New Toy for the GoPro

Last week I decided to make a purchase that will give me more options for filming with my GoPro, especially while snowboarding. I went snowboarding two days last week with some friends and figured it was the perfect opportunity to get one and try it out. The item I purchased is a GoPole Reach. It is a telescoping extension pole to mount the GoPro to. The length can be adjusted from 17″ to 40″.

Here is a promo video showing some footage:

 

Snowboarding while holding onto this was tricky at first. The first two runs I actually fell down a couple of times because I was not used to it and was paying too much attention to the pole and camera rather than what I was doing snowboarding wise. I did not extend the camera out very far because I did not know how far to have it out and also did not want to throw my balance off too bad. I realized after looking at the clips from the first day that I had the camera too close and was not able to see as much as what I wanted. I still want to make a video out of the clips to give myself some practice.

For the price I am disappointed in a few aspects of the camera. The first being the plastic piece that goes inside the tube with the handle and on the outside of the next tube to stop it from coming out came loose, I have included two pictures in the album at the bottom of the post. I will have to superglue that back into place. Also the plastic that the GoPro mounts to is not as smooth as the mounts that came with the GoPro. This allows the GoPro to not keep its angle on the GoPole. I did notice that after using it a bit that it was able to be tightened down better. However when landing harder it seemed to move the camera. The positive thing is that if I wanted to switch from self-shooting to pointing it as a friend I did not have to loosen, move the camera, and then tighten it back down. I was just able to flip it around.

I am really looking forward to using the GoPole next year snowboarding along with finding other fun uses to film with it.

Fully collapsed.

Fully collapsed.

Fully extended.

Plastic piece pulled out of tube with handle.

Close up of piece that came loose during first day of use.

USPS was kind enough to open the package for me. This is how the box was delivered.