When I started Onewheeling, I naturally went to YouTube and watched as many videos of people trail riding as a I could. Whenever I find something new, I dive pretty deeply into it, trying to absorb as much as I can. With the Onewheel, it was a lot like watching old VHS skate videos back in the day. Just watching other folks do it, even if it’s relatively basic, gets me pumped up and stoked to go out and ride.

While watching all these videos, I noticed how good video stabilization has gotten, and how these folks were able to take these really great, crisp, high-resolution videos of themselves. I realized, “oh, this is why GoPro was such a big deal”. The whole action camera thing never really registered with me in the past, but now I understood. For some reason, there’s a compulsion to document the trails I’m riding, and the improvements I’m making to my riding. I loved watching other peoples’ videos so much, and I wanted to provide the same thing for all the rad trails around Portland. And, let’s be honest, I just wanted to make my own videos and play with a new toy.

I assumed that a GoPro would be the obvious choice. They were clearly the dominant player with a multi-year head start, and most of the people I was watching were using one. I noticed some videos looked a bit different, though. While some of them had the rider’s lower torso, some of them had their whole body… almost like a drone was following them.

I discovered there was an entire other genre of action cameras that were capturing 360 degrees with two lenses, essentially filming everything around it. Throw one on the end of a selfie stick and carry it while you ride, and it’s like someone else is riding with you filming. It even manages to get rid of the selfie stick in the final product, which is rad, but also kind of silly since it looks like you’re riding while clenching onto some invisible talisman. Which, I guess, you kind of are.

This, naturally, sent me down the rabbit hole of finding out which 360 camera was Best. Many searches and YouTubes later, I determined that Insta360 was actually a much better 360 camera than GoPro. I guess it makes sense, they have 360 in their name, but I dunno… it kinda sounded like a cheap knockoff type of thing. Guess not.

Since I still wasn’t too sure about the whole thing, though, I decided to hedge a bit and buy one second-hand. I found a dude on OfferUp who was selling an X2 after he used it a couple of times on a vacation or something. I met with him in the Fred Meyer parking lot in the traditional Let’s Not Get Mugged ritual, and I was off to the races.

I went to the Trail of Doom to try it out, and it worked really well. The selfie stick disappeared and everything, and holding it while riding wasn’t too bad at all. I was in. I took a bunch of videos and started posting to the YouTube account I’ve had for like 15 years.

I got a few accessories, of course. One of them was a backpack rig where you could strap it to your backpack and a selfie-stick would stick off the back of it like an RC car antennae. Someone told me I looked like a Star Wars droid while wearing it. I can live with that.

The second or third time I wore it, I was on a pretty mellow trail near home. I was just getting warmed up, not going too fast or anything. I went down a little hill with a turn at the bottom and somehow just … ate complete shit. I fell backward right where there happened to be a bunch of boulders forming a small cliff. I did a backward somersault down the boulders and landed in a bunch of thorny bushes.

Fuck.

Luckily, I was all padded up and, aside from a sore neck, I wasn’t hurting too bad. My camera, which I’d had for like 2 weeks at that point, and my backpack rig, which I’d had for a few days, were another story. Doing a backward somersault while wearing a backpack and camera antennae meant I rolled directly onto both of them. One of the two camera lenses was completely smashed, and the carbon fiber selfie stick was snapped in two. Worst of all, since the camera got smashed during the fall, I was unable to get the footage of the crash. Dammit.

This whole thing taught me a few things:

  • The Insta360 is legit. The image quality is kind of astonishing, the stabilization is incredible, and the software for making a coherent video out of the 360 ball that has been filmed is surprisingly easy.
  • These things are going to break. Buying them used might save you a bit of money initially, but I was SOL when it broke. I ended up buying the new X3 version from Amazon with the stupid insurance that you usually ignore out of hand. This is the only time I can think it will actually make sense. We’ll see how it goes when I finally do break another lens, though.
  • Wind is a thing. I ended up buying a separate wireless mic setup so I could have a higher quality sound input with the dead cat furry cover to get rid of the wind. The recorded sound of the trail rides are some of my favorite parts of the videos. It’s soothing, in an ASMR type of way.
  • Having videos of your activities is pretty fun, even if no one really watches them. It’s cool to see where you’ve been, and how you’re advancing.

I also used the camera when we were in Mexico walking around the pyramids, which is another pretty cool use for it. I felt like a bit of a dork walking around with a big ass selfie stick, but whatever. I’m a dad, I’ve earned it.