Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view

Tag: seal

Palm Zenith Dry Top 2017 – First Look

The Palm Zenith Dry top is a midweight whitewater jacket with a comfy GlideSkin neck (no latex)‚ made in XP 2.5-layer fabric. We’ve had the short sleeve version at Unsponsored HQ for some time and it’s our go to summer jacket. The long sleeve version shown landed last week, so we thought we would take a closer look.

Palm Zenith Dry Top - First Look

As you would expect the long sleeve Zenith Dry top is very similar in both fabric, cut and freedom of movement.

The Palm Zenith is available in a mens and ladies version. The Palm Zenith shown here is the mens version.

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Spray Skirt Rescue

Spray skirts/decks have a pretty tough life but do an incredibly important job. I’d been on the look out for a spray skirt to rescue from an inevitable trip to the bin and found one close to home.

Unsponsored’s little brother River (Militia) has a Palm Kevlar RT rand deck that has seen better days. I had offered to repair it for this post without seeing the total extent of the damage.

In fairness the skirt should have been consigned to the bin years ago or at least set on fire and given a grand send off. However the skirt was in such a bad state that it made the perfect subject for this post as most types of repair were required to bring it back to life.

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To put the repair into context most joints on the skirt were compromised and in other areas the skirt had separated from the rand. In two key places the kevlar/neoprene had worn out/through and large holes had appeared. Even the top part of the tunnel had separated from the skirt and was also torn in a couple of places. All in all it was in a sorry state.

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Spray Deck Skirt Modification

After reading through some old threads on liquid latex, I found some good reviews on the stuff but no pictures of how people got on, so I thought I’d share with you the pics of my repaired spray deck. Time for a little spray deck modification.

spray deck modification

My spray deck had always been fairly loose fitting so I could get it off easier in a panic, but now as my confidence has built up, I wanted a tighter fitting deck to keep me drier in pushier water or waves.

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Reader’s Rides 2013: Robert Kierans

Name: Robert Kierans

Country: Ireland

Age : 15

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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.

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How to Replace a Neck Gasket

Aquapac Whanganui

I’ve had an iPad of one sort or another for a couple of years and have always thought it would make an excellent tool for coaching kayaking. The fact you can video and then have instant play back is very appealing. Obviously the biggest issue is that water and tech don’t mix. Thankfully a Whanganui from Aquapac landed so I could test out my theory.

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