Suction cup phone mount for the rink?

[taffytwelve]

I usually just prop my phone up on the boards, leaning against the glass, to record myself while skating, but I'm pretty much relegated to public sessions at this point, and with the rink getting busier and busier as we head into winter, I worry about it getting accidentally knocked off by rec skaters clinging to the walls. I've seen a few skaters mounting their phones higher on the glass with what I assume to be a phone suction cup mount. Does anyone have any recommendations for a specific kind that works well in a rink? Something that will hold securely to scratched plexi with the cold and humidity and all?

 

[tstop4me]

I usually just prop my phone up on the boards, leaning against the glass, to record myself while skating, but I'm pretty much relegated to public sessions at this point, and with the rink getting busier and busier as we head into winter, I worry about it getting accidentally knocked off by rec skaters clinging to the walls. I've seen a few skaters mounting their phones higher on the glass with what I assume to be a phone suction cup mount. Does anyone have any recommendations for a specific kind that works well in a rink? Something that will hold securely to scratched plexi with the cold and humidity and all?

I personally wouldn't trust my phone to a suction-cup mount, even under a controlled room environment. If you are able to skate near the hockey box, you can use a clamp-on phone mount securely clamped to the horizontal sill or to the vertical edge of a frame (surrounding a pane). A screw-down clamp is more reliable than a spring-loaded clamp.

If you can't find a phone mount with a suitable clamp, there are phone mounts with a standard 1/4-20 threaded bushing {ETA: Often listed as a tripod mount adapter]. You can then attach the phone mount to a clamp (with a standard 1/4-20 threaded stud) used to mount cameras and photo accessories. There are many, many clamps used by photographers. You should be able to find a suitable one.

 

[Query]

I saw someone prop their phone against the wall of an ice rink, on the ice. I was a bit horrified. And that was in a rink that had only several skaters at the time.

I attaching my phone to my windshield using a suction cup mount. Works very well. At least for now. AFAICT, only suction cups that have a lever can create a strong enough vacuum to be reliable. Though I still cleaned and wet the glass and the suction cup with alcohol first - a big deal.

But people might run into a phone mounted that way, and knock it out of the phone holder, even if the suction cup held.

tstop4me's clamps sound a lot more reliable. Maybe best if you mount it in the hockey player's bench area, clamped from the outside, so that it doesn't extend into the skating area? Still not perfect, because beginning skaters sometimes put their hands on the top surface, and hockey players sometimes crash into that region. Even if you placed a tripod inside the player's bench area, someone might accidentally knock it down. But you can only do what you can.

This is probably overkill, but there are "rugged" phones, and rugged phone enclosures, which can take falls a little better. At the upper end, some have IP68 rated water resistance, IP69 dust resistance (for outdoor skating?), meet MIL-STD-810H, have extended battery lives, charge fast, have displays that work well in brightly lit areas, and work as phones in areas with poor signal strengths. But they are bigger, heavier, and may be more expensive than some phones. And of course, maybe video picture quality and frame rate matter more to you.

I wonder if there are any reasonably priced good auto-tracking cameras or camera mounts than can follow a tag that you wear... But that is even more extreme.

 

[Ic3Rabbit]

I wouldn't trust anything to hold my phone in that environment.

 

[Query]

I wouldn't trust anything to hold my phone in that environment.

Wow! That's pretty strong. What do skaters you know do instead?

A LOT of skaters I know do something along these lines. Or more often just put them on a stand on the hockey box boards, and hope no one knocks them down. Of course they don't leave them there for more than the few minutes.

But maybe this is because I skate at the least busy rinks I can find... (BTW, the first few minutes of many public sessions tend not to be busy at all. I'm sometimes the only skater.)

Some people have parents or friends who hold the phone by hand while videoing the skater. But that may be inconvenient, and not everyone can hold phones and cameras still. Of course, during lessons, coaches often hold the phones.

Could it depend a bit on the price of the phone or other camera? The highest end modern phones are expensive. But an Android phone (that has a USB port you can use to download pictures and videos through) that is too old to be useful as a phone (it only takes a few years in some cases) is pretty cheap - maybe you or a friend even has one. (I don't know enough about Apple phones to know if they have USB ports you can download pictures and videos through, even if they aren't connected to cell service.) Though old cameras are sometimes not very good. Some of my old phones don't focus very well any more, and have lower resolution than most modern ones. If it is cheap or useless enough as a phone, I figure it doesn't matter much if it breaks.