Coris Vertix 2s, new inReach contracts, the all-new Garmin inReach Messenger plus and Andy’s top tips.

In this month’s podcast

1.   First thoughts on the Coros Vertix 2s

Robust tough sapphire screen sunlight readable, titanium bezel, big battery not all the bells and whistles but so easy to use.

Coros Vertix 2s – more here

2. New inReach contracts

10p / check-in

10p / trackPoint

50p / message/ weather

1 off payment – Activation fee – £39.99

Garmin inReach products – more here

3. New inReach messenger plus

What is the Garmin inReach messenger? – £199.99

Up to 28 days with a message or location sent every 10 minutes with full sky view; up to 14 days with moderate tree cover

What is the inReach messenger plus? – £429.99 ( 30 second voice message, photo’s)

— NEW — The ability to also send voice recordings, photos and group messaging on the Garmin Messenger app

Up until now Garmin’s inReach line used Short Burst Data (SBD) to send messages, but with entirely new hardware, the Messenger Plus uses Iridium Messaging Transport (IMT) to send messages 300 times larger than SBD. That means it can support photos, 30-second voice memos, and 1,600-character texts (previous inReach text messages couldn’t exceed 160 characters).

Battery

Up to 120 hours of text message or location information sent every 2 minutes in power-saving messaging mode; up to 70 hours in performance messaging mode.

Garmin inReach Messenger Plus – more here

4. Andy’s Top Tips

When on map or elevation plot screen

If you do press in scroll wheel you will see + – icon to use scroll wheel to zoom in and out – remember to press back button when finished or when screen unlocked scroll wheel will not move to next screen as still in zoom mode back button cancels

Remember you cannot pause or stop activity from map or elevation sreen but any other screen

The new Garmin Fenix 8, Irish mapping for a TwoNav GPS unit and a new GPS Training course for 2025.

In this month’s podcast

 1. It’s our 100th podcast

Sorry it’s a little late in the month, normally it is the 1st of every month.

Holidays and very busy at GPS Training

If you do not already do please subscribe to the GPS Training podcast on whatever platform you listen to us on

2. Fenix 8 – what has changed?

AMOLED screen – no longer EPIX

Fenix 8 – AMOLED

Additions –

– AMOLED comes in three sizes: 43/47/51mm

– Solar edition only – New edge ring solar panel is far more efficient, and no longer covers display, improving clarity

3. Irish mapping for TwoNav – potentially getting updated

Source: LPSNI Northern Ireland

Scale: 1:50.000

Format: Topographic

Size: 437.19 Mb

Resolution: 4.0 m/px

Version : 2012

£34.16

Southern Ireland OSM & TomTom

Overseas and Irish map options for TwoNav GPS Units

Over the next couple of weeks we will be putting our 2025 GPS Training courses on the website –

Two-day ‘physical’ training courses around the UK – £195.00

Scottish Borders

Northumberland

Lake District

Peak District

Northamptonshire

Gloucestershire

South Downs

New Forest

Then we have out 1:1 over Zoom – 2 hours – £89.00 – at a time that suits you best

BUT, new for 2025 we are having 1 day group courses over Zoom

These will be – £75.00/ person

10.00 – 16.00 (with x 1 hour for lunch – giving time to digest what has been taught

– 4 people on each Zoom training course

5. Andy’s top tips

If you own a computer you can organise your Routes into Folders

Then when you open up Routes from main menu you can see your folders

If you do not have pc you cannot create folders but you can change list order by going into Routes – tap 3 white dots bottom right – select Sort by – Date, Sport, File Name, Proximity, distance, Ascent etc

This will also change order in folders, ie distance longest first, ascent highest first etc

Handhelds goto Setup – Map – advance setup – Detail – change from Normal to more or most

Basecamp Mac – detail level bar toolbar bottom of map

Basecamp Windows – View – Toolbars – detail level tick – new box Medium, can change to higher highest or low, lower, lowest

Lower when moving around

In this podcast, we look back at the past 99 episodes of the GPS Training podcast.

The first ever GPS Training Podcast went out on Sept 15th 2017 – 7 years ago

I had been on holiday that summer and first learnt about Podcasts and had got slightly ‘hooked’ on them, or one particular – Big Ideas for Small Business, which incidentally I was interviewed for 2 years later.

I loved the format of the podcast, long-form, which you invested in.

I remember the first ever day I pitched the idea at one of our staff meetings I was met by some interesting ‘blank stares.

