Tomorrow is the first day of Spring, though with the wonderful weather we’ve had here in Chicago the past few weeks you’d think Spring came a long time ago!  As the first day of Spring, March 20 is the Vernal Equinox.  This means that the Earth is neither tilted toward or away from the Sun.  Unlike the winter solstice, which is (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) when the Earth is tilted its furthest away from the Sun, and the summer solstice, which is when the Earth is tilted most directly toward the sun, the Vernal (Spring) and Autumnal Equinoxes are the times when the Earth is perfectly in balance with the Sun.

Of course, with Spring comes new life, flowering plants and, of course, sports!  I wrote a few weeks back about Spring Training starting for Baseball, but that’s down in Arizona.  For those of us in cooler climes it’s usually not feasible to be outside practicing our golf swing or going for a bike ride until after the Vernal Equinox.

And sports are what I want to talk about today!  I love to get outside and have some fun in the sun.  I’ve been jogging since college, and I love to get out on the trails for a long run.  One thing that makes these runs more enjoyable is a GPS device.  I really like the Garmin Forerunner 110 Sports Training GPS Watch.  It keeps track of your time, distance and speed.  You can also connect the watch to your computer and look at a great deal of past data to track your performance.  I was out running yesterday with my GPS on and it was great to see how fast I was running, how far I went and my overall time.  About halfway through my run I started pushing myself harder just to see the speed go up!  That was a great workout!

But there are more ways to use a GPS than just jogging.  Obviously they’re great for navigation, but as you can see in the video above, they’re a fantastic tool for golf as well!  The Bushnell Yardage Pro XGC Plus Golf Rangefinder has over 16,000 golf courses programmed in, with additional courses added through their website.  Unlike laser rangefinders, which require line of sight with the pin, sand traps and other hazards you may wish to avoid, the Yardage Pro will give you accurate distances to on the course even if there’s a tree in the way!  It’s super simple to use, and it’s really compact so it’ll easily fit in your golf bag.

If you’re a big time golfing enthusiast, you’ll also really like the Wenger Swiss Army Knife Golf Pro.  This Swiss Army Knife has a few tools that were specifically designed to make a golfer’s life a little easier.  There’s a club face cleaner, which is very important to successful swings, a divot repair tool, which helps you be courteous on the links, a 2.5″ blade, a shoe spike wrench, key chain and more!  The Wenger Swiss Army Golf Pro will quickly become an essential part of your golf bag.

Another cool piece of gear that’s a lot of fun for Spring Sports is the Epic HD1080p Adventure Camera.  We actually have this cool camera around the office here at GearExpert by OpticsPlanet, and it is a lot of fun to use.  You can mount the camera on your helmet when riding a bike or rock climbing, but there are a ton of cool possibilities.  In the photo above you can see we mounted it on a pair of ear muffs, so if you want to use it while at the shooting range it’ll work nicely.  This is THE camera for the more adventurous amongst you this Spring!

We want you to keep safe during your Spring Sports Adventures, and we put a few great items in our Spring Sports Guide to give you a little extra security.  First, we have the Camelbak Stealth 72 Oz Hydration Pack.  Keeping well hydrated is essential to performing at your best and to staying safe when exerting yourself.

The other piece of safety/performance gear we have is the Bolle Vigilante Sunglasses with Interchangeable Lenses.  These protective shades are so amazing they’ve won our Brilliance Award for Best Sports Sunglasses for three years running!!! This is due to their incredibly flexible and strong frame, and the wide variety of lenses that let you customize the sunglasses performance for your activity.  Want to play golf?  You’ll want to use the Eaglevision lenses.  They help you distinguish the green for more accurate approach shots.  If you’re more of a tennis player you’ll prefer the Competivision lenses, which help you see the tennis ball.  This is incredibly useful for those with a hard time seeing, as most of the color spectrum is muted, except for yellow, which really pops out if you’re using the Competivision lenses.  You can wear these great protective sunglasses at night as well with the clear lenses.  This wonderful versatility is why we are so enthusiastic about the Bolle Vigilantes.

The last item in our Spring Sports Guide video is the RevFire Baseball Package.  Obviously, this one is very specifically intended for use by baseball enthusiasts.  While it gives accurate information on the speed of a pitch, this RevFire Package also tells pitchers the spin rate.  This helps up and coming pitchers focus on more than simply throwing the ball harder, as they can develop their breaking ball much better by focusing on the spin.  Coaches love it because they can see which pitcher is the most ‘in the zone’ during warmups to give them a better chance during the game!

We want you to get outside tomorrow and have some fun.  The summer is a great time to get in a little better shape and enjoy all the great opportunities under the sun!  Try out the great gear in our Spring Sports Guide Video and be sure to check out all the other great Sports and Hobby Gear from OpticsPlanet!

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