How many things are crazy in this photo? I am like a 13 yr old girl at a Britney show about this

[Horton]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4-6ay9R-bLE/Sw3NmPtmZ2I/AAAAAAAACjc/lsnB0hWJemE/s800/WhatTheHeck.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What the heck is this?

[ForrestGump]

Hmmmmmm. Am I imagining that binding says Obrien on it? Not a design I'm familiar with from them. WTH is that doohickey in front, though?

[Thomas Wayne]

I'm guessing that doohickey has some accelerometers and other such gizmos and gimcrackeys inside.  The binding, an O'brien Bio, is probably uninvolved (except to act as a safety anchor).

TW

[ForrestGump]

That's the new bio?

[MattP]

Horton where did this photo come from? Your not hacking into the O'Brien server again are you? ;)

[Horton]

I have spys . . . lots and lots of spys.

You guys have found about 1/2 of the cool stuff. What else is odd about that image? 

[Bulldog]

It looks like to me that the ski is extremely thin............

[ForrestGump]

It may be the perspective from which it was shot, but the ski looks really thin.

[Horton]

getting colder

[Bulldog]

electromagnetic release??

[Horton]

ICE COLD but I like the idea

[Bulldog]

Give us a hint...

[MattP]

Looks like a carbon fiber plate

could it be a camera mount?

[Horton]

Hmm warmer-ish. I have to go cook dinner now . . ..  you keep looking

[Thomas Wayne]

Oh, so it's a picture puzzle!

Well, the top deck looks like a really crappy job of molding, which suggests it's a prototype.

The doohickey seems to have a waterproof access port of some sort and possibly some user input points that are partially obscured by the tether.  The center "window" resembles a graphical user interface, perhaps a small LCD screen?

Could it all be about Piezoelectrics?   I mean, why not?  After all, they've been tried in everything else, from snow skis to pool cue shafts, so water skis certainly can't be immune...

TW

[MattP]

Is it a Gforce gauge?

or is it a GPS tracker to track movement through the course? in relation to boat, buoys and down course movement? 

Measure ski Flex?

[Thomas Wayne]

 

Before we all get too crazy with our guesses let's remember that AWSA rules prohibit moving parts on a ski.

TW

[auskier]

the screw thing next to the boot is a pressure sensor, measuring flex and/or pressure on the ski while skiing to determine how much a plate impacts on ski flex????

[Bill Gladding]

It's a gps.  The square window is the display with control buttons just underneath.  The tether is the antennae. 

[T-UP]

Release system or mouse trap…hummmmm, I’m, going with mouse trap.

 

[h2odawg79]

http://shadowboxlive.com/

If not the above "ShadowBox", then another product of the same breed. The tether cable is a safety chain in case the Velcro fails...

The ShadowBox is probably one of the greatest inovations since instant replay! -Talk about logging your practice sessions (every detail) and review or analysis!!!

Is O'brian now using this technolgy for R&D of ski's and Bindings?  

[Gloersen]

2^nd the ShadowBox^TM type gps speed/course
plot tracking device conjecture.

 

Tried to get similar data with a Garmin Forerunner 305, but
the update frequency was inadequate, although one velocity data point was logged
at 107mph, probably from a flailing arm after a spill.

 

Could provide great data exploited as a coaching tool. That
combined with a device logging line load vs. time could be quite useful; more
buoys???

 

Definitely more $$$, maybe it will cost way less than $500 ( class=SpellE>ShadowBox^TM),
otherwise we'll have to wait & hear from Horton as to how valuable it is.

 

 

[alex38]

I always thought; if you could ski a good set, see the video, then some sort of output of your actual line through the course it would reveal more, it could reveal your speed anywhere in the course, your arcs or turn radii, the angle of your path behind the boat. You could ski a set and really see things unbenouced to the naked eye. 

[MattP]

yeah I agree it is a shadow box.

It records Speed, location, acceleration, jump height, Jump distance, hang time, G force, object angles, rotation degrees, spin rates 

it exports your ride to google earth so you can see your path on the water and in the air for those jumpers and trick skiers

It has been used by many wake boarders but i see now it is making its way into the skiing scene!!

This is a great tool not just for product factory testing but for testing many skies to see what one is best for you. 

http://www.shadowboxlive.com/downloads/images/google_earth_shadowboxlive.com.jpg  http://www.shadowboxlive.com/downloads/images/ridetracker.jpg

http://www.shadowboxlive.com/downloads/images/google_earth_example.jpg 

 

 

[eleeski]

Lets see, there is a prototype ski, with a novel boot, a GPS or dampener box and a safety wire to make sure you don't lose parts.

But the most interesting thing is the washer under the screw that is holding everything on is GATORADE LID plastic!

Happy Thanksgiving

Eric

[ForrestGump]

Wow, I'm seeing lots of possibilites with ShadowBox.

[Tuney]

I didn't think GPS was that accurate. Isn't it like +/- 3 feet?

[T-UP]

Tuney is correct, +/- 3 feet at best. Unless you have a $20, 000 survey system.

[Thomas Wayne]

"Thomas Wayne 17 hours ago                                                                                                   edit

I'm guessing that doohickey has some accelerometers and other suchgizmos and gimcrackeys inside.  The binding, an O'brien Bio, isprobably uninvolved (except to act as a safety anchor).

TW"

 

What I want to know: is there a prize for first one to nail it?  "Cause I'm just saying....

