessly and simply combine Bluetooth phone conversations and skiing. Paired with your smartphone, it’s an intercom system built right into the goggle strap that will also let you listen to music. Plus, with its bug-eyed styling it looks hella space age. Take that, recluses.
The dudes in the Burton boardroom are starting to show their age. Snowboarding’s biggest brand has now teamed up with Lucasfilm to feature Star Wars board graphics on their tot-sized Chopper series boards this season. They know the Gen-X shred dads are gonna love these. Source
Do we ever outgrow sledding? Nah. Now, get serious and bomb the hills on a Hammerhead Pro XLD. This isn’t your childhood sled. With a flexible steering system, mesh bed and swappable ski rails, this snow jumper boasts super bike handling, BMW comfort, and Ferrari speed. Let it snow.
Created by athletes interested in improving their gear, Spy’s Optic Zed Snow Goggles push eyewear’s technological limits. A durable, uni-body frame construction and patented Scoop ventilation system eliminates fogging and provides 100% UV protection. Slip these on and focus on your view rather than your vision.
