News — Red-e

By Diane Shearer

If you’re looking for gift ideas for the ultimate gadget enthusiast in your life then Action Gear is the place to go. We have chosen our top 15 Christmas gift ideas that we think will be right up your alley. Now you can see exactly what you can get your hands on in our store this Christmas.

1. REACH FOR THE SKY

Reach for the sky and capture professional-quality footage from a new perspective with the DJI Phantom 3 range. This intelligent flying camera is easy to fly and engineered to let everyone take to the sky. With its crystal-clear camera and real-time HD video display you can create footage fit for the screen. 

2. TAKE IT TO THE TRAIL

SUUNTO AMBIT 3 WITH FREE POWERTRAVELLER



The Suunto Ambit 3 is your ideal companion when you go off the beaten path. The built in GPS and compass and its incredible battery life will keep you exploring the wilderness on foot or bike for hours. For a limited time get a free PowerTraveller solar charger with your Ambit 3.

3. BE A HERO

RED BULL GOPRO HERO 4 BUNDLE


The GoPro Hero4 range of action cameras are without doubt the best you can buy. With 3 models to fit your needs and budget, the Hero4 is your ideal adventure partner The GoPro Hero 4 makes it easy to capture and share your world through your eyes. HERO 4 helps you capture photos and videos that make you look like just that: a HERO. For a limited time, we are offereing a FREE 32GB Samsung Evo MicroSD Card as well as a Red Bull 4 Pack with every GoPro Hero4 Bundle.

4. TON O' FUN

HUBSAN X4


Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand but comes with a ton of fun. This is a perfect toy for flying around the house, practicing your skills or having fun with friends.

5. NO POWER? NO PROBLEM!

RED-E RS70 SOLAR POWERBANK


Whether you are trying to keep in touch with your mates while on a hiking trip or just being caught during load shedding. The 7000mAh powerbank can be charged directly from a wall socket or through the built in solar panel and can charge your iphone over 2.5 times.

6. MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

OUTDOOR TECH ORCAS WIRELESS


The Orcas wireless earphone are music to an active persons ears! Completely wireless, sweat proof and so light you will forget you have them.

7. THE CAMERA THAT DOESNT LIE

TOMTOM BANDIT BASE PACK


Now you can instantly share a video to your friends while still in the midst of adventure. Simply shaking your smartphone device will create an instant edit of the video you've recorded. Sensors in the camera pick up and tag the big moments like maximum speed, jumps and tricks. The Bandit can shoot up to 4K at 15fps and take 16mpx photos.

8. ALL IN ONE

OUTDOORTECH BUCKSHOT PRO



Everything you need in the palm of your hands. The Buckshot Pro is a wireless speaker, flashlight, strobe light, camp-light, and powerbank. Yeah, that's impressive!

9.MOTION WITHOUT BLUR, ACTION WITHOUT SHAKES

DJI OSMO


The DJI Osmo helps you record videos like never before. Whether standing still for a stationary timelapse or moving through the world for a hyperlapse, you can create smooth videos easily with this stabiliser and gimble. Imagine motion without blur and Action without shakes! The Osmo can shoot up to 4K at 30fps and take 12mpx photos.

10. HIGHLIGHT THE NIGHT

EXTREME LIGHTS XPH HEADLAMP


The Extreme light XPH Headlamp offers unprecedented freedom for nocturnal thrill-seekers. If you like surfing after sunset, riding at midnight and trail running at night the remarkable little device will highlight the night. This versatile Headlamp uses a rechargeable Li-ion battery or 3 AAA batteries. The 670 Lumen torch will last 2.5 hours using the built in battery, ensuring that you never run out of juice in the wild.

11. SEVEN HEAVEN

RED-E 7 PORT USB CHARGING HUB


Never run out of power with the Red-E 7 port USB charging hub. It is a must have power adapter for any tech savvy adventurer. It enables you to charge all of your USB devices at once through one wall socket.

12. NEW PB?

BLACKBURN ATOM SL BIKE COMPUTER

The Blackburn computer is perfect for the cyclist that wants to know how far and how fast they’ve gone. The Blackburn computer will help you get your new personal best.

