Category: Equipment

SHOT Show: Wiley X Brings Stylish Eyeware for Shooting Market

Sport Shooters will be looking stylish this year as Wiley X will be introducing a new line of Saber Advanced from the Changeable series. These will feature a 3.0mm thick lens, which meets both MIL-PRF-31012 military ballistic and ANSI Z87.1-2003 high velocity standards. The lenses further are crafted from Selenite polycarbonate, making the thickest and most durable lenses available in the tactical/shooting eyeware market. The Saber Advanced will be available with either a single or dual lens option, for a variety of shooting situations, and come with 100 percent UVA and UVB protection, as well as optional prescription plug-in.

Wiley X will also feature its Black Ops line at next week’s SHOT Show, with black on black shades, created for elite-level military and law enforcement personnel as well as serious shooters. These feature Wiley X’s High Velocity Protection (HVP). These will provide your eyes and have your eyes looking good.

Wiley X Official Site

Stick it To ‘em

It might be easy to dismiss all hockey sticks as one and the same, but nothing could be further from the truth. Last month we reported that wooden sticks have completely vanished from the NHL, and last week The Wall Street Journal offered an interesting take on how hockey sticks are becoming as unique as “fingerprints.”

Seriously, the days of taking a stick off the rack, putting your own custom brand of tape on it and hitting the ice it seems is long over. With many materials now allowing for ever so slight adjustments hockey sticks have gone high tech – in low sort of ways. Players had traditionally made small tweaks back in the day of wooden sticks, but now players can adjust their composite and graphite sticks – and even have the manufacturer run off a batch.

However, notes the WSJ, the sky is not the limit on what tinkering can be done:

“Of course, there are limits to how much tinkering the players can do. The NHL stipulates that no stick may be longer than 63 inches from knob to heel, unless the player is taller than 6-foot-6. And, more importantly, the blade may not be curved more than three-quarters of an inch—a number that refers to the distance between the top of the curve and an imaginary line drawn between the heel and toe of the stick.”

But even with simple tools like a blow torch and a sander, hockey sticks are truly become custom tools for the game on the ice.

[Via The Wall Street Journal: Fiddling With Their Sticks]

Blue Mountain Puts RFID Chips in Lift Tickets

This year Blue Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania became the first of its kind in the region to use radio frequency identification (RFID) cards as an alternative to traditional lift tickets. Instead of the traditional paper lift ticket that can dangle from your parka, the Blue Passport card slips in your pocket, and you simply walk through a turnstile, rather than needing to be scanned by an attendant.

Users are advised not to keep old tickets with new ones, not to put cell phones in the same pocket and to be sure to remove season passes (as well as any pass for that matter) prior to washing or drying the parka. Other than that, you can buy the ticket once and even recharge it for another day online, which can even save users a few bucks. The creators were so excited about this technology, they even made a video for it!

Blue Passport Official Site

CES 2011: The Gymbox Goes for Free the TV Challenge

Last August Samsung kicked off its “Free the TV Challenge” to spur development of new connected TV content, and developers from across the country were invited to submit their best ideas for 2D and 3D TV applications across a range of categories. Finalists were selected from this range of submissions and the winners of the challenge will be announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show.

We found there to be some very interesting finalists, but we’re pulling for Gymbox, which provides weekly, full-length workouts on demand. These include Step Aerobics, Kickboxing, Yoga, Pilates, Core Strength, Treadmill, Cycle, Strength Training, and Stretch. New classes are added weekly so you never have to repeat the same workout twice.

Free the TV Challenge: Gymbox

Fitness Journal: Let It Roll With the Tru-Trainer

If you are familiar with cycling, you are probably familiar with the training device called ‘rollers’. Rollers are a very simple training aid consisting of three aluminum or plastic drums which the rider can only maintain their balance while riding. If they cyclist stops pedaling, they fall over. This might sound a bit dangerous and unnerving to learn, but if you can master riding rollers, not only will you get a physical workout, your handling and pedaling efficiency will greatly improve.

Even though there are many manufacturers who make rollers, they have remained virtually unchanged for decades until recently. TruTrainer rollers, manufactured by CycleDyne LLC in Brownsburg, Indiana, claim that their rollers have the closest feel and feedback to actually riding on the road. The secret to their rollers is the drum furthest to the rear is actually a flywheel. The only real visual difference between TruTrainer rollers and others on the market is the second drive belt connecting the two rear rollers. Continue reading Fitness Journal: Let It Roll With the Tru-Trainer

Won’t Dry Your Eyes But Will Warm Up Your Feet

Walking through really cold wet snow means wet cold boots. It is the kind that could practically bring you to tears. There isn’t much that you can do about that, except maybe warm up the boots in the car in the car. DryGuy offers a line of  boots/shoe warmer and dryers including one model that offers AC/DC power (Model – DG00301). These won’t exactly dry your eyes, but better still they can warm up your boots, and do so from the car! These use a ram-air ventilation system so that air can be forced through the shoes to remove wetness or warm up cold boots in a short amount of time.

DryGuy also has a line of regular boot drivers as well, so no need to throw the boots in front of a heater anymore. You can call the DryGuys instead.

