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D2 | Saturday/Sunday, July 1 - 2, 2017 * * * * THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.
GEAR & GADGETS
SHOOT MORE STEADILYSony FDR-X3000R
This video camera fits in the palm of your hand, but don’t let its cuteproportions fool you. There’s enough tech packed into this sleek gad-get to help you capture superlative footage in 4K—even if you’ve gotone hand on a tiller. What sets the FDR-X3000R apart from thecompetition is the steadying technology inside, called Balanced Opti-cal SteadyShot, which brings an unusual degree of image stability toaction shots that would otherwise be shaky and choppy. Slide it intothe clear plastic housing it comes with (shown) to make it waterproofup to 197 feet. From $350, sony.com
READ WITH ABANDONKobo Aura H20 Edition 2
Summer can be cruel to books. Humidity curls their pages; an acci-dental dip in the pool will literally brick them. So thank goodness forwaterproof e-readers. Kobo’s first-gen Aura H2O reader was water-proof but required that you seal its ports with tiny rubber gaskets.This recent upgrade can be fully submerged in up to 6.5 feet of wa-ter, no port-covers required. As evening approaches, it will also grad-ually reduce the amount of blue light it emits so it won’t mess withyour circadian rhythms while you read ”20,000 Leagues Under theSea” into the wee hours of the night. $180, us.kobobooks.com
this positioning may leave you withwet feet, the open deck means youcan also use the Hi-Life as a stand-up paddle board.
Despite its compactness, the Hi-Life crams in amenities, like a spot un-der the seat to stash drinks, and along, narrow compartment that runs
down the center of the vessel to holdyour fishing pole or camera mount. Asmall rear platform can serve as aswim deck kids can use to pull them-selves out of the water—or as a perchfor a water-loving but capsize-phobicpooch. $799, perceptionkayaks.com
—B.M.
and Seaside, Ore., recommends theDB Standard Proto (dbskim-boards.com, $190), which has foam onthe surface to provide traction, so younever have to wax it. Waxing, he ex-plained, is a huge hassle. “If you getany sand on that wax, it’s gonna stickto that wax and you’re gonna have toclean it up a lot.”
Once you master skimboarding,you’ll be able to glide gracefully alongthe shore for hours. As a kid, I used togo up and down the Oregon Coast,spending a good part of the day tryingto skim my way to Haystack Rock.
To be sure, there’s no glory in beinga skilled skimboarder—especially as anadult. It’s kind of like an adult riding ascooter. At one time in my life, I was
more self-conscious about hopping ona skimboard than I was revealing thegut I’d acquired fighting in the Craft-Beer Revolution.
But all that changed a few yearsago when I interviewed Jack John-son—the Hawaii-raised surfer turnedGrammy-nominated songwriter. Icouldn’t help asking: Should adults beashamed to skim? “I skimboard to thisday,” he told me. “The more you canbe in the ocean the better. Skimming iscool. I don’t care what they say.”
Look, if Jack Johnson says it’s coolfor me to ride my skimboard withpride, that’s good enough for me. AndI hope it’s enough to get you on thewater, too.
—Chris Kornelis
As far as crazy-fun summer sports go,skimboarding is about as beginner-friendly as it gets. While it mightlack surfing’s thrills and glamour,you need little more than an inex-pensive board and a pair of pass-ably stylish shorts to give it a try.Getting the hang of it takes anafternoon or two.Unlike surfing, which requires
you to venture out into the ocean,skimboarding goes down on shore,in shallow water. There’s not a lotto the sport. Just toss your boardin front of you and jump on.There’s no need to spend a small
fortune on your board, either. TomGrenfell, a longtime employee ofCleanline Surf shops in Cannon Beach
Can’t Surf?Maybe YourBoard Is toBlameWatching an experiencedsurfer glide effortlesslyacross the face of a wavecan be as intimidating asit is inspiring. If you’vetried surfing only toquickly admit defeat, theissue might not be yourlack of balance but yoursurfboard. Unless begin-ners have the right kind,they’re basically settingthemselves up for a bigol’ wipeout.
Among the most com-mon newbie mistakes isopting for a short, pointy,hard-fiberglass surfboard,the kind favored by expe-rienced riders. What youneed is a buoyant soft-top longboard. After yearsof testing, we favor theBoardworks Froth! 9-footsoftboard. At 3¼ inchesthick and 23½ incheswide, the Froth! providesa very stable, confidence-inspiring platform.
While a cheaper soft-board from a big box store(like the ubiquitous $150Wavestorm sold atCostco) might tempt you,the superior Froth! makeslearning to surf easier andmore fun. Cheaper “foam-ies” tend to be too flexibleand can absorb water overtime, making them heavyand floppy.
The Froth! does thingsright. Its solid EPS foamcore is covered in epoxyresin and buttressed withwood stringers for stiff-ness. Durable rubber that’ssoft yet grippy encases therails and top deck. Andunlike other softboards,this model’s deck allowsfor traction without theneed for sticky surf wax,which gets messy and canirritate bare skin on yourthighs, stomach andchest—especially when it’scaked with sand (think:80-grit sandpaper).
