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lukeSoCal freestyler Casey Hauser has got his hands on a hot new toy — the Shadowbox, a GPS unit that wasn’t built for triathletes and trailblazers. Check out the video above and our quick interview below to get the lowdown on the next must-have gadget.
As simply as possible, what is the Shadowbox? It’s a personal GPS unit that records not just speed, but movement of the entire board in all three dimensions. You’ll know how fast you were going, how high you jumped, or how fast you were rotating.
Is it only for freestylers? Far from it. It can help regular sailors by telling you something like your board angle and trim in and out of jibes, where you’re slowing down and where you’re speeding up. It’s a training aid for sailors. You can take a “ride file” from a pro rider and do an overlay with your own ride file and see where the differences are. A recreational sailor might be stepping too far back with his foot and sinking the tail and that shows up on the ride file.
How does it mount on the board? It mounts with your mast base — totally secure.
How has it improved your riding? For backloops (like the first one in the video above), I wasn’t carving straight up the ramp enough and was coming up with too much lateral speed. By carving harder in to where the ramp was steeper, I was able to go straight up and stick my back loops. By viewing the ride file, I could see how much distance I was traveling laterally rather than vertically, and come back and fix it the next day.
Photo: Bill Steinbeck
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Nice new device. I am not sure it's usefull for beginners, but for you pro freestylers, and most probably for people doing race, and wanting to improve their jibes, it's a great tool…
This is really cool. It'll give us a chance to provide some great feedback to students as it is tough to "record" their ride, both with video, or by just watching and catching it all. It's about time we had something like this.
Ideal, now freestyle/wave windsurfing is no 'jury' sport any more! Just compare the data of competitors!
hmm…How do you measure style?
Looks pretty cool!
I see very little info regarding the software beeing shipped with the unit or not. Only a free test version to be downloaded. waterproof up to 1.8m? I wonder why almost everyone who uses their gps unit for speedsurfing puts it in a real waterproof casing/pack.
swamping a 500$ unit is a bit much to me.
Hey DNF-
The software is available for free off our website. Here is the link:
http://www.shadowboxlive.com/downloads/
There are also ride files from Windsurfing, Kiting, Wakeboarding, and snowboarding available for download. The idea is that everyone will be able to upload their rides and share them with anyone via our website.
As far as the depth is concerned, myself and a handful of others have ridden the box continuously while in Jericoacoara last fall, and all was fine. We even had a few days of logo high+ waves and even after getting thrashed around, all good. I'm currently in Maui, and we are expecting a 14ft swell on Friday with wind. I plan on posting rides afterwards, weather depending!!!!
I can't speak on behalf of other gps companies waterproofing systems, but I can assure you this one is sound!
Now all those "big fish" stories can be corroborated… LOL It's actually going to be depressing when we find out how high we really went!
Definitely some cool things and info to come out of this device.
Where this product can be found http://www.shadowboxlive.com/
How do we buy a shadow box, where and how much. I windsurf with the British Army Team, i could see this device being very useful as a training tool and to settle disputes etc
Regards Mark Collins GBR329
Hey Mark-
You can find the device for sale online at Shadowboxlive.com!
Mark-
Also, you can contact Dave White of Boards Magazine at dave@boards.co.uk. He's already got a couple units and I believe is currently in Egypt with them!
They retail for $499.
Any other questions please don't hesitate to email me at casey.shadowbox@gmail.com
Over here in Maui right now, yesterday ShadowBox team rider Whit Poor was throwing 27.7 foot backloops, perfect recordings, and only plans to try and go bigger! Stay tuned to this thread for updates with ride files to download and more!
were can I buy it threw internet !!!!! let us know
Hey Guillermo-
Our website is http://www.shadowboxlive.com!
If you have any other questions about the device, feel free to email me at:
casey.shadowbox@gmail.com
Thank you for the information you have sheared in this article, I could not find anymore more posts on this subject on your website. Could you point me in the right direction. Also i think you have some spam comments on this post. These guy drive me crazy ..
You should approach http://www.engadget.com and http://www.gizmodo.com and let them know about your product. They will let the world now about your new product. You´ll get quality worldwide coverage for free. Check them out, it´s worth it.
Regards, Daniel.
All for one, one for al