Ever lose a helmetcam? Keep the faith....

[teeroy]

A bunch of us headed out for the last ride up the pipeline a few weeks back, still lots of snow and spring had sprung. Warm sunny day, charged up both Drift helmetcams and headed out for the day. Had the HD 170 mounted to the dash of my summit, the Ghost on my helmet and recorded all day.

On the way back to my buddy's farm where we had staged there was a shaded gully with crazy deep soft spring snow, a buddy carved in front of me and I chopped the throttle and the sled nose dived hard....stuck. Got it out once on my own, then stuck again. A couple buds stopped and grabbed a ski each, gave it a yank and it was out, but not in the clear. Still had a tree to negotiate, and I smoked some branches not realizing they ripped the HD 170 off the dash on my way out. Got onto good ground and realized it was gone, we dug around for an hour in 3-4 feet of snow with a foot of slush underneath and couldn't find the cam.

Three weeks later a buddy and I headed out in the commander to go have a look in the area I lost it and be damned if I didn't find it washed down the creek and laying in a pool of water. Pulled the card and the footage was still good, it must have recorded until it died and shut off before getting wet. Took the cam apart and let it dry for a few days, put it back together and it still works. The 1/4" threaded female mount tore apart from the body of the camera, going to see if Drift will sell the housing pieces separately. Here's a few pics, and the last video it took....

the mount on the sled...



the camera....

 

[chadwik74]

Buddy lost one in Clemina this year. Looked for it for about 20-30mins with no luck. Like to go back in the summer and grab it.... The footage of him hitting that tree would be worth the trip!

 

[ferniesnow]

Nice Troy! That was some tree to try and negotiate! I'm surprised your head wasn't ripped off.....

 

[teeroy]

Nice Troy! That was some tree to try and negotiate! I'm surprised your head wasn't ripped off.....

hahahaha....when I saw it coming I did the matrix bullet dodging thing and went horizontal off the back of the sled. it was a pretty thick branch, I'm certain it would have left a mark lol

 

[teeroy]

Buddy lost one in Clemina this year. Looked for it for about 20-30mins with no luck. Like to go back in the summer and grab it.... The footage of him hitting that tree would be worth the trip!

I'm sure there's more than a few cams out there laying on the mountain, guess it's time to figure out some kind of lanyard to keep it attached....damn trees

 

[TylerG]

I'm sure there's more than a few cams out there laying on the mountain, guess it's time to figure out some kind of lanyard to keep it attached....damn trees

Depending on which mount you had on it at the time, some of the drift mounts have holes that are the perfect size for a fishing leader.... If its on your helmet, run the fishing leader thru itself around one of the strap loops, then connect it to the camera...... if elsewhere, something similar and to a solid part of the sled...... Or use fishing line

 

[white6]

thats a good idea TG. Cameras are easily knocked off by trees and its def difficult to find them again. My first go pro is still up in the back of westridge somewhere thanks to a tree and it being sled mounted

 

[teeroy]

Depending on which mount you had on it at the time, some of the drift mounts have holes that are the perfect size for a fishing leader.... If its on your helmet, run the fishing leader thru itself around one of the strap loops, then connect it to the camera...... if elsewhere, something similar and to a solid part of the sled...... Or use fishing line

I did notice on the mount piece that attaches to the 1/4" threaded female insert there is 2 small holes on it, this piece clips into the supplied mounts. I wasn't using that mount on this cam, and even if I was it would have remained on the sled as it was the whole 1/4" insert that tore off and stayed on the sled. I'll have to engineer something I guess, I got lucky this time

 

[TylerG]

thats a good idea TG. Cameras are easily knocked off by trees and its def difficult to find them again. My first go pro is still up in the back of westridge somewhere thanks to a tree and it being sled mounted

if you're using suction cup mounts maybe use the fishing line on the camera, and to the mount, that way you shouldn't lose any of it! Little bit of fishing line is very inexpensive compared to the cost of a Go Pro or Drift helmet camera.

 

[Iron Horse Racing]

Cool product indorsement....takes a beating and still works....

 

[teeroy]

Cool product indorsement....takes a beating and still works....

I fully expected the camera to be toast, I was only hoping the card wasn't corrupted and the footage would still be okay. it might have been a different story if the cam had gone in the water fully charged with that gaping hole in the case. either way, kudos to Drift for sure

 

[rgashkei]

good find. That just reminded me of something I forgot. Got liquid image goggles for Christmas, went out right away to try them out and for some reason the battery fell out without me noticing. Got a new battery and used them again a few weeks later. When I looked at the pictures on the computer the camera took a picture right before the battery fell out. I went back there but I couldn't find it.
Need to go back tonight and look.

 

[JDen]

I left a 1 day old gopro hero 3 black edition somewhere near the corner of the "90" chute on Boulder in Revelstoke this Easter. Still chokes me! Fishing line is a good idea that I never thought of.

 

[woody_tobius_jr]

The tether on my contour is basically a fishing line. I had a bad wipe out on some hard crust and it broke the tether, but it ended up about a foot away from me, not sure where it would have ended up otherwise. I replaced it with some heavy fishing line, good to go again...definitely a good idea.