Camping & Paddling Gear I Wish I Bought Sooner

Ken Whiting with Paddle TV, and in this video I am telling you about, well, some gear that I think you should know about this season. And all of this gear is gear that companies sent to me to test. I've given it a preliminary test, but I haven't had a chance to do an in-depth test. But I'm excited to do an in-depth test of all of this gear based on my preliminary test. Deeper review is yet to come. This isn't a full review. This is a, hey, check out this cool gear. And with that, I'm going to be showing you two great new sandals for during paddling and after paddling, an inflatable cargo box for your vehicle, a hammock that actually lets you lay flat, binoculars you'll actually want to bring on your next paddling trip, a kick butt camp shelter, and a great way to give you simple lower back relief. But first, here's a piece of gear that you should know about that I have thoroughly tested. Over the past two years, and that I'm using every time I go paddling these days. It's the Dryrobe Advanced Long Sleeve Changing Rope. So why should you know about the Dryrobe? Well, because one of the worst things about paddling is the transition at the put in and at the take out between paddling and not paddling. And that's usually the getting changed part. The getting changed part, especially in the off season, and in particular in the spring and in the fall when it's cold, the water's cold. The Dryrobe makes that experience so much more enjoyable. It's got a full waterproof shell on the outside. But more importantly, what's on the inside? On the inside, it's got this super plush fleece that is designed to wick water quickly. So if it does get wet while you're changing, it's just going to drain right out quickly. You're not going to end up with a soggy fleece whatsoever. Now, this thing is designed to be big enough so that you can pull your arms in and take care of business. At the same time, what I found is it's more than just a robe to get changed in. It's a robe to hang out in once you're changed. Now, one of the cool things that I've learned about the Dryrobe over the past couple of years is that this is a great just outdoor event piece of apparel. It has a permanent home in our family vehicle. It's incredible for outdoor festivals and events, but for our daughter's games, soccer games, for beach volleyball games. Now, the other product from Dryrobe that goes with the whole changing program is their changing mat. This is a really simple and a nice addition, and it's got a permanent place in my truck. It's got a waterproof, durable one side to it so that you can put it down on, you know, any tourist cement, wet cement, dirt, mud, whatever. And on the other side, you got this plush fleece to stand on. Keep your footsies nice and cozy while you take care of changing business. Are you watching me change? All right, so now we're into gear that I haven't done a thorough test of, but I really liked it in my preliminary test. Here are two new sandals from Teva. Now, Teva has been doing sandals and river wear for, I think it's almost 40 years. I know it's got to be close to that because Teva sandals were the first water shoes that I wore when I started 35 years ago. I fondly remember showing up at high school after my first summer with the first Teva tans in high school and people looking at my tan lines on my feet and going, wow. But then, actually, they thought it was kind of cool too. So it was a win for me. It really was a win because I wasn't cool in other ways. These are the Teva's Hydra Trek Close Toe Sandal. Now, if you've seen any of my other content when I talk about footwear, you'll know that I'm not a big fan for paddling purposes of open toed sandals or footwear. The reason for that, pretty simple protection, but also it's just too easy for sand and grit, get in under the foot and make life uncomfortable. The other thing is when you're walking through water, when you have an open toed sandal, it's like this catcher's mitt that just grabs water, especially in current. I just don't like open toed sandals. Close toe, I do like it. I really like it. Now, Teva on the sole, they've got their spider rubber. They've been doing soles that are designed to have good traction in wet and dry conditions for decades. So they know what they're doing. The rubber has got great traction. I know that and so I like that as well. Tons of drainage. I haven't had a chance to thoroughly test these because this is more of a warm water shoe. It's definitely a warm water shoe. There's no insulation here. Right now, it's spring. The water is very cold and this is one of the nicest days we've had in, well, since last season, the warmest day of the year so far. So I won't be long before I can test these, but not yet. These suckers here, these are the Teva's new Apre Trail sandals. Very simple piece of footwear. It's a ultra lightweight foam sandal with this super plush, comfy footbed. And that's really its claim to fame. These things aren't designed for being on the water. These