13. EASY RIDE

EZ WHEELS BALANCE WHEEL


Balance Wheels are the latest craze to take over the internet! These easy to ride 'hoverboards' can get you from A to B in style, with almost no effort. The EZ wheels has a maximum speed of 10km/h and a range of 15km. Riding this mini segway is simple, just lean in the direction you want to go. These boards have been used in many different situations, such as personal transportation, by photographers for stabilization and smooth shots, for shopping, warehouse staff, or just as a toy.

14. YOUR TRAVEL COMPANION

SENA SMH5-FM RADIO DUAL UNIT

Share music or a conversation while on your breakfast run with the Sena SMH5-FM Radio Dual Unit. It is a Bluetooth stereo headset with a Bluetooth intercom and built in FM turner for motorcyclists. The SMH5-FM allows you to call handsfree on your Bluetooth mobile phone, listen to music or instructions from your GPS wirelessly.

15. UNDER, OVER

GODOME HOUSING


With this dome housing, getting the elusive under over shot has never been easier. The GoDome Housing used a 160mm Dome, made from the highest quality acrylic, this massive dome pushes the waterline away from the lens, creating a space that allows you to capture the split in the water line with unbelievable ease.

By Jacques Viljoen

Number 3 in the search of my ten top driving roads in Cape Town led me to the beautiful Chapman’s Peak. A hotspot for motorists and cyclists alike, Chappies as it is locally known, features high speed gradual corners and tight chassis-testing corners, perfect for anyone looking to have some fun in their car, or on their motorbike.


Route name: Chapman’s Peak Drive

Road: M6

Starting Point: 34° 2'49.99" S, 18°21'41.00" E

Finishing Point: 34° 5'44.72" S, 18°21'21.25" E

Road surface quality: 7 out of 10

Scenery: 8 out of 10

Watch the Google Earth Pro Flight here:

Watch the GoPro driving footage here:

Gear used:

• GoPro Hero
• GoPro Suction Cup
• Canon SX600HS

One important thing to note about Chapman’s Peak is that it is a toll road, with the fee at R40 for small motor vehicles. Currently there is roadworks at the start of the road, but this is a small price to pay to drive one of the local favourites.

I had a blast driving this road in my Polo and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking to go for a nice Sunday afternoon drive. Chapman’s Peak is next to Hout Bay which is a wonderful destination for anyone looking for a nice party, or a family friendly restaurant.

As you can see, all along the road you are surrounded by beautiful ocean and mountain views.

I always enjoy driving on Chapman’s Peak and will definitely make a plan to head back there with a very nice car.

Keep an eye on the website to follow the rest of our Top 10 driving roads in Cape Town.

A Three day trek across the Makgadigadi pans on mountain bikes in Botswana, what a great experience! Kubu island was an absolute highlight. But riding on the ancient lake bed, now turned into salt pans was extremely taxing on the body. Although being fit for normal conditions, my heart rate basically stayed at 165+ bpm for hours at a time because of the sandy level surface and the constant wind.

The first night on the pans I woke up at 2 in my cold tent because of the silence! This must be experienced, I can't even start to describe it to you. So I got up and walked to the middle of the camp and restarted the deserted fire. I was the only one awake. I curled up my body on a camp chair to preserve heat and just sat there. The stars and the amount of shooting stars were incomprehensible... I felt really small under this majestic universe. I sat there for about 2 hours ... thinking about everything in total silence. I really want to experience this place again. Then Kubu island... wow. I also need to make a trip to Kubu again. You can feel the history... ancient history. With those Baobab trees being thousands of years old, from before the time of Jesus. Really met some wonderful people from all over the world traveling through the pans.



Makgadigadi Pans Mountainbike Adventure from Boeriewood on Vimeo.

Thanks to Frank Pretorius for sharing his adventure with us!

By Jacques Viljoen

A few weeks ago I started a series where I try to find the top driving roads in Cape Town. Although there are a quite a lot good driving roads in Cape Town, only a few qualify as great roads. Victoria Road between Seapoint and Hout Bay is just that, great.

