I challenge you to watch this video of a kite boarder being carried seemingly hundreds of feet up into the air without instinctively tightening up your sphincter. I say it’s impossible. [Boing Boing]

The Olymp is an off-season trainer that you strap into your boots and work your carving muscles with a turn simulator. It sure doesn’t look as fun as normal skiing, what with you being stuck in one place, but it definitely will work the muscles you need to keep strong. If they had this in my gym, I’d definitely use it. [Ski Trainer via Born Rich]

The Price: $US200

The Verdict:This is the best sports cam I’ve ever used. The various mounts allow it to be strapped to a helmet, a chest, a rollbar in a car, or on the glass or metal of an auto’s flat surfaces via suction cup. There’s a plug mount and 3M mount for surfboards, or a 3M mount for ski/snowboards. There are even bicycle mounts for facing rear and forward. And I could see the chest mount being applicable to almost any sport, from martial arts, to kayaking, to hockey. (The mounts are sold separately.) It’s cheap enough you shouldn’t worry about it too much either, at $US200. Although I did still worry about it a little bit: The mounts worked, but I’ve popped the 3M mount off a snowboard on a hard day of riding, and since then have depended on the large suction cup and a tether for safety.

It’s housed in a tough plastic case, that locks tight, which makes it waterproof enough to submerge it 30 metres. The camera takes SD cards, and between the 2xAAA battery life and 2GB of storage, you end up with about 1 hour of footage and life in the cold. Buy rechargeable batteries. (The camera is noted to have shorter battery life in colder weather and using lithium or NiMH you can get 2-3 hours in regular climates.) Video quality comes in at 512×384, and works well on cloudy days, but in bright environments it shines. The Hero also has a 5MP still mode which can record stills continuously at 2 or 5 second intervals. (I’ve included some samples in the gallery.)

The f/2.8 lens has 170-degree field of vision which allows for not only better light sensitivity, but the full context of whatever maneuvers you’re pulling, and reduced jitter from vibrations. But it also has the effect of reducing the visual impact of what you’re doing. A small jump will look small. Don’t take this the wrong way — I prefer this wide angle lens to the alternative, which is having a zoomed-in, shakey cam shot. One other gripe I have is that the camera’s group delete icon looks like the multiple still shot mode icon. I deleted a batch of great videos one day, by accident. I swear, I jumped over a house that day. Really.

Check out this video from a pro surfer, or any of the company’s samples.

Of course, your videos might not be as cool. At the lower end of the spectrum, I’ve compiled a few shots of me mostly falling.

*That song is a Hey Jude cover by Rico & the Rudies, from a Trojan Beatles Reggae box set.

As for the falls, don’t worry. If you get this camera and use it to capture your adventures away from the computer, you’ll likely look much better! I highly recommend this thing.

[GoPro will be bringing some Hero Wide cameras to Snowmodo.]

Imagine lumbering, blurry-eyed and beat-down to the bus stop on a Monday morning. Just then you notice that the billboard at the stop is snowing—alerting you to optimal skiing conditions at the nearby resort.

Designed as a promotional tool for Tryvann Winter Park, a ski resort just 15 minutes outside of Oslo, these snowing billboards alert commuters that conditions are optimal for hitting the slopes. Whenever it begins snowing on the mountain, an SMS message is sent to the billboards instructing them to start their thing. A second message is sent when the snow stops. Needless to say, the temptation to ditch work would be unbearable. [Toxel]

The Price: $US139

The Verdict: OMG warm! Although not as fitted or high quality as the Ardica jackets, which have padded battery packs and clothing designed by people who specialize in fashion like Mountain Hardware, Blazewear isn’t meant for the same purpose, and is a lot more affordable. And very warm, as I said!

Wearing a thermal I took some heat gun ratings of my core and the vest at settings 1 through 5. Setting 1 is very toasty, and lasts about 3-5 hours, with 5 lasting far less than that. Here are the ratings and my level of comfort.

Setting 1: Vest temperature of 43.3 degrees C, skin temperature at my chest of 33.9. Warm
Setting 3: Vest temperature of 54.4, skin temperature at my chest of 35. Slightly sweaty, body trying to cool itself.
Setting 5: Vest temperature of 65.6, skin temperature at my chest of 37.2. Uncomfortably warm.

I took these measurements at room temperature, after 15 minutes on each setting, but you could feel the heat changes within seconds. The higher settings seem unnecessary but in cold environments, I’d be glad to have them. The extra heat also works to penetrate thicker clothing, too, like shirts and sweaters. The vest’s three heat panels are on the back (a large rectangle) and on the flank of the zipper on the front (two smaller strips). The heat was sometimes spotty, on account of the fit being not exactly snug. In fact, the vest’s fit is a little on the big side, so good for larger Americans. And the synthetic materials seemed to breath well. When the vest was off, it offered little or no additional warming, fwiw, so you won’t want to depend on this jacket when its powered down.

Although Blazewear has outerjackets and gloves, I tested this one because it seemed to be the most capable of being used with your existing jackets and clothing, which you’ve probably chosen because they also look nice. The vest is meant for sporting, but I declined to use it for snowboarding simply because of two reasons: the battery pack rests on my hip, and would be very painful to fall on, and although it would be nice to adjust the vest’s heat output electronically as I went from the chair to moving, the control are on the battery, which is in a pocket and inaccessible. I wouldn’t be willing to unzip and reach inside two layers and a pocket to do so. If I was going for an outdoor activity jacket, I’d get an Ardica, but I’d have to spend a lot more money, too.

