Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
I picked up a 6l Palm Ultralite dry bag a couple of months back and have been using it for on and off the water duties.
The 3 to 15 litre range of ultralite drybags are constructed from lightweight siliconised Cordura® (silnylon) fabric with stitched and taped seams. They have the roll down closure that most of us are familiar with and D-ring attachment points. Continue reading
Surely everyone should have a utility belt, Batman had one.
UK based Palm Equipment have come to rescue your wanna be super hero dreams by creating the Zambezi Utility Belt.
From Palm Equipment:
A technical waist belt to mount any Palm throwline. With a throwline release and belt release buckles, a pocket for storage and a comfortable vent mesh belt that floats.
Features include:
Embossed foam waist belt with Fixlock® QR buckle
Throwline deployment system with Fixlock® QR buckle
Cordura® top-opening towline pouch with removable 3m HT polypropylene floating line in yellow
Shock absorber on rope
Comes in storage bag with printed usage instructions
Fabrics: Embossed foam belt, Cordura® 550D bag with 6mm floating Polypropylene line
I had the chance to have a close up look at the new Dagger Jitsu courtesy of Northshore Watersports.
Jackson’s Super Star is designed for the larger paddler and part of the Jackson All Star Series of kayaks.
Our most popular playboat of all time still available to everyone!- Those who want to make their playboating game bigger, better, faster, and easier have been flocking to our highest performing and easiest paddling All-Star yet.
Short, fast, loose, and goes huge on loops, wave tricks. The Jackson 2010 Allstar dominated the Worlds as a boat that is legend in how it takes your playboating to the next level!
Beginners enjoy the fastest learning curve of any up and coming playboaters. Your first spin, surf, loop, cartwheel or even Eskimo roll will be rewarded with an easier to perform boat.
Intermediates really begin to set the All-Star loose with explosive pop in the wedged shape bow and stern, speedy hull, and easy to get off the water design.
Experts have already earned the 1st-5th places in the last World Championships in Thun, Switzerland in the Men’s Pro class. Need we say more?
Continue readingIn the spring of 1997, Riot Kayaks set out to design a kayak that would enable them to win the world rodeo championships: the ultimate wave-surfing, hole-riding, rodeo kayak.
From Riot:
We succeeded in creating just that a boat so far ahead of any other kayak at the 1997 championships, that athletes who felt disadvantaged lobbied for a last minute change in the scoring rules to prevent the Glide from achieving high scores on the moves it had been designed to do, and in which it excelled. That was prototype number one. Thirty-three completely vertical ends in twenty four seconds, multiple blunt splitwheels on totally green waves, airborne six point wave wheels, super blunts, freewheels, rockwheels, super clean cartwheels, clean shuvvits and more. The list is endless, the limits are undefined. If all-out rodeo is your thing, then this is the only possible choice.
I had a little run down the North Tyne today from Chollerford to Acomb today. The North Tyne is a grade II/III run in the North East of England and in paddling circles is probably best known as the main venue for the Tyne Tour.
A week ago the water levels had been up and down like a Yo-Yo but had steadied and leveled off over the course of the last few days. Water levels were 0.88 on the gauge and remained static throughout the course of the run.
For my good friend TM this was his first taste of real white water and water levels were ideal.
Today was a one car affair which necessitated me dropping the car off at Acomb and walking/hitching back up. After around 1 mile I was picked up by a group of paddlers from Coquet Canoe Club in Amble (many thanks).
The weather was pretty good with both a mild air temperature and fairly good water temperature, but quite a thick mist lingered in the air until mid afternoon.
During the course of the paddle I carried a GoPro Black Edition and Silver Edition. The black on my lid and the silver on the boat. Continue reading
I wrote about carrying a bothy shelter as part of my When It All Goes Wrong kit a few weeks ago. I have a 2 man and 4 man bothy at the minute but have been on the look out for a larger version. Sportpursuit have listed 2, 4 and 8 man versions of the Lifesystem Adventure bothy. All around 1/2 of the normal price. I have used one of the older Lifesystem shelters in the past and they are a cracking bit of kit.
[UPDATE: GoPro have released the Hero 7 Black Edition. You can find more about it here.]
My black edition Gopro Hero 3 arrived in the UK a couple of weeks ago. The form factor will be familiar to all who have seen or already own the white or silver editions.
Looking at the different cameras (I have silver and black editions) the “3” within Hero3 is coloured to match the cameras edition. That is the Black edition’s 3 is black and the Silver Editions 3 is silver etc. But what really makes the white, silver and black editions different to one another is what goes on inside.
Decembers issue is now out. Check out the review of the Palm Spark Surface Immersion Suit.
New in for test this week at the Unsponsored HQ is a Contour +2 action camera. After setting up the camera I downloaded the apps for my Mac and iPhone.
The Rivertec Fusion PFD has been about for some time now and has only seen one real revamp in its history. It first appeared in the late 90’s in a rather smart dark blue which was later joined by red and now grey. The new grey version also has a zipped chest pocket, something which its colourful predecessor lacked. The basic concept of the Fusion will be familiar to most – a slab PFD with adjustment on the shoulders, sides and waist.
Where it differs is the use of neoprene to help provide a snug fit without being restrictive or allowing the PFD to ride up. The neoprene forms the basis of the shoulder straps with additional tape adjustment. Further neoprene is also evident on the the front and back of the Rivertec Fusion and are joined by tape adjusters fastened by fastex buckles. This makes the Fusion very easy to put on, adjust and remove. An additional strap on the bottom of the Fusion makes riding up almost impossible.
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