Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view
We’ve been sent a photo showing what appears to be a Waka Tuna. However this is not the hull shape that we are familiar with.
Here is a few shots of the current design for reference.
Is it a new design? Has it been shopped?
We are trying to find out more.
Hot for 2016 is the new Palm Atom Drysuit. We saw one of these at Paddle Expo back in September 2015 so are very pleased to get hold of one for review on Unsponsored.
It’s been a few years since we last tried a Palm suit here at Unsponsored HQ which gives us the opportunity to take a fresh look at what Palm Equipment have been doing to develop their suits.
We have a pair of 2016 Palm Zenith Pants here at Unsponsored HQ for review.The Zenith pants are designed to be combined with any dry or semi dry top to create a flexible system for year round use.
Although a two piece combination will find it hard to be beat a drysuit I have used a number of two piece systems in the past that have been super dry. The big advantage is that you can mix and match tops and bottoms to create a system that is best matched for the conditions you are going out in.
I will be matching these pants with the Palm Fuse jacket which we have been using here at HQ for almost a year.
You’ve go to love a video that starts with Top Secret.
This classified video is from Whetman Equipment and shows their Pig Rig setup. It is well worth a watch.
We are big fans of rand decks at Unsponsored HQ. We have, in the past, gone to extreme measures to ensure that really good rand decks live on to fight another day.
It was therefore superb that we heard that Palm Equipment were going to bring out a brand new rand based deck. The Palm Orbit is a new take on a favourite and we are looking forward to trying this out over the next few months. Lets take a tour in the Palm Orbit – First Look.
Late last year I had the opportunity to visit the Pyranha factory here in the UK.
I had never been to a plastic kayak/canoe manufacturing site before so I did not know what I should expect.
The plastic used in the factory to create the kayaks arrives in powder format. For some reason I had always thought that the plastic would be in the form of chips or small pellets. The first misconception of the day was blown away.
Steve Whetman from Whetman Equipment is coming up with some pretty nifty pieces of gear for use on the water. The Anaconda tow system is designed to make towing another boat as safe as possible. Check it out.
I’m going to begin the Astral Hiyak – review by saying a little bit about the boots I’ve been using most of the time – the Five Ten Water Tennies. They have been faultless and have become my favourite pair of paddling boots. The Stealth rubber is what really makes it. I have several pairs of shoes/boots and have probably tested/reviewed pretty much everything that is available on the market but for river use I always return to the Water Tennies.
Now to the Astral Hiyak. They don’t have the Stealth rubber from Five Ten but have Astral’s own G.ss rubber, I have seen the G.ss a number of times but have never been able to try it out, until now.
Continue readingI had the opportunity to have a brief paddle of the new 2016 Dagger Nomad (#newmad) last week. This particular shell is the Prototype V3 which is pretty much what the production model will be like.
I had first seen the Newmad in the flesh at Paddle Expo and since posting those images taken at the time it has been pretty clear, from the associated statistics from Unsponsored, that this boat has a great number of people very interested.
But what are my initial thoughts?
We’ve been following the development of the whitewater line of Soul Waterman kayaks since Corran Addison first announced them.
The new boats are almost ready for full production. As we are getting close to the release we are starting to see examples of what the actual outfitting will be like. Corran has taken some recent images of the new Soul Waterman outfitting and we are pretty impressed at Unsponsored HQ.
Nightlines photography – Geoff Otto shows us how using EL-wire (electro luminescent wire) and a creative side can be used to capture a different type of ww scene.
I have been playing around with el-wire now for approx 12 month, its a fantastic product and not too expensive. A 5 metre length is £5+ to the door from online suppliers or from eBay which I where I got hold of it. It’s a little temperamental when first trying it out, but it becomes easier once you’ve set a few lines up. To get the shots, we’ve been timing the evening so we just catch light fading into dark to get the best exposure in the shots. These test shots are something for a bigger project I have in mind in the future with Teesside Uni film crew.
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