Introducing the smart ski boot
Without wishing to incur the wrath of skiing enthusiasts, Carv’s Alex Jackson has a home truth to dispense: “While people love skiing, they don’t tend to get much better at it.” Not the skier’s fault, he notes; just a dearth of feedback. Indeed, if you don’t have an instructor it might be years before someone quietly makes a helpful suggestion. Carv was intended to provide timely guidance in a manner tailored to the skier’s ability, and the non-invasive way it achieves this is via a neat dovetailing of data analysis and miniaturisation.
Carv’s first iteration coupled a motion sensor with a pressure pad that had to be installed inside your boot. This was a problem for anyone who rented boots, and indeed for skiers who feared that their comfort might be compromised. Carv 2, however, comprises two small sensors that clip anywhere you like on each boot; after a few seconds they recognise their orientation and adjust their output accordingly. Gyro and acceleration metrics are recorded 20 times a second, providing not only a clear picture of how you’re turning but even the type of snow you’re turning on.
Carv 2 Ski Coach
Price: £199
Click: getcarv.com
If you’re laidback about your progress, you can glance at your data at the end of the day via the app, with runs broken into segments and scored via 10 metrics (centred balance, edging similarity etc), all contributing to an overall “Ski:IQ” score. If you wear headphones or earbuds on the slope, Carv can read out your score when you stop and offer specific advice when it detects that you’re back on a chairlift. Or, for instant feedback, it can be set to ping in real time for certain targets – say, improving edge angle. “When I started, I set mine to 35 degrees,” says Jackson. “I thought it would be easy, but I missed a lot. I kept pushing, it kept going up, and at some point I unlocked a totally new feeling in skiing.”
Skiing is a sport that is more fun the better you get. The way Carv 2 accelerates that improvement is ingenious.
Get your head in the game
Livv Pro headphones
Price: $350
Click: livaudio.com
Mark Clayton, a former NFL player with the Baltimore Ravens and later the St Louis Rams, preferred to do his warm-ups while wearing over-ear headphones but found that they had an irritating tendency to fall off and break. He worked with an industrial designer to create this uniquely shaped headband that curves around the head rather than sitting across it, ensuring that it stays in place during vigorous workouts. The optimum position can be found by tilting the headphones slightly backwards or forwards, then it’s just a matter of Bluetooth-pair and go. A group of three buttons takes care of play, pause, back and next, as well as active noise cancellation and call answering.
Serve yourself
Pongbot M-One robotic table-tennis server
Price: $15,000
Click: pongbotstore.com
You can pick up a machine to ping table tennis balls at you for a couple of hundred quid, but this takes things up a level or five; a floor-mounted, human-sized robot that doesn’t just pop balls down a chute but serves them properly with a bat. It’s been designed by Chinese engineers to simulate the techniques (such as ball speed and spin) of national-level coaches, and thanks to its visible serve, keen-eyed players may be able to deduce what’s coming. It pivots to change its serving angle but doesn’t move laterally like an opponent. Its rapid delivery makes for an almost game-like experience, with adjustable parameters and multiple training modes. NB: you will need many, many table tennis balls.
All-action hero
Insta360 Ace Pro 2
Price: from £389.99
Click: insta360.com
A strong challenger in an action-cam market dominated by GoPro and DJI, this latest camera from Insta360 has a headline-grabbing 8K resolution and a Leica Summarit lens, but it’s the smaller details that will endear it to athletes. A small mic guard substantially reduces wind noise, there’s a mode to optimise stability underwater, a solid horizon lock keeps videos level even through 360-degree rotation, and a long-life battery (180 minutes) can give your phone a boost in reverse charge mode. Also, stats from sporting wearables can be overlaid in real time on to videos, with other data (such as GPS details) added later in the app, creating the ultimate memento of your sporting day.
Top deck performance
BoarDrop snowboard + skateboard trainer
Price: $400
Click: @boardrop_official
A robust, wheelless skateboard with sensors embedded within, BoarDrop is a games controller for use on the floor that maps your movements to standard joystick operations, so a game like Ubisoft’s Riders Republic is transformed into a pretty realistic snowboarding or skateboarding experience. Not only does it sense left and right movement, but if you do a flip (ie, turn your board through 180 degrees) BoarDrop automatically switches its polarity, so left still means left, and right still means right. Ollies and nollies are also faithfully transmitted to the game, but its use isn’t limited to sporting titles; even something like Mario Kart can become a skateboarding workout.
@rhodri