News — Drones

[Update: 29 March 2017] The Karma is finally here and available on pre-order! Delivery will take place end of April.

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By Warrick Kernes

It's no secret that GoPro are launching the GoPro Drone soon. While all the details and specs about the Go Pro Drone are yet to be confirmed they have been teasing us with a few videos shot by their new quadcopter and they are eluding to the name; the GoPro Karma Drone. We have heard rumours of what GoPros drone is going to look like but we're not going to speculate until we see one for ourselves. One thing is for sure though, the GoPro Karma Drone is going to be awesome!

As soon as it is available you'll be able to buy the GoPro Karma Drone in South Africa here on Action Gear. 'Till then here's an epic teaser video just released... Enjoy

Click on these links to browse Action Gear's range of GoPro gear and Drones

By Diane Shearer

The Parrot Bebop 2 drone was used to capture South Africa's incredible wilderness in an aerial video. Taking you on a journey from travelling on a train, to surfing, watching the sun set on Table mountains and game viewing. Everything great about South Africa is captured in a 3 minute video. 

By Diane Shearer

Drones have become very popular lately but there is one thing missing, people can't ride in them.

Ehang CEO, Huazhi Hu began designing the one-seater electric drone a couple of years ago, after two of his pilot friends were killed in plane crashes. The one-seater drone has a carbon fiber/epoxy composite body, an aerial aluminum alloy frame, and eight motors putting out 142 hp/106 kW to eight propellers that are located on the top and bottom of one of four arms. Those arms can fold up when the drone is parked on the ground, allowing it to take up less space.


The main idea of the one-seater drone is so that people can have a form of short-to-medium-distance personal air transport that didn't require them to have a pilot's license. Its aim is to be the smallest, safest and most eco-friendly low altitude autonomous aerial vehicle. Ehang explains that “Users will simply get in, power it up, select their destination using a 12-inch touchscreen tablet display, then press the "take-off" button. The drone's automated flight systems will take over from there, managing tasks such as communication with air traffic control and other aircraft, obstacle avoidance, and navigation – it will always choose the fastest yet safest route between its present location and its destination. Failsafe systems will reportedly take over in the event of malfunctions, plus passengers can get the drone to stop and hover in place if needed.”




The world’s first autonomous aerial vehicle is already fully functional, with a worldwide series of demo flights scheduled to begin soon. It is said to be commercially available later this year, priced somewhere between US$200,000 and $300,000.

By Cam "Cambo" Kernes

This year my husband, Warrick, decided to host an out-of-the-ordinary SUP year end function for all his staff at Action Gear which I was very pleased to be able to join in on the action.

Warrick has a good relationship with a company called Star-board who teach people to Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) at Emmerentia Dam in Johannesburg and so in discussions with them he decided to host his year end function there. Star-board have an 8 person SUP which is perfect for a group of people to have fun learning to SUP together and for the more ambitious there are single SUP’s available too.

I arrived at Emmerentia Dam for the function a little late as I could only join after work so I was a bit worried I might have already missed out on all the fun. However, I was in luck as I arrived literally as the team were coming back to the start point which meant I could join the next group heading out on the 8 person SUP.

Paddling the 8 person SUP is a lot harder than I expected and it requires each team member to paddle in sync.

Photo by Action Gear DJI Phantom Drone

We quickly learnt that you also need to balance out the strengths of each member as at one point we couldn’t get ourselves to go in a straight line as the one side was paddling harder than the other.

You definitely get an all-body workout doing this sport as you are not only using your arms and shoulders to paddle but also your core to keep yourself upright on the board which is great.

All in all, my whole SUP experience was a lot of fun and I can see why it is fast becoming a very popular sport.


For more photo’s from this fun event click here.

Cam's blog: Cambo Adventures

By Warrick Kernes

There has been heaps of excitement building around the Drone which GoPro have said to be developing. Well, for those of you who are still unsure of this we can confirm for 100% that this is in the pipeline and is due to be released around the middle of 2016. GoPro aren't trying to hide the fact either as they've released this sneak peak below for us to see the kind of quality and stability captured using their prototype GoPro Quadcopter...



Here at Action Gear we'll be the first in South Africa to know updates as they are released and when stock does arrive we'll be the first to have it available so keep an eye on our blog, facebook, twitter and instragram for all the latest updates and releases!