Twin Cities Championships: SkiCam Man

Today was the Twin Cities Championships, and I decided to use my new toy which Molly gave me for Christmas ... a GoPro Hero Digital Camera (5 megapixel with wide angle lens). If you've every wondered what it is like to race in a cross-country ski race, this is your chance ... for I am now SkiCam Man!

For detailed information about my SkiCam including more photos and videos, please link to the MinnSki SkiCam Man section of NorthstarNerd.Org. MinnSki includes other services such as Garmin measured ski trails, a LinkedIn Group and much more.

Here are some of the basics about my SkiCam (and photo links):

• I use the GoPro Hero (5 megapixel digital camera with a wide angle lens)
• My add-on equipment is a head and chest mount
• Lithium batteries (needed for cold temperatures)

I've found that neither mount restricts my range of motion. In fact, in the recent Twin Cities Championships cross-country ski race I even forgot I had the camera on my head! Most of my initial tests have been with the camera pointing forward. For my next race, I'll point the head mount behind me ... so one can see the faces of each skier! In addition, I use Google Picasa for minor photo editing.

• Northstar Lake (Suomi Hills in northern Minnesota near Marcell)
• Twin Cities Championships (St. Paul, Minnesota)

The GoPro Camera has four basic options:

• One photo taken automatically every 2 seconds
• One photo taken automatically every 5 seconds
• Three photos taken quickly in succession at 2 or 5 second intervals
• Video mode (with microphone)

Please realize I am still in the "testing" phase of learning how to use my GoPro Camera effectively. My first two video efforts are linked below:

• Video: Northstar Lake (Suomi Hills in northern Minnesota)
• Video: French Park (Plymouth, Minnesota)
  and
• Video: Greenbush Wipeout (not me!)
  

As you'll see with the videos, I'm dealing with some stabilization issues and the fact that my arms / poles come into view via the chest mount mode. The two photos below show my basic setup. Click to view full sized.

Here is a slideshow from today's race:

Comments

[Ben Jonjak]

Hello,
I'm Ben Jonjak from CyclovaXC.com (I was chatting with you before the event). Our page is just a small blog for putting up pictures of guys in our race suit essentially. But I was wondering if I could do a short story on you and your web page (it will include a link of course and those always help). Anyway, if you're up for it, just send a couple of pictures, or a picassa permission to [email protected] I'll get back to you with some interview questions.
Cheers,
Ben