are for after water. They're primarily designed for, hey, when you just get off the water and you want to your footwear, but also at camp. When you get to camp, you take off your booties or your water shoes. You want to slide into something comfy. Boom. They still have the spider rubber on the bottom, the grippy rubber so that you maintain good traction. Now, once again, I haven't had the chance to thoroughly test these things in a paddling scenario, but I actually have been testing these very thoroughly at home. They're just so comfy. The footbed has got so much cushion that I've been using these more. My house has a lot of hardwood floors and tile. And especially when I'm cooking, I've been wearing these for cooking, for standing around on hard surfaces. And they're super comfy. And so I guess you could say I have thoroughly tested it. Just not in the environment that they're primarily designed for. But that's one thing to note about them. It's not a one trick pony. This isn't just a Apre paddling or hiking sandal. This is something you can wear for pretty much anything and just have comfy feet. I love the smell of new shoes. Not because they actually smell that good, but just because it's the best these things are ever going to smell. Enjoy it while it lasts. So next up, we've got the flated air carrier. This is an inflatable cargo box that fits pretty much any vehicle. And the nice thing is it fits a vehicle, whether you have roof racks or not. It was an absolute cinch to install. It took me all of a minute and it feels very secure. I'm not worried about it going anywhere. It's only 23 pounds and it packs down into a small backpack that it comes with. And so it's really easy to store when you're not using it to carry in the vehicle. If you want to keep it there or you can even travel with it, you could fly with it. It's so small and convenient. This is the larger version. It comes in three sizes, small, medium and large. And the larger version is 23 cubic feet, which is a lot of space for a cargo box. It's waterproof and it comes with locks, two locks, one for each side because it has doors, the zippered entries on both sides. Now, I love smart and innovative products and that's what this thing is. And it costs about the same, maybe even a bit less than a hard shell cargo box. How about that? A little longer and that would be a sweet bed. Now, back pain is something that too many of us have to deal with. And it's hard to say that kayaking or canoeing really help with the back pain. But I found this cool product called the Nada Chair that is designed to, well, help with your back pain. It's this very simple device, this padded back band and these elastic leg bands that just go around your knees like that. And then it clips in the middle if you want to. And I can't slouch now if I wanted to. The lower back support that this offers is really remarkable. Now, the way I found out about this thing is I was at the Canucopia Consumer Trade Show in Wisconsin this spring and I was complaining about my back as I sometimes do. And someone said to me, showed me that they had just bought one of these for that very reason because they have lower back pain. I am looking forward to trying it. I don't think it would work for kayaking. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work for kayaking. But I can see how this could offer some, you know, be a good solution for a long day of canoeing. What I have been testing it with is just sitting in the office chair because I'm a sloucher and I think it's from years of being hunched over paddling. But I slouch in the office chair. But with this thing, you can't slouch. So they've got a bunch of different models to choose from. This is the most basic. They have ones with more padding. They have ones with instead of elastic adjustable straps, you can get a bit more dialed in. But they're all really simple systems and they provide exceptional lower back support. So hopefully this can help some of you guys out there. It's a real wake up call knowing that this is the posture you're supposed to have. I am far from it. Next up, we've got this sucker right here. This is the Sage Canyon Plus Shelter with the optional mesh insert, which is not really optional when you live in a place like I do, because in a couple of weeks here, we're about to be swarmed by ridiculous numbers of black flies, mosquitoes, and eventually deer and horse flies. Nice. Look at that. Seven feet of headroom. It's also got a 10 foot by 10 foot floor plan. So tons of space. I mean, you could easily accommodate a group of six to eight in here. No problem. You could do, you could sleep a good size group in here. You could do your cooking in here. There's so much you could do in here. There's so much ventilation in here, whether or not you use the mesh insert or not. The shelter itself is eight pounds. The mesh insert, which is sold separately, is four pounds. So it's combined 12 pounds. It's not an ultralight setup. This would be a hard thing to justify bringing on a backpacking trip. But