Surfing Product Reviews

The Freestyle Auido DMP is billed as a waterproof MP3 player you can take surfing. While there are many arguments against surfing with a distraction such as an audio player, we aimed only to review the gear, and let you decide on the moral implications.

First Impressions

The FA player is pretty small and lightweight, but not as small as many other players of similar storage. There are 4 waterproof buttons that are big and easy to access yet a little Frankenstein looking. There is an LED light that tells you info on charging, uploading, and playing which does the job well. There is no screen, it works like the iPod Shuffle, but there is no shuffle.

We used a PC, and without installing any software the player showed up as a drive, where adding and removing tracks is a breeze. The USB cable also allows the player to charge (it takes 2.5 hours to charge which is said to last 35 hours of play time). The USB cable plugs into the same port as the headphones and this allows the player to have only one input where water could get in. If a cable isn’t plugged in all the way, it knows and will shut down. It’s a smart idea but you’ll have to carry the special USB cable around with you if you ever want to update your collection at a friends house.

Dry Run

We first took it for a spin on land by going on a jog. We used the land headphones and were not impressed. It is hard to fault a player for bad headphones, since everyone has their idea on what headphones feel good. That said, these headphones stunk. Good news here is that you can use any pair of headphones you’d like when used on land (in water you need the special waterproof ones). The armband works cool and the player is easy to navigate on the run. However the buttons are aligned across from each other, and you need some force to push them. So sometimes you try to increase the volume and you’ll end hitting the opposite button, thus skipping a track. Besides that the player worked great.

While Swimming

We gave the player to Kyle who went swimming at the UCSB pool with it. He said the headphones didn’t sound too good either underwater or above water. He was a trooper for showing up in his speedos and headphones though.

Surfing With Music

Alright, we’ll admit it. We never got out in the water with it. We just couldn’t overcome the cool factor. I mean, we’d have to go all the way down to County Line to surf somewhere we wouldn’t be seen surfing with this. We stammered for a few weeks trying to get the nerve to surf with it, and then Freestyle wanted it back to give to the next reviewer. However it’s performance on land and while swimming gave us enough of a clue to know that Freestyle has some work to do still.

What You Get

• Audio Player with built in battery
• Normal headphones
• Waterproof headphones
• USB cable that doubles as the charger
• User Manual
• Armband
• Installation Disc

Where to Buy:

• Wetsand: 256Mb, 512Mb, 1Gb
• FreestyleAudio.com