For five weeks this summer, I was an intern at a sailing camp in NYC called Hudson River Community Sailing (HRCS for short). The camp was amazing; I got to help teach sailing to children who may have sailed a little in their lives, and children who had never sailed at all. I taught points of sail, the effects on pollution, how to rig and derig a boat, knots, and even how to steer/sail the boats. I had loved the experience so much that I asked my dad if I could take his Samsung digital camera onto the boat for a day so I could take pictures. He seemed skeptical, and decided that we should wait a few more days.
During the last few days, I hadn't asked if I could bring the camera mostly because I realized that it wouldn't be smart to bring such an expensive piece of technology onto a sailboat. On the morning of Friday, June 26, my dad asked, "How much do I trust you?" My mind began racing with everything I had done wrong during the summer, and weakly responded, "a lot?" He then stared at me for about a good 10 seconds, and then said, "Alright, you can take them on the boat." At first, I thought he meant the camera, but then I realized you couldn't use the word "them" on something like a camera, and we only had one "them" that he would be trepidacious about letting me take on the water. "Wait, you mean the Google Glass?" I asked completely confused, to which he responds, "You better take some amazing videos."
After biking to HRCS on 26th street and Riverside Park and locking up my bike, I decided to walk into the boathouse wearing the Google Glass. I began walking down the pier after putting them on, and walked past a window that looked into the classroom for the camp. A Junior Educator (student who went through the camps winter program and is like an instructor's helper) named Fariha saw me wearing them and screamed, "GOOGLE GLASSES!!" I walked around the corner met by a small army of campers who wanted to see what I was wearing and what they did. I immediately laid down ground rules saying that no camper can touch them at all. I was then ordered to make them do about 20 things it can't and they wouldn't listen if I said they couldn't do that.
While the attention was fun and all, that wasn't the reason why I had taken the Google Glass to HRCS. I took the Google Glass because I wanted to show my dad what it's like to go sailing at HRCS. Once everyone calmed down, we got our lifejackets on and headed to the dock. We waited for the dinghy to arrive, and when it did I made sure everyone on my boat got on the dinghy safely and quickly so we could go out to the boats. I recorded this entire process, along with getting on the boat, rigging it, and heading out onto the Hudson.
The Google Glass is amazing because I took three 12-minute videos of us getting ready to sail and sailing, at I forgot I was recording at times. The Google Glass made taking a video that showed what it was like to be on a boat from my point of view worlds easier than wearing a helmet with a GoPro or some contraption on my face with a camera over my eyes. I feel as though I showed my dad what it's like to sail on a boat at HRCS.
My dad and I took all of the videos I took, and we edited them down to the most important moments. After editing, I did a voiceover of my experience and what we were doing during each part of the video and just about the camp itself.
The Google Glass is easily one of the most influential pieces of technology I have ever used. This is not because it takes good video and pictures, but it's because it will be what people use for their daily lives. It will be a smartphone that you wear on your face and the accessibility will be constant. To me, the Google Glass is a piece of technology that will be the ultimate link to never being offline. Texts, calls, and notifications will constantly update and I will always be connected to my friends. The most important part of the Google Glass to me is the fact that I can share experiences like sailing on the Hudson with friends and family.