No need to yell 'action!'

As the person outfitted with a hands-free camera, you'll be the one in motion on the slopes, bike or river

By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 6, 2008 at 8 p.m.

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Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Quinten Larkin, vice president of Adventure Sales, wears a hands-free camera system available for rent at some ski areas.

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During the 2006-07 ski season, Louisiana businessman James Griffith was skiing at Beaver Creek with his wife, their 8-year-old twins, a business partner and his wife.

Every so often, Griffith would stop, take out his Canon camcorder, shoot some footage as his family headed down the hill and then pack it away.

"I'm a fairly decent skier," said Griffith, owner of a home health care business. "I mean, I'm no Bode Miller, but I'm shooting them going down the hill, trying to keep up with them."

Somewhere along the way, as he stopped, pulled out his camera, shot some video and started skiing again, an idea dawned. Later, on his way to an after-ski massage, Griffith told his partner, "I've got an idea."

What if, he asked, we rented people a helmet that had a small digital camera attached to it? And what if we had kiosks at the ski areas where people could get a DVD of their video within a few minutes after they were done skiing?

A company was born. And one year and about a $1 million investment later, Adventure Eye Systems is providing the cameras for people skiing, white water rafting and kayaking, mountain biking and motorcycling racing.

While the cameras are manufactured in Louisiana, the company has its roots in Colorado. It started with kiosks in 12 Colorado ski areas. A Fort Collins company, Adventure Sales, serves as the sales and marketing arm.

"It's as limitless as your mind," said Quinten Larkin, vice president of Adventure Sales. "However you want to use it, it's going to capture some neat memories."

Starting in the winter of 2007, the firm began renting the system at kiosks at about 24 ski areas in Colorado and Vermont. It also has a separate business model in which ski instructors or rafting guides wear the helmet and then offer to sell the DVD to their customers at the end of the day.

With the proliferation of miniature cameras, the company is not the only provider of cameras attached to helmets. There are several firms, some offering just the cameras, others selling helmets with built-in video cameras.

Larkin said what sets his company apart is not so much the camera as the way the equipment is marketed at kiosks located in ski lodges and sports outfitters. Customers also can burn a DVD of their just-completed adventure within minutes of running their credit card through the kiosk.

A typical rental is $75 per day. The bullet-shaped camera, with a lens about the size of a roll of quarters, comes with a memory card good for about 90 minutes.

The company started with ski areas but has expanded to white water rafting, motorcycle racing, mountain biking and even a base jumper leaping off a mountain in Chamonix, France.

Glen Loiacono of New York was on a ski trip to Colorado with a friend who is quadriplegic when he came across the Adventure Eye kiosk. His friend uses a sit-down ski that requires another skier to anchor it from behind.

"We gotta do this," Loiacono remembers thinking. They rented the helmet and had the skier anchoring his friend wear it. "It was real easy to use."

Mike King of Delaware was skiing in Colorado with his two sons, ages 12 and 16, when they rented two cameras that they wore on their heads.

"The boys had a great time. They had some yard sales and wipeouts. And I actually got to see how really old I am on the slope, as opposed to how old I think I am."

With the DVD, they were able to review their skiing every evening back at the lodge.

"We were able to sit back and laugh at ourselves," he said. "Some of the stuff, like going through the trees, was great stuff, very good memory stuff."

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291

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