Wearables for an even better experience on the slopes

When you hit the slopes, there are plenty of great wearable gadgets and sets available to enhance your experience on skis and snowboard. It all started with a special helmet-mounted camera, but now there's a whole industry of exciting products. In recent years, technology around skiing has been all about new forms of lightweight clothing fabrics or new skiing innovations, but now we can access countless wearable devices and perfect accessories designed specifically for winter sports like skiing and snowboarding.

Innovations range from various cameras and GPS smartwatches to heads-up displays integrated into your glasses so you can see important performance data and results right in front of your eyes. And more exciting products will soon follow. It will be interesting to see what new developments are submitted to this year's WT Innovation World Cup by October 17.

Garmin Fenix 3 watch

Let's start with arguably the best ski watch available: the Garmin Fenix 3. This GPS smartwatch automatically tracks individual runs, recording speed, distance and jump data. The evolution of the Garmin Fenix 2 has been expanded to include an automatic run counter with a supporting auto-pause feature, and when you head back up the hill, you can directly see how your run performance compares to other runs in the same day.

Thanks to the fabric strap, you can wear it over your jacket or even use it as a remote control for Garmin action cameras. The Fenix 3's main features are an altimeter, barometer, compass, temperature gauge and, of course, GPS. You can pair it with your smartphone to display text messages, alerts, emails, weather information, and other great features. So now you have something more to do on the ski lift than just enjoy the view.

Oakley Airwave

Oakley offers a heads-up display that shows speed, altitude and jump analysis on a small 1-inch screen. Built-in GPS allows users to record their routes, and if their friends are also wearing Airwaves or using the smartphone app, the display relays the information directly to them. With the Trip Viewer, users can retrieve their performance statistics, such as top speed, total jump data, and maximum air, either for each individual descent or an entire day. Another great feature is to pair the Airwave goggles with a Garmin VIRB action camera to capture the best moments.

But there is much more. Navigation lets you mark your location on a map and find the run or sight you're looking for. You can also see incoming calls and text messages from your smartphone via the low-power Bluetooth connection. In addition to the stunning exterior, the heads-up display offers numerous features to further enhance your skiing experience.

Recon Snow 2 Display

A former Innovation World Cup winner, Recon also offers a heads-up display designed specifically for alpine sports, with built-in processing power, a suite of sensors and networking capabilities to enhance your alpine experience without interruptions. The Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled dual-core device sits very small in the corner of the goggles and features numerous sensors that transmit key performance metrics and results in real time right in front of your eyes, such as speed and distance, current altitude or jump height, while Snow 2 HUD can also connect to your phone to retrieve calls, messages and music information.

It also provides functions for navigation and to find your friends while providing expert advice wherever you are in the mountains, and can be connected to your smartphone. Then, when you're back in the valley, you can manage, revisit and share your alpine experience with Recon Engage's mobile apps and via the web platform. As you can see, these two heads-up displays offer exciting features. Now all you have to do is choose one of them!

Ski helmet

Forcite offers a ski helmet with a built-in 4k action camera, walkie-talkie function, headlamps, GPS, and even a pair of Bluetooth speakers for your music. The accompanying app allows you to edit automatic footage and statistical overlays for videos. In addition, the app also analyzes key performance metrics like top speed, altitude, airtime, and distance. It even cuts out any parts of your footage that are boring and jumps straight to all the backflips and 360-degree turns you did on your last run.

Forcite's ski helmet also features OLED fog lights, so you can practice your tricks even in bad weather. All in all, it's safe to say that the combination of hardware and software offers numerous possibilities and new, innovative features such as activity and performance tracking, social media sharing of experiences, helmet-to-helmet or grassroots communication, and even live streaming, all in one device!

Christian Stammel is CEO at WT | Wearable Technologies, a leading innovation and market development platform for wearable technologies, and writes on ISPO.com about current trends on digitalization, wearable tech and IoT in sports, fitness and wellbeing. For more information on WT, visit www.wearable-technologies.com

Former Innovation World Cup winner Recon also has a heads-up display on the offer especially designed for alpine sports with onboard processing power, a suite of sensors and networking capabilities to enrich, but never disrupt alpine experiences. The dual-core, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled device sits neatly in the corner of the goggles and has a host of sensors that track important performance metrics and achievements direct-to-eye in real time, such as speed and distance, current altitude or vertical drop, while the Snow 2 HUD can also hook up to your phone to display calls, texts and music information.

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It also offers navigation and friend tracking with expert guidance wherever you are on the mountain as well as smartphone connectivity. When you are back in the valley, you can manage, relive and share your alpine experiences with Recon Engage Mobile Apps and web platform. You see that these two heads-up displays offer amazing functions. Now you only have to choose one of them!

Alpine Helmet

Forcite provides Alpine helmet with a 4k built-in action camera, a walkie-talkie feature, headlights, GPS and even a pair of Bluetooth speakers for your music. The accompanying app will include auto-footage editing and stat overlay for videos. The app also analyses important performance metrics like top speed, altitude, airtime, and distance. Better yet, it will trim out the parts of your footage that are boring, and skip straight to all the backflips and a front side 360’s you did on your last run.

The Forcite Alpine helmet also has OLED fog lights so you can still do your tricks even with poor weather conditions. Summing up one can say that the combination of hardware and software opens up numerous possibilities and new innovative features such as activity & performance tracking, sharing experiences to social media, helmet-to-helmet and back-to-base communication and even live streaming, all in one device!

Christian Stammel is CEO at WT | Wearable Technologies, a leading innovation and business development platform for wearables, and updating ISPO.com readers about latest trends on digitalization, wearable tech and IoT in sports, fitness and well-being. More information about WT at www.wearable-technologies.comhttp://www.wearable-technologies.com