A slick skin on thebottom of the board en-sures decent speed,while three rubberizedfins provide good ma-neuverability without be-ing sharp and hard, likethose found on conven-tional surfboards. Thoseflexible fins, along withthe board’s soft, rubberyexterior, mean you’reless likely to get injuredby the board as youlearn to shred thewaves. From $225,boardworkssurf.com
—Mark Anders
Paddle Like a ProIf you’re new to recreational boating,a kayak makes for a sensible startervessel. It’s relatively affordable, easyto paddle and sufficiently light andcompact that one person can carryand stow it himself. Yet for manybeginners, a kayak can feel discon-certingly wobbly.
You have to work pretty hard,though, to flip Perception’s recently re-leased Hi Life. Seriously. Whetheryou’re buffeted by a wave or you de-cide to lean all the way over to oneside to view the fishes, the Hi Life willkeep you upright.
The stability results from thekayak’s broad, long shape (roughly 11-by-3 feet) as well as all the empty vol-ume inside its shell, which provides ex-ceptional buoyancy. A small rudderlikefin—an unusual feature for a kayak—helps the vessel track forwardsmoothly as you paddle.
The Hi Life has an open-deck de-sign: The padded seat, with a backthat flips down flat, keeps you ele-vated well above the waterline (mostkayaks sit you below it). Although
Don’t let sailing’s notoriously steep learning curve keepyou landlocked. Last year, Austria-based X-Cat releasedthe Multi-Sport Catamaran, which offers exceptional sta-bility (its two hulls are more stable than one), but unlikemany easy-to-manage small boats, it doesn’t compro-mise speed or excitement.
Thanks to its near-indestructible hulls, which arefilled with buoyant closed-cell polypropylene foam, and adiminutive 14-foot-9-inch mast (short, even for a begin-ner boat), the X-Cat is very forgiving, easy to maneuverand difficult to capsize. And if the wind dies down (or if
you’re simply not yet adept enough to harness it), youcan just furl the sails and start rowing, using X-Cat’sdouble-jointed oars. If even that sounds too taxing, sim-ply engage the lithium battery-powered motor (a $2,265upgrade).
The X-Cat also eliminates the need for a boat traileror launch ramp: Weighing just 120 pounds, the cat canbe transported atop your car, assembled in 10 minutesand launched from the shore. $7,700, plus $2,700 forthe rowing system, x-cat.com
—Brigid Mander
Set Sail Without Getting Scuttled
Skimboarding: For Those Too Chicken to Surf
JUST ADD LOTS OFWATER
ROCK OUT ON A RIVERJBL Charge 3
Looking for a compact, portable summertime sound system thatwon’t drown? The Charge 3 can handle more than collateralsplashing from an overzealous cannonballer. This IPX 7-rated de-vice can be fully submerged in 3 feet of water for up to 30 min-utes. And should it happen to fall in the drink, the speaker willconveniently float back to the surface while awaiting rescue. It’savailable in electric-blue, red or teal (all well suited for hoppingpool parties)—or classic black to best accompany moody summerstorms. $150, jbl.com —Lane Florsheim
SLAM-DUNK GADGETS // THREE WATERPROOF GIZMOS TO PERCH PRECARIOUSLY ON YOUR POOL FLOAT OR THE BOW OF YOUR CANOE
Swim Without theStruggleDespite being a member of theswim team when I was young, I’venever found the act of swimmingitself much fun. Frolicking in thesurf is one thing, but having to getfrom point A to point B usually en-tailed inefficiently windmilling myarms, gasping for breath, wonder-ing why swimming had to be sodamn hard.
Well, it doesn’t—as I discovered afew years ago when I learned atechnique called Total Immersion(TI). Developed in the 1970s byAmerican swimming coach TerryLaughlin (who teaches it with hiswife, Alice, at a swim studio in NewPaltz, N.Y.), TI has something of acult following among amateur triath-letes because it allows you to swimlong distances with relative ease.The method is equally helpful if youjust want to reach the floating dockwhere all the fun seems to be hap-pening without your lungs burning.
I’d always thought that the keyto becoming a better swimmer wassimply to work harder: Kick faster,reach farther with each stroke,breathe with more precision. Butunlike traditional freestyle tech-niques, TI looks downright lazy. Thekicks are super-slow, and the armmovements feel so relaxed it’s asthough you’re just dropping yourhand into the water. The body rollgives you as much time as youwant to breathe. The approach feelsweird at first, but it’s also highly ef-ficient. Once I got the hang of it, Icould bang out lap after lap.
You can teach yourself Total Im-mersion with books and online vid-eos, but you’ll grasp it faster if youattend a weekend workshop. Of-fered by certified instructors aroundthe country, these classes can trans-form the way you swim in a coupleof days. The lessons are a worth-while investment for those who ha-ven’t taken a swim class since theywere 12—or who suspect that swim-ming is tougher than it needs to be.DVD, $25; see totalimmersion.net tofind a workshop near you.
—Sara Clemence
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