You may have heard about the hi-tech corner of the ski goggle industry, but “smart” and “digital” goggles are usually overshadowed and written off by actual skiers/snowboarders. A pair of goggles that tracks your speed and vertical for the day sounds pretty useless to me; its like those gaper radios that also have a GPS so lost tourists can slide around the mountain all day and pretend they are playing lazar-tag. This goggle technology is young and these goggles are always really lame looking and overly expensive, but it prompts one to imagine where this idea will go in the future.
Mainly, can these hi-tech goggles have any practical use for real skiers/snowboarders or progression of the sport at its highest levels?
I think that it can and it seems that Recon somewhat agrees and may be moving in that direction. The video above is clearly addressing a progressive crowd who want to jump off things (a phrase often synonymous with “real skiers”), and the Recon MOD Live goggle instrument could have some useful applications. A UBC engineering student developed algorithms for the Recon MOD with the goal of giving users various real time data so
“for instance, snowboarders can immediately fine-tune their approach, take off and airborne technique to catch more air for better stunts.”
The Buddy Tacking feature can help out in the backcountry, the Camera Connectivity has obvious applications for getting sicker shots and video, and Jump Analytics has lots of potential for ways to send bigger. Check out the “MOD/MOD Live Features” bar on the website and you can see that Recon is trying to make a legit goggle that backcountry shredders, ski mountaineers and overall rippers will actually use.
So, can this kind of goggle be useful to real skiers?