Astral have released details of the 8th limited edition (LE8) Green Jacket design. The LE8 Rise Up is a tribute to the spirit and energy of wild places.
What do you think?
Tag: Astral (Page 2 of 3)
Astral have recently launch some socks to compliment their range of on/off water footwear. Pretty simple but the specs look good.
Name: Aaron Kendall
Location: Loggerheads, Mold, North wales
I’m currently a outdoor instructor for Kingswood, based at the Colomendy outdoor centre. What seems to be the perfect location, although I seem to of missed most of the rain due to other commitments. Still getting plenty of low water runs in and the odd bit of water too.
Name: Ben Hawthorne
About me: Been paddling for a while now, maybe 24 years?? Christ I’m old!!! I have however been fortunate to take my passion all over the world and paddle in a whole lot of places including New Zealand, Nepal, Chile and Canada. For the last 2 summers and next I have been running the Sjoa Kayak Camp in Norway along with my beautiful wife and the Gene 17 boys. I’m lucky enough to be supported by Colorado Kayak Supply in the US, super cool guys, check em out.
Location: Currently, Chamonix for the winter. Stoked.
Boat: ZET Raptor. Now when these came out I thought they looked a bit industrial, rough around the edges and wasn’t that keen. Then I ended up paddling one for a bit, and after a couple of runs was completely converted. It does everything a creek boat should do. Fast (for a creek boat), boofs and rolls easy, light, comfortable and most importantly, bomb proof. I do think its not really a great beginners boat, it definitely needs to be driven around the river and will kick your arse pretty fast if youre not a pro-active paddler but I love it. It really suits my paddling style. I’m pretty excited to see the new boat they’ve got lined up, details boys details!!! Also a Bliss-stick Smoothy for my play boat, like a project in my size, love it.
Name: Dave Brown (aka Redneck Dave, Full Face Dave, Small Head)
Location: Barrow or North Wales
Boat: Currently an XL Burn Mk3 in the sickest colours you’ve ever seen – Rasta
I really like the way the rails allow you to carve hard without stalling and tripping you up unlike the old burn, making it easy to fine tune lines and snap into eddies. It has quite a flat hull which allows it to surf easily, staying high on features and keeping you in control as you move laterally across the flow which is really cool. It has the Connect 2014 outfitting it comes with which allows the seat to be varied in both height and pitch. I have this set in the highest position, with the largest block installed under the front of the seat to really lock me in which works well, even though I’m the bottom end of the weight range. Seeing as I have the attention span of a gnat, I’m considering swapping out for a 9R to get some speed in my life.
After the huge success of the Brewer and Brewess, Astral have developed a new shoe called the Loyak.
The Loyak has a much lower profile than the Brewer. The upper of the Loyak is constructed from 1000 denier Cordura Nylon and the sole is made of G.15 rubber (The replacement for 5:10 stealth rubber).
The old current kit topics on the forum were always popular, so I thought I’d give you all an update of my current kit for July 2014.
Since 5:10 (Five Ten) were bought out by Adidas the ability of other brands to use 5:10’s world famous stealth rubber on their own footwear designs has ceased to exist. Astral have therefore decided to use the G.14 rubber compound.
Real world feedback is suggesting that this compound is as good if not better than stealth rubber.
Finding a good shoe or boot that is robust enough for long walk ins/outs, offers good levels of protection/support and is comfortable to wear all day is pretty tough. Thankfully a number of big players have begun to expand the range of shoes available. For the last couple of years I have been using a pair of Five Ten Water Tennies and really like them. But I also have a but also have a set of Astral Brewers which are great in my playboat. The Brewers dry much faster that the Water Tennies but don’t have the same level of protection or stiffness as the Five Tens.
It’s always interesting to see what other paddlers carry with them. What do you carry with you?
Astral athlete Gareth Tate sends in a photo showing what he carries in his Greenjacket and says…
“I could not be more stoked on the convenience and capacity of the new clamshell pocket on the Greenjacket, check out what I am able to carry with room to spare.”
-1-2 prussiks
-2 locking carabiners
-1 small pulley
-15-20ft of webbing (half inch)
-Rescue whistle
-Rescue knife
-Snack bar
-SPOT device
What do you carry in your Greenjacket?
Firstly the Astral YTV PFD is not available in Europe but thanks to the Internet it is super easy to get hold of one.
I have had mine for a number of weeks and was able to put it through its paces on whitewater for the first time this week. A full review will be published in a couple of months, so in the meantime here is a little detail on the YTV Continue reading
Name: Robert Kierans
Country: Ireland
Age : 15
Boat: I’ve been paddling a Medium Burn for four months now on everything from flat water in Ireland to Grade 4 in the alps. In that time if found it to be a gem of a boat. The best part being the rails which work extremely well at getting the boat in to and out of eddy’s as well as ferry gliding.
North East Kayaks & Paddles
Pure Land Expeditions
Northshore Watersports
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