Sports

With a growing focus on powder and backcountry riding, some of the snowboard designs that have come out over the past few seasons look more like original designs from the 60s and 70s than modern day equipment. They have swallowtails, pointy noses and odd profiles. Some - like the Rome Hammerhead - just look downright strange and otherworldly. With the launch of its new experimental division known as Shape Shack, Colorado-based Venture Snowboards plans to take this trend a step further in designing all kinds of Franken-boards. It may just come up with odd yet functional board designs that big companies just aren't developing. Read More

Traditionally just big, goofy optics designed to protect your eyes from cold, snow and bright light, ski goggles have taken all kinds of new roles over the past few winters. Some goggles track your speed and vertical and some capture video. The Buhel Speakgoggle provides a seamless, vibration-based communications mechanism to keep you in touch with your crew. Read More

Action cams have become a ubiquitous part of ski resorts everywhere. They're great for catching your best on-slope moments and sharing them with the world, but they can be a little bit bulky and awkward to use with gloves. The Zeal iON goggles solve this problem by integrating the HD camera right into the goggle frame. Read More

The problem with the interchangeable lens systems commonly used in ski goggles is that they're tedious to work with. You have to slowly tear the frame from the original lens, line the grooves of the replacement lens up just right and then snap it back together section by section. Not only is this the type of thing you might need to get a table in the cafeteria for, it's the type of thing that could haunt you all day if you inadvertently put the lens in cockeyed. The Anon M1 goggles make switchable lenses easier and more seamless than they've ever been. Magna-Tech is a simple design upgrade that lets you remove your original lenses and snap the new ones in place within seconds. Read More

While skateboards have their own merits, fixed trucks and hard pavement don't exactly mimic the free-flowing, natural experience that surfers and snowboarders enjoy. Skateboard designers have tried to fix this shortcoming with all kinds of tricks. SurfSkate uses rotating trucks to attempt to fix skating's shortcomings. Read More

When most people think of hydraulic brakes on bicycles, they probably picture modern mountain bikes with disc brakes. As early as 1987, however, German bicycle component manufacturer Magura was making hydraulic rim brakes for mountain bikes. These featured the arms and rubber pads that we currently associate with V-brakes and cantilevers, but they were hydraulically activated. Now, 25 years later, Magura has released an aerodynamic hydraulic rim brake system for lightweight time trial and triathlon bikes. Read More

Dual Snowboards delivers a unique twist to the world of snowboarding by cutting the traditional snowboard in half along the waist, giving you a board for each foot. With this simple move that effectively sees a lunch-tray-like board strapped to each foot, the company says riders get more freedom to move and conceptualize new tricks like ninja-like flip-n-kicks, but they'll also be able to pull off Gore-Tex-ripping splits, nut-demolishing pole wraps and devastating banana-peel falls. Proceed with care. Read More

In addition to taking the tiny ego HD action cam along to Las Vegas for this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Liquid Image has also revealed two new additions to its Xtreme Sport Cams product line. Both goggle cams feature built-in video, Wi-Fi and GPS and can be controlled via a smartphone app. The only appreciable difference between the Apex and Torque HD is that the former will undoubtedly find its way onto the piste whereas the latter is aimed directly at off-roaders. Read More

The ability to carve into turns is something that is valued by surfers, snowboarders and skateboarders alike. While water and snow are relatively easy to carve into, however, concrete and asphalt are most definitely not, putting skateboards at a bit of a disadvantage. Attempts have been made at better-carving skateboards, including the pivoting-truck-equipped BMW StreetCarver, the many-wheeled Freebord, the caster-wheeled T-Board, and the twisting Ripstick and Skatecycle. Now, San Francisco-based ARIS Sport has addressed the issue with a novel solution – a line of skateboards with conical wheels. Read More