Dude definitely wins the award for Best Look of Trail Days:
Sweet cross country bike touring setup spotted – Free waterproof pannier!
Saddest parade in TrailDays history. Positive thoughts and prayers to the hikers who were run down. Story here in case you haven’t heard about the accident.
—
Of course Justin was in Damascus, helping folks be bright.
“The season” is upon us and our wheels are in non-stop motion right now. We’re spending pretty much every weekend on the road. The last one started out with a Spectrum event at Kenco in Kingston, NY. It wrapped up with a video shoot in the Delaware Water Gap.
“Dude, ziplines for work! You have won.” -Brendan Leonard
BL is correct. And you know what? Winning feels good.
To launch our latest headlamp, the Vizz, we decided to put together a video that explains all the features and attention to detail that went into this light. Your favorite scientist from the other PTEC videos is back. We also upped the video ante. With cool stuff like zip lines and helicopters* and all kind of other things we had in our back pocket. We are really excited about the results, and sure that you will be to. Just hold tight a tiny bit longer while we put the finishing touches on this. Here’s the video: http://bit.ly/16Ei8VW
This weekend, we’ll be visiting Damascus, VA as Trail Days descends on the town. You going to be there again? Cool, see you there. Don’t know what Trail Days means? Look it up, go hike the AT, and we’ll see you there next year!
-George
*But I’m kidding about the helicopters.
A dispatch from the field. Our friend Trauma dropped us a line to let us know what he’s getting into this Spring. Looks good to us:
Pepper and I are gearing up again! We are getting excited to get back outside after a weather roller-coaster winter. It started off great but the ups and downs started in January. There were always signs and anticipation for more snow, but not much panned out. We are mixing it up a little on this trip and will put our hip flexors to the test………and hopefully get some good turns to accompany all of the elevation gain. We are looking at putting our skis on, slinging a pack over our shoulders and skiing from just north of Lake Tahoe to Mt. Whitney, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Our goal is to ski the 400-500 miles roughly following the Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail and Sierra High Route corridor (depending on snow conditions and weather). With the mixed bag of weather this winter we are hoping we’ll be on snow the whole way because there’s nothing worse than hiking in ski boots and carrying your skis!
We are setting of on Monday, April 15. It looks like winter is going to return for the start of the trip, with temperatures in the teens (Fahrenheit) and 50 mile per hour winds. We are making some last minute adjustments with the weather forecast, and scrambling to get our gear ready today so we can head out the door tomorrow.
Check back in……….I’ll be updating throughout the trip!
Right before he left, Trauma posted up his gear list. Keep an eye on his blog for updates from the trail.
Wow, we’ve been blogging for that long? It’s fun to flip through the archives.
This past weekend, Princeton Tec joined Alpine Shop for this year’s installment of their Spring Swap. Alpine Shop describes Spring Swap as “a combination of a consignment sale, our Spring Pre-Season Sale and our Winter Clearance, all wrapped up into one big event.” Besides the chance to upgrade to new gear and make sure your old stuff goes to good use, the event supports Trailnet, an organization dedicated to fostering healthy, active and vibrant communities where walking, bicycling and the use of public transit are a way of life. Sounds good all around! Princeton Tec was there building up custom Spectrum headlamps to order.
Sweet rig, Nemo!
Spectrum, ready to rock.
Justin and Tim at the ready. Tim, you’re looking extra tall here.
Inspiration, plus the tools of the trade.
The less glamorous side of life on the road.
Are you a St. Louis Cardinals or Mizzou Athletics fan?
Another happy customer.
Making the all important decisions.
Eric Grossman described this 100K race as having “huge withering climbs, brilliant wide-open vistas, plenty of brutal technical terrain but also miles of free running.” Sounds hardcore and beautiful.
Eric’s feedback on the PTEC Apex Rechargeable Headlamp he use for Hellgate: “I found swapping out the rechargeable battery packs very quick and easy. In fact there is a video (Hellgate 100K 2012) that shows me swapping the battery at Camping Gap aid station. I had put a spare battery in David’s coat pocket and just ran up to him and got it while the videographer was behind him (unbeknownst to me). That happens from 1:46 to 2:15 in the video.”
Eric’s super detailed race report here. Interesting read as it described everything from time leading up to race, through race strategy.
You think running is hard? Try doing a 5k in hot weather while wearing a Bomb Suit. Here are some photos from the run to raise funds for Wounded EOD Warrior Foundation. They offer no questions asked grants to families of EOD personnel who have been hurt or injured on active duty. PTEC is proud to be a part of the effort.
Beneath The Sea (the dive show on our home turf) just happened, marking the official beginning of our dive season. The focus of that show was new packs and newish lights. We’re talking Tropic Pack, Reef Pack and Nav Pack. We revamped out pack lineup to: 1. showcase our newest dive light technology and 2. simplify the lineup for shops and users. The first two packs are available now and Nav will be available soon. For handhelds, of course we’re talking about the League 100 and Amp 1 LBC.
On the topic of all things dive, we recently held a photography contest. Here are our picks in no particular order, plus a wildcard who probably didn’t even know he entered:
Prizes? Check!
Tons of good stuff from Cressi, M Essentials, Akona, and of course Princeton Tec! Thanks for all of your entries and congrats to the winners!
“The color combonation i used on the headlamp is based on my future expectations, I plan on atending NC State University and their colors are red and black. I also plan to enlist in college Marine Corps ROTC, curently i am in Marine Corps JROTC.”
~RK
It’s always cool to see everybody’s Spectrum FUEL headlamp designs. Even better when we get a few works about the design’s inspiration. spectrum.princetontec.com
Canoecopia is a regional show focusing on paddle sports. (Naturally.) I don’t really paddle these days, but I have spent enough summers on the Delaware River to have something to talk about with a lot of the folks at the show. I met plenty of people who were content with class 1 and class 2 rapids and more generally, driven by finding adventure in their own backyards. So used to being blasted with epic Go Pro footage all the time, I found it refreshing to meet people who are excited to get outside and not necessarily obsessed with being the most/best/fastest/epicest/badassest. Having fun, nothing to prove to anyone but ourselves.
Madison, Wisconsin. All the people I met were so nice! I’m from Jersey, and I hate to say that relative to the fine folks I spent the weekend with, we are jerks. Thanks for being excellent hosts!
There was a ton of sweet handmade gear at the show, from boats to paddles to soft goods and other accessories. Wood boats? Check. Greenland paddles? Yep. Want a carbon fiber canoe paddle to ease that bad shoulder? No problem. How about a carbon / kevlar boat that weighs like 2 pounds and looks badass? They have it all. I’m sure it’s all old hat to the various paddling tribes. As a new guy who knows nothing beyond my 17′ Grumman that looks like it came off the same production line as an airplane, everything was pretty fascinating.
We brought Spectrum to Madison, building custom headlamps for everyone that wanted, and setting up other folks else with a waterproof QUAD or EOS. The reception was amazing, most of the folks who stopped by knew what we were doing at the PTEC booth because of a video the show’s organizers posted on the Canoecopia Facebook page the first day. Several of the people who saw the first video came by with their headlamp ideas and camera prepared and made their own videos of us building their light. Really, we’re flattered!
It was cool to see people excited about getting outside no matter the conditions. There is no question that the show is a great success as it continues to grow each year. Thanks to Rutabaga for inviting us to their biggest event!
On the media front: we have some new videos just about ready for our most popular tactical lights. Look out for those in coming weeks on our YouTube and Vimeo channels.
-George
 |
Follow Gerard @pteclights
Follow Justin @ptecbike
Follow Kalen @ptecdive
view recent pix in our flickr gallery
