by David Peters
Have you ever been out hydroplaning your moth in Sydney Harbor when suddenly you decide you want to photograph it coming out of the water? Or let's say you're chasing swirling vortices across the mid-western United States and you want to get a picture without getting wet or beat to death by hail! Or maybe you're out driving on the treacherous roads of Alaska, chasing perps across the pristine countryside and you want to document it? Well obviously, Wood's Powr-Grip has a solution for you. Our line of camera mounts are popping up all over the world in high profile venues. Bora Gulari, world champion Moth racer in 2009 and now world class sailing contender, wrote to us some time back asking if we thought that our Cleat would hold up if stuck to the bottom of his Moth Bladerider Hydrofoil with a video camera attached. We informed him that it would probably do the job, but that he should attach a safety strap to the camera and the boat, "just in case". We informed him that some of the screws used in the Cleat were steel and would be subjected to rust in a marine environment, but before he read our suggestions, he took the Cleat out for a sail. He was truly amazed and has been bragging us up all over the world. For several years now, just before spring, we've seen an uptick in sales for our camera/video mounting products from another quarter. Storm chasers across tornado alley have been using our mounts to safely secure their cameras and video cameras to the inside of their vehicles. Mounting a video camera to the windshield allows the vehicle operator to concentrate on the dangerous environment outside while supporting a video camera to record the awesome power of the storm ahead. Because the rubber vacuum pad absorbs a lot of the shock from bumps and dips in the road, the video obtained in this fashion is relatively fluid and smooth. Next time you're watching one of those storm chaser shows on TV, keep your eyes peeled and check out the mounts holding the cameras to the windows. At Wood's Powr-Grip, it takes a whole lot more than a little bad weather to scare us off the job. And so I was sitting on my sofa, doing my best couch potato impression, strafing through the channels as fast as my lethargic cable box would allow, when suddenly, there it was - Alaska. It wasn't one of those bears eating salmon out of the stream type of shows, but instead, Alaskan State Troopers hunting down the dregs of humanity to give them a well deserved home behind bars. I remembered that one of the sales people had mentioned that we had sold a bunch of Grippers to National Geographic, the producers of the Alaska State Trooper show, and began to scrutinize each scene. Suddenly, there they were! In the front window, in the back window! Those cruisers were a rolling commercial for the Wood's Powr-Grip Gripper. And no wonder - there's nothing that can compete with the robust quality, value and dependability of a Wood's Powr-Grip camera mount. Wood's Powr-Grip products have been popping up in some very prestigious places. In April of this year, the glass in the SkyWalk over the Grand Canyon was replaced and workers used WPG vacuum lifters to do it. The 911 Memorial Atrium was recently erected, and WPG vacuum lifters and hand-held vacuum cups were all over the site. Now, the WPG camera mounts are coming into their own and finding a solid place in history, from the backseat of squad cars to the belly of racing boats.David Peters had more than 30 years experience in sales and marketing. He is currently the marketing associate for Wood's Powr-Grip Co., Inc., responsible for interactive marketing, tracking, market research and new product introduction.