Video: Donnie Vincent's New Adventure Film Series Teaser

This video is a short teaser for a new adventure film series from Sicmanta Multimedia that features hunter Donnie Vincent as he travels into the wild in search of wildlife. Now, I'm not much of a hunter myself, but the imagery captured in this video are as beautiful and inspiring as any I've seen recently. If the entire new series is shot this beautifully, then those who do enjoy hunting videos are in for a real treat. This is some spectacular footage for sure. It is so good, that even non-hunters will appreciate it.

SICMANTA PRESENTS: Donnie Vincent's Adventure Film Series | Teaser from Sicmanta on Vimeo.

Adventure Tech: Garmin Delivers Yet Another GPS Watch To Consumers

GPS technology company Garmin has released yet another GPS watch for consumers to ponder over. This time it seems less fitness/sports oriented and more aimed at a law enforcement/military crowd, although it brings a host of options that I'm sure many outdoor enthusiasts will find appealing. It also happens to deliver them in quite an attractive package.

The new watch is called the tactix and it retails for $450. It sports a high-sensitivey GPS sensor with automatically calibrating altimeter and a 3-axis compass. It's built in memory allows the device to store up to 1000 waypoints and 10,000 track points, and allows the wearer to quickly and easily retrace their steps back to previous positions. In a nod to its military roots, the U.S. version of the watch is preloaded with tidal data and all versions include Jumpmaster software for airborne personnel. It also features sun/moon data and a calendar for hunting and fishing. A stopwatch, countdown timer, world clock, and alarm functionality are all built in as well of course, and as with most GPS enabled watches, this one will tell you distance traveled, speed, calories burned, etc. The tactix will also pair with Garmin's heart rate monitor and bike pod to measure performance and will even control the company's VIRB and VIRB Elite action cameras.

The tactix is designed to be rugged and survive in the outdoors. Its case is tough and durable, making it water resistant down to 50 meters. It's all black styling is designed to be non-reflective and subtle in nature, while the built in battery can reportedly go 50 hours between charges with GPS enabled and 5 weeks when being used as a standard watch. That performance is actually quite good for a watch of this kind.

The new watch is available now.

Video: Searching For West - The Most Beautiful Hunting Film You'll Ever See

I rarely write about hunting in any way on this blog, mostly because it isn't something that I personally do. I grew up in the woods with a father and older brother who both still love to hunt, but it was never an activity that struck a chord with me. I simply enjoyed being outside. But I respect hunters greatly and recognize that as a group they often do more for conservation and protection of lands than anyone else. Like the rest of us, they share a common bond of a love for the outdoors.

A new short film, entitled Searching for West, hammers this point home. It follows hunter Mark Seacat as he goes out into the wild in search of his goals, namely bagging a big bull elk. Listening to Mark narrate the film I was struck by how much he sounded like some of the other outdoor athletes we follow here on the Adventure Blog. Mountaineers, polar explorers and endurance runners who endure sometimes difficult conditions as they go after their personal trophies. Like so many of those men and women, Mark questions what he is missing at home while he pursues those goals.

This is an incredibly well done and beautiful film that I think you'll find fascinating to watch even if you're not a hunter yourself. The scenery is spectacular, the story is compelling and the technical aspects of the film are top notch. It's about 25 minutes in length, and if you have the ability to watch it on an HDTV that's what I'd recommend. Otherwise, kick back in your chair set the video to full screen and enjoy.


Searching for West from Helio Collective on Vimeo.