Helmet cams let skiers bring the slopes home
WILMINGTON, Vt. — Hey, mom, did you see that cool jump? That explosion of powder? How I squeezed between those trees?
There are moments on the slopes when skiers wish all eyes were on them. But here’s the next-best thing: helmet cameras, which enable skiers to photograph and record video of their own descents, jumps and tracks to show off later.
Helmet cams have become so ubiquitous that they are “almost the norm” at Steamboat Ski & Resort in Steamboat Springs, Colo. “The cameras take bragging rights to the next level,” resort spokeswoman Loryn Kasten said.
Steamboat is even incorporating user content into its own social media and marketing, because the vantage point of the skier or boarder taking video has more impact than the pro cameraman standing at the bottom. The user videos, Kasten says, are a “scrapbook in motion.”
Not just for kids
A new teen center at a members-only resort will even have indoor video editing booths and a screening room to play footage and finished films for a crowd.
The teen center is part of a new lodge at The Hermitage Club at Haystack Mountain in Wilmington. Hermitage owner and founder Jim Barnes was inspired by the interest of his own children — ages 16, 14 and 9 — in using the cams.
But the cameras are not just for kids. Barnes recalled a 40-something who took video of 47 runs during a single day last season.
“Each generation pushes other generations to do it. ... There’s a push for all of them to use cameras because they’re going to share it,” said Kelly Davis, director of research for the SnowSports Industries America association.
Sharing is the key: The explosion of social media is what’s led to the leap in cameras among skiers and boarders — not to mention surfers, skateboarders, rock climbers and mountain bikers.
Even older skiers who don’t use the cameras are watching the footage. “My grandma loves to see the video. She got them for us so she can see us skiing,” said Will Coffin, a 13-year-old member of Vermont’s Mount Snow race team. “And I don’t ski with my parents much, so sometimes I’ll show them, too.”
Sales, impulse buys
Sales of the cameras, like the industry leader GoPro, were up 50 percent to 123,000 at snow sports retailers for the 2012-13 ski season, according to the SnowSports Industries America. The trade group expects a higher number for 2013-14, with additional sales at electronics stores and elsewhere that the SIA does not track.
GoPro sells its HD Helmet Hero Plus 3 model for close to $400, but the price has not deterred impulse buyers who see others using it and must have one.
“Veteran skiers are looking for the best deal, and might get their GoPro in an off-season sale,” Kasten said. “But it’s also not farfetched to say, a family will come into one of our retail outlets and tell us, ‘We’re using our iPhone for video, but we just saw someone else’s video’ ” shot with a GoPro. Often they’ll buy one on the spot.”
Family memories
Wing Taylor, 42, of North Vancouver, British Columbia, uses his GoPro mostly to record keepsakes of the days when his children are still mastering the mountains, but he’ll also play them on gray fall days to get his son and daughter jazzed for the season.
“I will also share the videos of my kids at work” he said.
Noah Shelton, 14, of Cary, N.C., says the camera lets him relive happy or proud moments: “You can capture the beauty of the nature around you, but if you’re a freestyle skier or boarder, you’re really doing it for the crazy jumps and flips.”
Sometimes, he’ll move the camera from his helmet to his back or pole to try to get the look on his own face or others around him. “When there’s a good jump, the reaction of other people is priceless.”