DryGuy Official Website

Step This Way

While many people probably walked miles during the pre-holiday season while shopping, many more probably let their fingers do the walking instead. One downside to e-commerce is that it makes it all too easy to click away and have gifts shipped right to your door. And then during the holidays chances are walking wasn’t high on the list.

Now with a New Year hours away it is time to get the legs moving. To help keep track of the distance you put in, Omron Healthcare has now released a new pedometer that utilizes dual-accelerometer technology. The Omron HJ-112 Pocket Pedometer can accurately count steps. The small device can be place vertically or horizontally on the hip, or even stashed in a pocket or in a bag.

“At Omron, we want to empower Americans to achieve and maintain personal fitness goals by providing easy-to-use and accurate fitness products,” says Jill Person, product manager. “The fresh start of a new year serves as the perfect time to set goals, start tracking steps and stay motivated with the HJ-112 so you can achieve your personal best.”

The Omron HJ-112 GOsmart Pocket Pedometer can track steps, time and distance, as well as calories and fat grams burned. It even stores the last seven days of data so you can track a full week’s worth of your exercise. It is available now for $34.99 from Omron, as well as Amazon.com. So click away with your fingers, but get out and get walking.

Omron Healthcare Official Website

Skateboard Ramps Go High Tech

While we normally look at the technology of the skateboards, there has been some interesting innovation with the skateboard ramps. Here are a couple of interesting videos that show how an iPhone app can measure each skaters “air time” and landings from an interactive projection. The top video was for a promotion for the premier of the movie Tron Legacy, while the bottom video shows how cameras were synchronised with skaters and snowboarder movements.

Red Bull Off the planet from ENESS on Vimeo.

Tron Legacy Premiere – A Light Session from ENESS on Vimeo.

Your Buddy for the Golf Course

Golf is one of those of things that is better done with a friend. It is enjoyable to take in the fresh air and shoot the breeze, and a friend can come in quite handy when you have to find a lost ball.

And now you can have an extra buddy on the course with GolfBuddy World Platinum Edition, the first GPS rangefinder to offer preloaded courses with no annual membership. The new version can store up to 40,000 courses, and it arrives preloaded with courses from around the globe, with no membership fees and no hidden costs. It is almost like the next best thing to a personal valet or caddie.

“It’s truly a technological marvel,” said Harry Jung, CEO of GolfBuddy. “We’ve added several new features that have never before been seen in GPS Rangefinders and made it just as easy to use as our previous models. The World Platinum’s name depicts its power. It puts the world’s courses in the palm of your hands.”

The handheld device features a high resolution color touch screen, which was developed with the serious golfer in mind. The screen offers an intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and best of all can be used whilst wearing a golf glove. With 50 channel satellite reception users can get quick response and data on the current course. The GolfBuddy World Platinum Edition further features several views of the hole as well as four player score tracking, along with full statistical analysis module. It is all enough to make your golf friends jealous of your new buddy.

GolfBuddy Official Website

Finding the Right Elliptical Machine

They seem like the ideal machine at the gym, especially for beginners. The elliptical seems like a low impact workout machine that is pretty straight forward. Every gym and health club has one, in fact they provide have several. The machines are also steadily making their way to homes as an alternative to exercise bikes and treadmills.

The problem for buyers is that most people have no idea what to look for, what are key features and what separates a good machine from one that isn’t so on the level. Steven Merusi has launched a website designed to help users – new and experienced – understand the benefits of the machines, while making sure to make a wise purchase. Continue reading Finding the Right Elliptical Machine

Kinetic(Mis)Shift: Workout Chair from GymyGym

All work and no workout will make Jack a dull and out of shape boy. To address this issue GymyGym have introduced a chair that includes numerous bungees, so you can workout while working the day away. With this chair and some overtime you could be the most toned office drone around… or maybe taking a break to get in an afternoon walk would be so much better.

 Kinetic(Mis)Shift are products that we think deserve to be called out for their utter lack of fitness benefits.

Porsche’s Downhill Direction

Sledding may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Porsche, but Porsche’s design division just released its Porsche bobsleigh. If you’re dreaming of a Porsche under the tree this year, the bobsled might do well. It’s 8.8 lbs of an advanced composite material and an ergonomic design that will have you zooming down the hill. The runners are shaped to point inward like parabolic skis make for better steerability and speed. Continue reading Porsche’s Downhill Direction

Skis that Will Take You Down, Fast

We know K2 as the second highest mountain in the world, and the second deadliest to climb. But K2, the maker of skis and ski related gear, is really second to no one. For this season the company has taken its Rocker technology that was developed for powder skis to hard snow with the K2 Rictor, a true speed terrain ski.

These high performance skis aren’t meant for the bunny slopes or those who stick to them. This high performance expert level ski is build however, for any condition you might encounter. The Rictor offers the All-Terrain Rocker technology with mountain versatility. The skis feature unique Metal Laminate Hybritech construction with a progressive sidecut to allow users to perform well in soft powder or hard icy conditions.

From the early reviews, we hear these skis will rock the mountain.

K2 Skis Official Site