Launch Helmet Cams: Part 1
Today Soul-Riders decided to send Andrew on his bike to pedal over to W.A. and have a quick chit chat with Launch Helmet Cams head honcho Markland O'Connell. We all know how slow Andrew is, so by the time he got there, he basically asked a few Q's then had to start his return journey. Here's what the team at LHC had to say.
SR: You’re pretty keen riders, what spots do you usually go hit up?
LHC: There are quite a few spots in the Perth Hills, but our favourites in WA would have to be Dwellingup, Wellington Mills and Nannup. Matt has ridden a lot in Canada as well, spending a season there riding all over BC and returning last year to hit up Whistler and film Crankworx for HGMTV. Love the skate parks as well!
SR: Over the years you’ve been around, any particular story you would like to share with us?
LHC: If you look at our website there is a video of a guy looping out a wheelie on a CRF. That’s me. Lost a lot of skin down one arm. Of course I did it on purpose; product testing you know. The camera was nicely ground into the gravel, but it came up trumps because it was inside our legendary Nuke Proof Mount. We still use that camera. You haven’t ridden (or crashed) on gravel until you’ve ridden South West WA pea gravel. It’s unbelievably slippery, and it’s one reason why WA riders are so good, especially at drifting.
SR: The helmet cams are not just specific to mountain biking, what other sports have the camera’s been used for?
LHC: Pretty much any extreme sport, motorsport or adventure sport. We sell a lot to the motocross/trailbike market and we do a lot of filming in the FMX industry. But the scope of these sorts of cameras is huge. They are being used in the sport science industry to analyse what the athlete sees, and are being used for mining/industrial, military, law enforcement and OS&H applications.
SR: What makes a Launch Helmet Cam so much better than anything else out there?
LHC: Launch only carries the very best products in the industry. The V.I.O. POV1, our legendary Nuke proof mount, Pelican hard cases and our range of analogue cameras are all examples of products that are considered the best in the industry. But the real reason Launch has done well has been our customer service. We pride ourselves in an extremely high level of customer service and we get a lot of referrals as a result. Another reason for our success has been that we reinvest heavily in our industry. We have sponsored a lot of athletes and film makers, including Joel Bain and Sam Davies, not only with product or money but also by donating our time. We get tremendous satisfaction from being able to ‘put back’ into sports that have given us so much.
SR: What different angles have the helmet camera’s been used for?
LHC: - The obvious one is pointing forwards, but add a mic and get the rider commentating his own run and you get great footage.
- Pointing at a rider behind you
- ‘The boom’, a boom attached to the helmet so the cam points back at the rider, or looks over his shoulder. Don’t try these at home! Very dangerous.
- Onboard angles are also very cool. We’ve got a short clip looking through Mitch Delf’s forks as he rythyms a series of small doubles/triples.
Check out http://www.launchhelmetcams.com/demo for a few different angles. There is also a heap of different ones that haven’t been released yet. It really is up to your imagination, which is the beauty of these cameras, you can capture angles never before seen.
SR: Have your cameras made it into any films?
LHC: The most recent film would be the Narrogin Revheads DVD. Narrogin Revheads is a motor enthusiasts show, as well the richest FMX comp in Australia. We did all the onboard cameras on the burnout cars plus all the FMX helmet cam footage. Also watch out for the helmet cam footage in Sam Davies’ upcoming film ‘T.I.A.: This is Australia’ to be premiered in August this year at the World Cup round in Canberra, and HGM’s ‘Homegrown Maniacs TV’. We’ve also just signed a deal to supply helmet cameras for the Crusty Demons Reality TV show, which is being filmed in Australia and around the world.
SR: What’s your latest Helmet Camera you’ve begun distributing?
LHC: The V.I.O. POV1 is the latest and greatest out there on the market, and Launch is the Australia/New Zealand distributor for the POV1. Its waterproof, shock proof, records high quality footage to an SD card and is jam packed with features. Soul-Riders will be reviewing one shortly!
Admin: We're pretty stoked the team at Launch will be sending us the V.I.O. POV1 Helmet Cam to Review soon! So stay tuned for an indepth review and hopefully some killer footage to boot. NB: There will be NO boring footage of Andrew riding across the Nullarbor to collect the Cam though.
Be sure to checkout Launch Helmet Cams website for more details.