Here it is –

In the first-ever GPS Training Podcast the lead piece was on the ‘all-new’ Sat Map Active 20 – 2 months on.

Quite ironic as SatMap went out of business in 2022, 5 years later

Podcast 1 (2017) – 19 (2019) – with Andy and other guests

Streamed live on Facebook

Podcast 19 – 59 (Sept 2021) with Ian and other guests

Then Andy came back from then on to the present day

Podcast 60 to current day

Monthly except for

Podcast 33 (March 2020) onwards – Covid, we went to fortnightly podcasts

Recorded these at 7.45 in the morning then I could answer any calls in the office, as all the other staff were furloughed

It hopefully kept you all sane, I know it certainly did that with us – kept us sane – very hard time personally, working on my own and being upbeat on a podcast not knowing what was around the corner on the business front

As things started to get a little more ‘normal’ we had our 50th Podcast (March 2021) we had the whole team from GPS Training at the time on the podcast and we answered random questions, picked out of a hat.

Questions that are in the hat

I know a number of you that I have spoken to over the years have gone all the way back to number 1 and listened to them all.

I am massively impressed, well done to you guys and girls!

Some of my – Highpoints –

I was first introduced to the Spine Race by Paul Freeman –

Podcast 31, back in 2020 – Spoke to Paul Freeman before he undertook the Spine Challenger south – I knew nothing about this race before I interviewing him

Quite ironic now as the Spine Race became such a large part of both mine and Andy’s life over the past number of years.

I remember doing a bit research before that interview and learning about the spine Race for the first time, all the different race options.

After I interviewed Paul again, after he had finished the race, I remember thinking to myself, I would love to do that one day and x 3 years later I finished the 108 mile spine challenger south, the race Paul had done.

Then the following year, this year, the 160 mile Spine Challenger North.

I am often humbled, when speaking to these people, how often the person I am speaking to really opens up and often you can see tears running down their faces as they share their thoughts and emotions with you.

On the 15th GPS Training podcast I interviewed Duncan, who had built his own rowing boat and then rowed across the Atlantic.

I had interviewed him again, but speaking to him in October 2018 after he had got so near to completing this adventure.

If you have not listened to this, he explains his dramatic rescue just off the coast of Ireland (699 miles away), the 100th day of his cross Atlantic crossing.

Duncan had borrowed a Garmin inReach messenger from us for his journey.

Duncan was a tough Scottish guy, who worked offshore, and during the interview he talked with no emotions, a true “Scottish mail’, but as I took him through the rescue it really just brought everything into reality, but for myself and also for him.

It is the most dramatic story I have personally heard as he explained his rescue, looking at the propellors as he had a rope attached to the super tanker – before the ropes broke.

His life kept going into slow motion as he looked at the propellor, he was thrown out of his boat and then on a massive wave lifted him up and he could grab onto the ladder.

At the end of that interview, whilst I was no longer recording, he stated reciting this rescue was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Tommy was a downhill mountain biker

Spent two seasons on the World Cup circuit

After an accident in 2013 he had an accident, in which he fractured his skull, damaged his spinal cord, discs and permanently paralysed his right arm.

Tommy was a local person ‘I knew’ but getting the chance to speak with him was a true highlight of the podcast, a truly inspirational character.

I could go on all day here, but some other great episodes –

Episode 65 (January 2022) – Allan Knight – who was the oldest man to walk the length of Britain – Jon o Groats to Lands end

Episode 80 (January 2023) – Toby Simms who had walked the length of Britain, this time from Cape Wrath to his home in Hastings, in the South East of England

And off course – Chris the Coast Walker, who has been on the podcast a number of times. He walked 11,000 miles around the Coast of Britain, he started in late July 2020, when we thought the Covid Pandemic was over!

Episode 41 – August 2020

Episode 53 – Mid April 2021 as he had to bail out of Wales as it went back into lockdown

Episode 66 (really 65.5) – Feb 2022 when I walked a section of the Northumberland Coast with him

Chris has become a good personal friend and I have seen him, and his family, at a number of outdoor shows etc since then.

And more recently I must mention my chats with Andy, my current co-host, as we have discussed his Post Spine stories.

The environment of the podcast really does give people the opportunity to open up and tell their heartfelt story.

There are so many guests to mention of the years and the. More I think about the longer the list gets.

I know I have learnt so much that has improved my hill skills whilst hosting the podcast and I hope you have too.

Many thanks to everybody who has listened to the podcast over the past 7 years.