Route name: Seapoint to Hout Bay

• Road : M6 (Victoria Road)
• Starting Point : 33°55'43.37" S, 18°22'31.33" E
• Finishing Point : 34° 2'37.52" S, 18°21'2.24" E
• Road surface quality : 9 out of 10
• Scenery: 9 out of 10

Beautifully smooth road, stunning views and some awesome cars and bikes pass by. On the day I went, I saw a Ferrari, two Audi R8’s, four Ford Mustangs, hundreds of Golf GTI’s and more. This road passes through a few hot spots where you will find the who’s who of Cape Town and surrounding areas. It was a beautiful day, temperature was about 27°C (in the middle of winter), so everyone bought out their toys to show off.

Victoria Road (also known as the M6) features long open straights, and tight hairpin turns which puts any car through a rigorous handling test.

Here is the point-of-view video recorded from my car. As always, I recorded at 1080p @ 30 frames per second.

This is how I mounted my GoPro. I started with the GoPro Hero, then switched to the GoPro Hero 4 Silver.

The scenery is typical coastal road. You drive right up against the cliffs and on your right side is hundreds of kilometres of stunning ocean views. There is also quite a few parking areas where you can stop and admire the view, or you can go to one of the many restaurants, bars or clubs along the route.

Gear used:

• GoPro Hero 4 Silver
• GoPro Suction Cup
• GoPole Hi-Torque Thumbscrews

So I tried something new to show the route. I used Google Earth Pro Flight Simulator to “fly” along the route. Please excuse if it wasn’t perfect, it was literally a first attempt and hopefully it generates a good response. I will hopefully get better with practice. Check it out here:

I would recommend this road to anyone who asks, as it also leads to Chapman’s Peak, which will feature soon on Top 10 Driving Roads.

By Brad Edwards AKA Fuzz

Klipriviersberg is a Municipal Nature Reserve that is open to the public for free. It is located in the South of Johannesburg adjacent to the very popular MTB Park known as Thaba Trails. Klipriviersberg boasts amazing trails for the nature loving hiker and more than enthusiastic trail runner. The well run and maintained reserve has 2 entrances; a small north entrance and a bigger main entrance at the south east end of the park. The north entrance has a full time security guard to manage the gate and sign in but does not have secure parking. The main entrance on Cnr Peggy Vera Rd and Frederick Pl has an inside parking lot and full time security. In addition to the ‘secure parking’ there is also access to toilets.

On the Trail:

Klipriviersberg is not short of trails. At the entrance, ask for a map. The map is well detailed and shows the various different colour trails including markers and distance references. You can plan your own tailored route and run/hike it without the fear of going wrong or getting lost. When I ran it, I remembered my route based on colour and just head into the hills.

As seen in the map below, the blue trail is the only trail that runs the full length of the reserve. It’s the only trail I can describe as Jeep Track. Every other trail is rocky, technical single track!



The reserve has plenty of hills and is idea for the intermediate to more experience trail runner. If you are looking to work on your technical skills, speed and hills then I would highly recommend Klipriviersberg.

Unlike Kloofendal, you can get more distance out of Klipriviersberg. You can comfortably get 10-15km out of Klipriviersberg without running the same route. I feel you can run 20km, but you would have to run every trail with a well-planned course.

For me, the technical downhills and open vistas are the real treasure of the reserve. At the high point on the yellow trail you can see a stunning view of Johannesburg CBD and it forces you to think how lucky we are as adventure enthusiast to get out and about.

My last run there:

I ran a combination of trails with friends. Our goal was just to get some time on the legs and have fun. We spent a good amount of time talking nonsense on each view point.


We decided to run the massive sewer pipe too (It doesn’t stink). *Do at your own risk*

Additional Pros:

• The reserve is well placed; close enough to the highway making it feel like a short drive from home but far enough from the city and so you don’t hear traffic or city noise.
• “The reserve is home to 150 bird species; 600 plant species; wildlife, including blesbok, zebra and duiker; as well as a rich archaeological site.”
• The people you meet on the trails are super kind. When running or hiking, make sure you greet. It makes for a nice community feeling.
• Don’t force hikers of the trail. Wait for them to move, I'm sure they will.
• Take your own water.
• The reserve is safe; I have run alone before and felt safe. *Do at your own risk*

Hit me up and Twitter (Tvrugtman) and Instagram (Act10nMan) and let me know what you think about Klipriviersberg. #KlipriviersbergTrail

Images: AdventureLife.co.za

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