TW

[h2odawg79]

Besides the ShadowBox, it might be an H.O. ski, a Radar sequence plate and an O'Brian binding...

 

TW,   you only get an honorable mention, because you forgot to "Plug the Manufacturer"!!! -ha,ha! 

[Bulldog]

TW, your serve............

[Thomas Wayne]

 

Well, I've never heard of "Shadowbox" before this thread - I actuallydeduced what the doohickey was based on appearance alone.  Surely that trumpsthe rather simple task of simply recognizing something you're alreadyfamiliar with... no?

Also, if that's an H.O. ski it looks like it's led a very rough life.

TW

[Horton]

Shadowbox? Yes!

Beat up HO? No

Think R&D

[Bulldog]

Prototype O'brien? What does TW win?

[h2odawg79]

proto type Radar?  Strada?  But, why the Bio's on a proto type, unless those bio's are not even mounted...

 

"Shadowbox"

"Is O'brian now using this technolgy for R&D of ski's and Bindings?"  -what's my prize??? -ha,ha! 

[ForrestGump]

Interesting. I see that Shadowbox is owned by Kent Water Sports, the parent company of HO and Obrien.

[Bulldog]

It is like "CSI waterski" I like it!!

[HO 410]

1. Bindings mounted on a central rain that is permanently attached to the ski.

2. The boot is closed toe buy has a textile or faux-leather outer. Could be their take on the RS-1 style release. Something other than what we saw teased at Surf Ski (from Wade Williams blog). Or maybe those boots were going to be massively expensive and they chose to go with a simpler, cheaper design and those are the elites.

3. That wire looks like a grounding strap. I'm not sure how that makes sense. Could that box up front be some kind of receiver for a pressure sensor in that central rail that is measuring flex and torsion in real skiing conditions?

 4. Could be some kind of release unit. I doubt it, but I know atomic used to make bindings where there was an LCD display on the front unit. I'm not sure what it did, and I don't think atomic makes those bindings anymore. 

[h2odawg79]

O.K. we deduced the Shadowbox is the mysterious gadget... (maybe even with a new slalom program.)

The cable is a safety chain or leash in case the velcro or suction mounts fail...

Shane has found a connection between the manufacturer and parent co. H.O....

The ski is surely a proto type w/o a finished skin. (looks a lot like the 1st proto type Elites that showed up 1st at tournaments)   Could it be the next generation Elite?  

The binding does look a lot like the 1st Rs-1 knock off's that O'Brian made in 2007-2008 that were made in Hong Kong and didn't last in production. So my guess is O'Brian has now got it together on this Binding and is about to begin marketing there own updated closed toe intuition binding thats made in Mexico???

Horton, what happened to the getting warm/cold hints????

[Horton]

Ok you mostly got it

 

Shadow box, yes

Ski is an Elite that has some extra carbon on top for experimenting with flex.

Binding is an early (out of spec) version of one of the 2010 Elite bindings

[MattP]

See what we can do if we put all of our minds together!

[h2odawg79]

Ahh, crud... -Now what are we going to do???   No parades, No pro football, No Big eat's, No Big "O" mysteries to solve... I guess there's always College Ball, Day's of our lives and Dr. Phil! (cough, cough!)

Man, I miss Summer!

[skibug]

OK so now we have another high $$$$$ peice of technology to tell us how much worse we are than we already thought.

[Dirt]

I was hoping it was  a TASER attached to Horton's ski. If he gets out of postion, wham!! 50,000 volts for 5 seconds. Great idea, right? Well the ski companies don't think it's important. But, they don't know John. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/127085/bull_tazed/

[sixball]

Ok I may regret this but I will tell you what it is.  Its a motion detector so we know how much to tax the rich privet lake owner. the funds will go into a fund to ring public lakes with wake suppression so wakes can not rebound. Thus giving the poor skier a fair chance to have some good skiing.

[MattP]

Just to add.

Apple is getting into the action with snow Boarding & other extreme sports

 

Apple recently filed a patent on a new device that’s similar to the Nike+ program, which measures and records data for runners. This one is for skiers and snowboarders, and it could track everything from speed to vertical drop to hang time. The data could revolutionize how Olympic-level ski racers train. It could also make the rest of us more honest about how much air we actually catch.

 

Full Article

http://appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/11/apple_developing_activity_monitor_for_skiers_snowboarders_bikers.html

[h2odawg79]

Man, having the ability to see my entry gates, edge angles, cross course paths, speed through the turns  acceleration and deceleration vs. some of those above stats would be wicked cool! Combine this stuff with some video and I'm sure the info. would be a tad revealing or in my case a tad over whelming...  

[alex38]

My question is John,

Can you or anyone else (if it is woth the effort) design an input device to log line lengths, boat speed, fin settings, or any other data to corelate to the info we can get from this thing.

Like the previous comment I agree this info would be great next to some video, maybe that would be enough, we wouldnt need any more info than that.

[h2odawg79]

It would also be very cool and beneficial to have some sample baselines for different speeds and rope lengths done by pros for the rest of us to compare to...

[Horton]

In the end I think we would all like a comprehensive solution. For now you can go to Wade Williams site proskicoach.com and use his ski log. If you wanted something else I have build the same sort of thing here. (Wade has passion for the log and has done a good job so I am not going to directly compete with him unless there is really a different need)

As for an automated solution or integration with video, you need to walk before you can run. Lets see ShadowBox before we talk about the next version.