The cost, though, is very reasonable. And I’ve fallen asleep wearing it on cold days on the couch, wearing only it and no blanket. For those who are cold and want unbeatable warmth that is electronically generated, I’d recommend this vest for those on a tighter budget who want to wear it while commuting or hanging around.

[Blazewear]

The Gadget: Rimless goggles with a locking lens plate for switching up the glass for sunny or cloudy days. A follow up to their I/O googles, but with improved foam sealing and shape.

The Price: $US180

The Rundown: Smith Optics is my favourite goggle company. I usually use their sensor phenom lens on cloudy/storm days, and their full on mirror for sunny days. This goggle ships with both, in a clever zip up nylon box, so you’re covered in all conditions. The original I/O had some seal issues around the nose (it, uh, didn’t seal well on most people’s faces, narrow or broad) but the IO/S (and the improved I/O) fixes that with a piece of foam slit above the nose, with more material for closure. (The S shape is for smaller faces, but is the same concept as the I/O) The shape of the original was also really round, so if you tried to put it on your face, the seal on the lens twisted off the frame. Less so with these, but try them on before you buy. Unlike old swappable lenses on cheap goggs, these lock into place by way of the strap holders and two switches on top. Very sturdy. And, Smith Optics almost never fog, unless you’re a sweatball or in a swampy storm. I still prefer to run separate goggles for sunny and cloudy days, because I don’t like handling my lenses any more than I have to, but if you can only have one set and these fit, I recommend them for their amazing versatility. [Smith Optics, Snowmodo]

The Price: $US160

The Verdict: The wireless Audex system which controls your iPod works like any other iPod RF remote. There’s an RF receiver dock adaptor and a wireless remote for controls. The system is advertised to work with 3rd Gen iPods or newer and from our testing we found the iPod touch and iPhone can not properly be controlled.

The iPod is meant to be housed in a padded pouch inside the backpack which features a headphone extension cable that is rerouted through the backpack and down the right shoulder strap where a female headphone jack is provided. For the remote Burton has made a rubber housing located on the left should strap which makes the buttons accessible at all times. The wireless controller is removable and works as it should, providing the basic play/pause, skip forward/back, and volume up/down.

This backpack has some pretty impressive storage for its size and with only two large sections which incorporate many unique storage compartments allow for nice organisation of your laptop, gadgets and small gear. When packed to the brim the bag can be a little bulky and stiff but the heavily padded back and shoulder straps allow for a somewhat comfortable fit. This backpack is not intended to be worn while snowboarding and frankly because of the shape and lack of an extra cross strap we wouldn’t recommend it. It seems more fitting that the backpack be used around town or on short trips when you want to easily control your iPod’s music and need to carry your laptop and other gear.
[Burton]

Using the same logic that makes a pair of skis better at high-speeds than a snowboard, because the skis always have two edges gripping the snow during turns, Pyott’s Twin Parabolic Ski concept basically provides each ski with an extra edge. By jointing two longer and narrower skis under each foot, the design allows for more grip at high-speeds since there are more applied edges griping the snow.

Overall the experimental concept seems like a significant way to make downhill racing faster and more dangerous on a pair of skis. The idea of using adjustable joints to make the set of blades under each foot flexible is pretty interesting, and I can’t help but wonder if the same concept can be applied to a snowboard in some way. [Yanko Design via DVICE]

Rescuers found the second lost person’s body at the bottom of a +60 foot fall next to a stream. The lost snowboarders’ friends kept in touch via twitter. It appears that while these skiers and snowboarders went off piste, none of them carried any sort of radio or satellite personal locator beacons, like the moderately priced SPOT. I mean, if you’re in the back country, chances are your mobile reception isn’t so great. The guy with the iPhone got off lucky being pretty close to a resort. Although the GPS function in any phone would work well in an open area to get someone reoriented. Either way, be safe during these storms, friends. [Scotsman, thisislondon]

Price: $US419

How it Tastes: The speaker system is loud enough to share music with those in close proximity on the slopes, or a couple of seats over on the lift. The 3AAA powered pack sits in a pocket and sends up wires to the little flatish egg like speakers on both sides of the hood. They seem very weather resistant, from the cloth covering to the small speaker holes. Battery life is 10 hours, but good news— when your battery pack dies, your ipod or whatever you’ve got plugged into the mini jack, will still be as loud as a set of headphones, without amplification. At this volume, only the people next to you will hear the sound, about the volume you get when you’re on the bus and a person’s headphones are cranked. This is a far better and simpler solution — things necessary on the mountain — than the old complicated ribbon cable and bluetooth motorola audex jackets which basically unplugged when you moved too much and ran out of batteries and died on you often.

The jacket itself is down filled, and waterproofed on the outside. It’s very very warm and better for slow movers on cold blue bird days where you don’t have any chance or worry about sweat building up. There are pit zips for cooling, of course, but down is hot, and this jacket is no exception. You’ll have to deal with the drafty pits and the heat build up on your core in certain places wearing this jacket, like with any down shell. The waterproofness and breath factors are rated at 10,000mm 5000g, which is mid high on waterproofing, using Burton’s 3 layer dryride shell but the breathability, as I said above, is not as great as you’d get on a unlined shell. There’s a zip and snap jacket to pant interface to avoid snow wedgies on pow days. I love riding in storms, when the tourists go home and the overpriced waterproof outdoor jackets I have are tested, so this one isn’t breathable enough for me. It also makes me look even more like a teddy bear than I do naked. But if you need to stay warm and listen to tunes on the mountain, there are very few jackets that do audio so well.

[Burton]