Pomoca Pomocup

We finally got our hands on the Pomocup a couple weeks ago. And while winter is months away, we had to improvise on our pre-season test by visiting a grassy hill in early September.  But let's backup and give this thing a proper review. 

What is it?

It's a small (20g) data collecting device that mounts to your skimo race skis via magnets. There's not much to it, charge it up via micro-usb and pair with the Skilog app on your phone. Hit start and go.

Affixing the mount was easy and straight forward. However only one is included so you better pick the skis you plan on using it with the most. Mounting kits weren't sold separately at the time of writing this. One problem I did have was the magnet pulled off the 3M adhesive so I had to epoxy it in there. The mount is solid but I wouldn't necessarily trust this $300 piece of electronics in the true backcountry. It's definitely meant for resort groomer laps.

left: attachment kit mounted on ski, right: pomocup unit attached with included harness.

The included instructions are very basic and it walks you through the proper steps to start / stop the Pomocup. I wouldn't trust using it independently of the app though, not without a few trial runs.

Sample Tour

So back to the grassy pre-season skiing. I did three short laps making sure to kick turn, do a bootpack simulation, and look at the app while touring. What I found was that my grass skiing wasn't quite fast enough or smooth enough to register as actual skiing. I found this weird in that it should be able to tell that I stopped, change directions, and descended. But it did show a bunch of really useful metrics that will be helpful when we're actually skiing here on the east coast. That list can be found at the bottom of the review.

The map feature wasn't working and I'd imagine it would pair the gps data from the phone to the app. I also wasn't able to sync the tour with my online account. Not sure if this will be updated but you can pull the .POM file off the device and manually upload it.

above: sample tour data collected by the Pomocup.
below: sample tour data displayed in the Skilog App.

Preliminary thoughts:

Clearly I need to test this on snow but I like what I'm seeing so far. Here's what's to love:

Power meter: How much vert are you stacking and how fast. It will be good to have another metric aside from HR to compare efforts and set goals. 
Slope angle: This is a great tool to see if you're putting in the perfect skin track.
How good are your skins: Grip/Glide data will show how well skins are performing provided your technique and snow conditions stay constant. Good for testing various skins and work on your form to make sure you're getting enough glide / stride length.
Misc Data: Temperature, Vertical Speed, Transitions. All good information to mull over after a good workout or race.

And things I question: 

IP64 rating is by no means water proof. It means it's dust tight and can handle "water splashing". 
App updates: hopefully the team over at Gaitup continue to update the app. The last update was 5 months ago. 
Get that GPS data in there and make it pretty! 
Syncing between app and online account.
Not losing this thing while skiing.

The Pomocup is a lot like Trace (just need the airtime feature!) and skimo is definitely the right market for another data collection device. Hopefully they keep pushing updates for the app but out of the box as is, it will be utilized by many.

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Tour Data

• Total time of the tour
• Total distance of the tour
• Temperature
• Altitude
• Slope angle
• Total ascent/descent
• Vertical speed

Transitions

• Kickturns
• Stripping skins
• Attaching skins
• Bootpacking
• Taking skis off pack
• Taking a break (pause)

Technique

• Cadence
• Number of steps
• Stride length
• % Glide/Grip
• Power