Our Favorite Videos For The Week

By Austin Parker Published September 13, 2016

The Video Round Up is a new series highlighting videos and multimedia content that caught our eyes. Getting stoked on travel, good food, and extreme sports is best when shared with friends, so we’ll be posting a bi-weekly series on our favorite videos we find from every corner of the web. Have a tip or some awesome footage? Shoot an email to support@themanual.com

Life Beyond Walls: Galapagos

The Galapagos Islands are one of the last real tropical paradises that haven’t been spoiled by over development. Any trip there is unique, and with restrictions on travel and environmental impacts, it’s probably a once in a lifetime experience. For a small crew of surfers with Smith Optics, the combination of wildlife and perfect swell makes for some stunning visuals.

Life Beyond Walls: Galapagos

Salomon Running TV: Trail Dog

Of all the lessons that dogs can teach us, pure unadulterated happiness is by far the best. Your dog doesn’t care how much money you make, how many friends you have, or how far you make it up the mountain. He is simply excited that you chose to spend time with him, even if it’s the same Saturday morning run that you’ve been doing together for years. French runner Gaëtan Ugnon-Fleury’s two dogs Pépite and Jolyn know this secret to happiness. Take five minutes out of your day to get a lesson from these four-legged experts.

Trail Dog - Salomon Running TV Season 05 Episode 02

Get Vertical

One of our very favorite mountain brands, Salewa, was born in the alps. This summer they are hosting a competition to share their vertical heritage with some of their customers. If you’ve ever dreamed of big wall climbing, via ferrata navigation, or driving steep mountain passes, this is the basecamp experience you’ve been waiting for.

SALEWA Get Vertical Summer 2016 - Official Teaser

Goal Zero Nomad 7 Plus

Since we constantly haul cameras, GPS, and other electronics into the backcountry, we’re big believers in portable power. Goal Zero launched their completely redesigned Nomad 7 Plus solar panel this week, and we couldn’t be more excited. It features improved internals allowing you to directly charge your phone from the panel, cutting out a battery in between. It also has a power flow indicator, detachable kickstand, and hard points to attach to your pack, so you can get the most out of your portable power.

Nomad 7 Plus Solar Panel

Singletrack Switzerland: Verbier

You might remember the first episode of Singletrack Switzerland from the Round Up a couple weeks ago. We didn’t think we’d find a more gorgeous place to ride than the terrain around Zermatt, but we’re happy to be wrong. The BMC and Teton Gravity team explored the bike parks and steep descents around this classic mountain town and we’re going through some serious trail envy. if you’re smart, then you’re already planning your next summer vacation with a long stop in Verbier.

Freeriding Bottomless Trails In The Heart of the Alps – Singletrack Switzerland Verbier

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Austin Parker is a former contributor at The Manual Parker is a powder skier and sport climber and is no stranger hauling…

Culture

Tony Soprano vs. Walter White: Who is the ultimate antihero?

TV's biggest heavyweights duke it out for the antihero crown

Breaking bad season 4 screen shot

Sports fans often debate between two heavyweight legends. For basketball, it's LeBron James and Michael Jordan. Switching to tennis, you have Roger Federer fans and Rafael Nadal diehards. Debates like these are ingrained in the culture of athletics, but TV fans have their own version of this sparring match.

Tony Soprano from The Sopranos and Walter White from Breaking Bad are the two characters who still send shockwaves through every drama in the 21st century. These men were the perfect mix of good and evil. They navigated family life and the criminal underworld with cunning intelligence and ruthless risk-taking. Every show with morally gray characters at the center owes its storyboard to Walter and Tony, but which character deserves the antihero crown? This is Tony Soprano vs. Walter White for all the marbles.
Who was the more complex character?

Culture

Learn how to smoke a pipe the proper way with our guide for beginners

Let us show you the classy way to smoke a pipe

Packing a pipe

Pipe smoking is the most aesthetically distinguished way to enjoy tobacco, but you lose the classy effect if you don’t know how to smoke a pipe properly. Smoking a pipe has become a lost art, and these days, most people who engage in pipe smoking do so to achieve a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps your grandfather enjoyed a puff now and again paired with a good stiff whiskey, or maybe your goal is to emulate a pipe-smoking artist.

I know that I enjoy a good puff on a pipe now and then, and knowing the right way to enjoy a pipe has made the experience much more pleasurable for for me. Whatever the case, if you intend to take up the time-honored tradition of unwinding with a pipe like me, you should learn how to smoke a pipe the right way. And smoking a pipe is very different than smoking a cigar (except you shouldn't be inhaling either).

Culture

Don’t ruin your cigars: here’s how to properly season a new humidor

Seasoning secrets every cigar lover could use

faceless man presenting a cigar humidor with cigars inside with gloved hands

If you're a newcomer to the world of cigars or just bought a brand-new humidor, you'll need to season it. And no, I'm not saying to add salt and pepper to it. If you've never heard of it, you might ask, "What is seasoning for a humidor?"

Don't think you need to flavor the box or anything — seasoning is really about getting the wood inside your humidor so as not to rob your cigars of precious moisture. Easy to understand, and getting it done is relatively straightforward as well. The trick is figuring out the "why," and we'll get into that in a bit. But let's first discuss seasoning a humidor.