well, this will kill 10 minutes for me,,, i've been researching gps options for about a month now...
In the past, right up till now I was ONLY worried about top speed, and distance traveled, and if I get lost, access to a breadcrumb trail to get back to the ramp.. nothing more nothing less.
First...
I'm a huge fan of the ETREX. tough, waterproof, and does the job...i've abused mine for the last 3 years and although it eats batteries fast, its been as dependible as you can get, never let me down.
basically you need to be aware of the different models.
some of the older ETREX models have the old firmware and it doesn't update (i learned this the hard way) so if you buy the basic eTREX model, try to pin down how old it is, and get one thats not like 10 years old, because with the old ones, some of that old firmware doesn't track max speed and save it, you have to look down to see your max speed as its happening.. (not advisable) most models can be handlebar mounted, and most of the smaller yellow ones will easily fit in a pocket or around your neck for a speed run, thats my system, and I use the older B&W one,
one of my ride buddies has the nicer ETREX, the venture, color maps, and a little easier to read, cost him about $120 I think.
basically its just a nicer, slightly larger version of the basic ETREX, but does a nice job of top speed, and its still handlebar mounted, we use his to track our total mileage, so we know when we hit the 25-30 mile limit, its time to head back to the ramp, we haven't used it to mark ramps, but its more than capable.
I also had the Garmin GPSMAP72 (B&W) but I hated it, far too many buttons, and really a big pain to program, I bought one used, played with it for about 4 weeks, and sold it for $10 less just to get rid of the dam thing, IMO it was too big, bulky, complicated, and I was too lazy to start the learning curve, i'd suggest passing on this unless your really into Tech, and want to use it on a boat, vs a ski.
last week I tried the Garmin Forerunner410 Watch GPS, lots of nice functions,including tracking.
quite a nifty little thing, but it took me a bit to figure it out, but its nice to have speed, direction on your wrist.
I wanted to try it to load onto "my tracks" so I could post ride reports, but apparently I hit a wrong button on the ramp, and it only tracked my drive from Ft Myers to Bradenton... (duh) my bro in law uses it for biking, and his "my tracks" are super cool, you can do an overlay with google maps and stuff... I thought about buying his from him, but at $150 I took a pass, mainly because I think I can get these functions and more with a smart phone instead (see below)
the option i'm now exploring, and
the route i'm probably going, is getting a sony xperia android phone (mostly european release, not many in the US) my other bro uses THAT for biking and sailing, including nav charts. what my bro did was buy a "per minute" phone package for $30 (prepaid 100 minutes) with a sim card from metro, but doesn't make any calls, (no recurring charges) but the phone works off Wifi, you load your "apps" on wifi at home, the gps function will work anywhere... then you can upload to the web from wifi at home, no 4g needed. basically its an android smart phone thats wifi only (in this application) that you can use for top speed, tracking, average speed, and upload/download of tracks from your rides, or import rides from other users. Lots of guys on the JJ FB page post their ride reports, and its pretty nifty. and IF you do need to make an emergency call, you have a waterproof phone on board, with GPS, to call the coast guard with your location. This little pecker will set you back about $200.
in summary: a cheap durable EXTREX will serve you will for 90% of your needs, just don't buy a really old one... (not sure how to determine age except asking the seller), but if your really into Tech, then consider the leap up to a waterproof smart phone with a couple nice GPS apps installed. I've been too cheap to get one on Fleabay just yet, and was looking at Casio waterproof options before I committed, then got sidetracked and having done anything in a week, but i'll likely have some form of waterproof gizmo like this with android, and just keep the Etrex for the simple speed run's, but use this for "my tracks"