canoeing and camping, or canoe camping and kayak camping, gosh, I mean, weight and space is generally not an issue. Unless you've got some big portages to do, then you might not want to bring something an extra 12 pounds. But if you don't, god, you have space for luxuries like this. And this is a luxury that I would definitely bring when I have the space for it. Now, you can get cheaper bug shelters or sun shelters. Absolutely. But you're not going to get one that is a cheaper one that's 12 pounds combined, nor are you going to get one that has got the build quality of Big Agnes. Big Agnes makes fantastic outdoor products. I've been testing a number of their tents, their sleeping bags and sleeping pads. I gave them an award for one of their tents last year. They make great stuff. And when I put this thing together, it took me about five minutes to put up the shelter, about another five minutes to attach the mesh insert. And I was saying to myself, wow, this is not only simple to do, but it's really well built. Lots of guy lines so that if it's windy out, there's lots of ways to just tighten, you know, lock this thing down. Wouldn't want to put it up in some really high winds, but this could handle, definitely handle rougher conditions than one of the cheaper bug shelters or sun shelters that you can get on the market. Cool product. This is, this is going to join me on one of my solo trips. It might be a little excessive, but then again, you know, maybe I won't even need to bring a tent. This can be my everything tent. So next up we have this. This is the Haven tent. More specifically, the Haven XL system. It's for bigger folks like me. A little bit wider, a little bit longer. The whole idea though of the Haven tent, the reason this, this guy Derek developed it was to have a hammock that you can actually lay flat in. And I absolutely love that concept. I actually absolutely love the concept of Haven tents. Their whole mission is to make sleeping the highlight of your camping trip. I think I need to test this again. You know, there really are a lot of reasons to love this hammock system. I mean, it's just 30 inches wide. It's got tons, tons of space. I'm laying flat and not only are you flat on your back, but it's a flat system for side sleepers too. You could probably even sleep on your stomach if that was your thing. I think the other great thing about this system is it's all integrated. Even the sleeping pad that comes with it. This is their true level sleeping pad where it's actually narrower on the sides and thicker in the middle so that it counters the weight of your body in the middle, creating a sag in the middle. There's more volume there. It helps it be more of a lay flat platform. On top of that, you know, one of the big bummers about a typical hammock system is a sleeping pad when you don't have to use a sleeping pad, but the sleeping pad adds so much insulation. So if it's cool at all and you're not using a sleeping pad, you really feel the cold from underneath because your sleeping bag doesn't help with that when it's compressed. The problem is the sleeping pad just slides all over the place and it usually slides down towards the feet and you're having to adjust it all the time. This sleeping pad is built specifically for the Haven tent and it locks in to the corners and it really doesn't have anywhere to move. This product is going to warrant a whole lot of testing right now and in the future on one of my trips. I hope you guys appreciate the links that I go to to test this gear for you. Now the last piece of gear that I'm excited to test on one of my backcountry trips are these right here. This is Knox Provisions field issue binoculars. It's the middle of the road of their binoculars and these are the first pair of binoculars that I've held and said, I'm looking forward to taking this on a trip. A few reasons for that. They're small and light for one. Now these are a 10x optical zoom, 32mm viewing area and what's really nice about them is they're waterproof and fog proof which is huge when you're on backcountry trips. They also, when you're paddling, they're practical to use because it has this big focus knob on the top so you can really use them single handed too. They have this really nice rubber grip on them that is going to make them, well they're anti-slip so you get a good grip with one hand, two hands, whatever. They're just rugged, durable, waterproof, fog proof binoculars and I really wanted to have a good pair of binoculars on my backcountry trips because there's so much to see and now I do and I'll look forward to testing this on my next trip. So there you have it. I hope you guys have enjoyed this video. I am definitely looking forward to testing this gear on a real paddling adventure this summer. I'll be sure to report back on how it fared. In the meantime, give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Subscribe to PaddleTV if you haven't already and stay tuned because I've got lots more paddling tips, gear reviews and paddling adventures coming your way.