Christmas Gifts For Skiers and Snowboarders

It’s hard to find good gifts for those who ski or snowboard. There are the typical gifts of goggles, gloves, and snow-pants. But often, these gifts are not surprises and are standard. I often like to be surprised and don’t mind more “off piste” type gifts. Given that there is still time for shopping, I’ve gone through to find some more unique ideas.

Vintage Snow offers gifts for what appears to be for the older skier or boarder who maybe even own ski property.  I say that because they offer gifts, ski art, decor and antiques.  Some of the gifts I found that would look good in my office (hint, hint) include a Chair Lift Photo Frame or Vail Trail Map Poster.

You can also fine a variety of gifts on Cafe Press as well.  In doing a quick search I found over 2,000 ski related products. 

If the budget is tight, check out Microsoft’s Live Search cashback.  The cashback program works with all major and smaller retailers and uses your search words to find products that are most appropriate.  The retailer pays the user anywhere from 2% to 30+% cashback for buying from them.  For example, I recently searched for Avalanche Beacon and found a Backcountry Access Tracker DTS Beacon  from Backcountry that would net me back $36.82 for starting first from Live Search cashback.

I’m still enamored with pocket HD video cameras.  As I have previously posted, these are a great way to record your vacation memories on the fly in better than normal video.  There are several affordable versions available right now including the Flip MinoHD, Kodak Zi6, Creative VandoHD and the Sanyo Xacti series.

Don’t forget that you can always check with your local ski shop as well.  A lot of times they carry great niche products too.  Have fun with it this year and good luck!

Recording Your Ski Trip

I work in the tech industry so I am a gear-head along with being a ski fanatic.  I recently saw a new camcorder that has been release by Pure Digital.  The original posting was on Ars Technica. I really am intrigued by this product and feel it has a lot of potential. Of course one is for recording your ski adventures.

I have seen the original Flips and apparently the MimoHD is the same size. That means it is essentially the same size as my Blackberry Pearl, which makes it very small and compact. The size is conducive to putting it into your jacket pocket, pack or any other place where you store your ski necessities. And best of all, the video is shot in 720p, which classifies as high-definition footage. Whether poaching some killer back-country or ruling the park, you can now capture it on video in an indisputable clarity. Of course if you are poaching, that is probably an event you don’t want caught on video, which could be used against you later.

The simplicity of the design allows for anybody to use it right out of the box. There are few buttons, which unfortunately are too small to be used with gloves on. The other issue is that the screen is very small as well, measuring an anemic 1.5″. The battery is suppose to last 2 hours, however the memory is only enough to record about 1 hour of video. With that being said, it would be great if they developed some sort of small memory cube that could be used for you to dump your video onto until you are ready to edit later on your computer. That would give you the ability to dump the memory and then continue to record.

Link on over to the Ars Technica post to see the Flip MimoHD in action. This is one gadget that has been added to my Christmas wish list. For a retail price of $229, it’s worth the second look.