Month: October 2024

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Favourite BC Hike: Stawamus Chief (First Peak)

2 years ago, we were invited on a hike with a group of families. We thought it would be a great way to meet like-minded people, and the first organized outing was to Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, just outside Squamish. I won’t describe the misadventure of that outing, but we realized we might be more on the beginner side when it comes to hiking terrain that is more vertical than our old stomping grounds in Ontario, and we were not able to all stick with the group. It’s always bugged me that we weren’t able to make it to the peak as a complete family, and this past weekend, we had a chance to redeem ourselves.

They do try to warn you.

My eldest remembered how the old held back the young last time and wanted free reign to hike ahead; he’s almost 15 so we allowed it (having him rush us would only make keeping a sustainable pace more frustrating.

The Lightning Kid wanted to go off the trail to climb various cliff faces he could see; we tried to prevent that as we knew he’d need to save his energy. I was soon proven right, as the trail morphed from trail to rocks to stairs to rocks again. Going up that steep a climb will blow up your cardiovascular system, but luckily the Lightning Kid was willing to let Mom and Dad catch their breath. Eventually, Mom got into a flow and it was the Lightning Kid who needed more breaks.

We reached the approximate 3/4 mark where we had separated last time, and resolved ourselves to keep going. Eventually, we got to some parts where I wish I had taken more pictures; the rocky steep terrain had chains and ladders at various intervals enable climbing higher. We paced ourselves, and picked our footing carefully, with everyone choosing when to use hands, handholds, etc. and when they felt comfortable walking.

The summit provided us with views that made all the sweating, huffing and puffing worth it.

Heading back down was mostly easier, but not so gentle on middle-aged joints, so there was less need for breaks to catch our breath, but we still found ourselves having to pace ourselves to not twist an ankle or jam a knee etc.

Another big family hike in the books, with only the question of whether Stawamus Chief Peaks #2 and #3 are as hard…?

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Gear Review: Shokz Open Swim Pro (Bone Conduction Headphones)

Bone conduction (or Open-Ear) headphones transmit sound by inducing jawbone vibrations, freeing your ears to hear outside sounds. This makes them ideal for women runners who, unfortunately, need to be more aware of threats when running alone. My wife has enjoyed a pair of Shokz for years, but I was intrigued when I heard of a waterproof version.

From the Shokz website: Transducers send vibrations through the cheekbones and deliver sound directly to the inner ear, bypassing the eardrum.

Overall First Impressions/Controls

I’m not an audiophile, but I had trouble believing that this technology could produce the same quality of sound as regular earphones. My favourite songs sounded the same.

The only controls are two volume buttons on the right side, and a “multi-function” on the left. The multi-function has to be pressed a combination of times to advance or go back a track, held down to enter pairing mode, etc. The volume buttons are used to power the device on/off in addition to obviously controlling the volume.

Normally I prefer to have more dedicated controls rather than memorizing combinations to accomplish basic tasks, but I can see how not having to fumble around searching for the right button when the headset is being worn is actually more practical and user-friendly.

Bike Test

My first test of the OpenSwim Pro was on a bike ride. Normally, headphones would be a big no-no on the bike, but the open ear should mean that a rider can maintain situational awareness. On this ride, the way out was mostly downhills and steep ones at that, so I didn’t listen to music at all, because I wanted my full attention on handling my bike through the turns and such. I had planned to listen to music to motivate me up the steep climbs home. Unfortunately, I remembered to turn on the music a little late, but for the last stretch, I did notice that I could hear a car come up behind me as I rode.

Run Test

I brought the headphones with me on a run around the track at the town stadium. I had the music playing while I used the bathroom before my run – what was interesting is when I used the hand dryer, I couldn’t hear the music anymore. So loud sound coming in your ears will override the music coming in through your jawbone vibrations.

During the run, I was able to have conversation with my wife when I passed her on the track without turning down (or off) the music.

Swim Test

So the headphones are waterproof, but that doesn’t mean they can connect to Bluetooth while in the water – this is made clear by the manufacturer. So for swimming, you use them as an MP3 player; remember those? You have to load MP3 or other audio files from a computer over the USB cable to the memory of the OpenSwim Pro. MP3s are getting a little hard to come by, but I still had some songs loaded on my phone (in unprotected m4a format from iTunes) that I loaded onto my computer and then back to the headphones.

The headphones convert from Bluetooth to MP3 mode by pressing the 2 volume keys simultaneously. On my first swim, I absolutely loved hearing music and the laps seemed to tick by with less boredom and tedium. The headphones hug my head and can almost be forgotten, which is a far cry from the “listening to music while swimming” I had over 10 years ago.

Other Applications

I’ve used these headphones a bit in the office as a way to listen to music or be on a call while having a better awareness in my surroundings; e.g. a co-worker wants my attention. The microphone seems to work well for calls, though I prefer noise-cancelling headphones for longer sitting periods of meetings or deep work.

Conclusion

So far, the Shokz OpenSwim Pro is one of the best electronics purchases a multi-sport athlete could buy.