Camelbak Better Bottles are my preferred delivery method for hydration, with their high durability, ease of use, and no spilling. I talked about them a while back and my enthusiasm has not diminished.
I always go overboard with the tipping of the wide mouth bottles and end up with a shirt (and chin) dribbled in water, so finding a high quality bottle that eliminates that problem was refreshing. I’ve been using the Better Bottles daily for several years now for work, home, and outdoor use, so I am excited to finally have some in stock. Recommending my favorite product that I didn’t even carry in the store made my inner capitalist cry.
The bottles come in quite a few different BPA free Tritan plastic colors and a few different sizes. I personally prefer the .75L one, but they also have .5L and 1L as well. Starting this year, they even have a stainless steel version.
Suunto compasses are widely regarded as the finest in the world, so I made a special effort to pick them up a while back when customers asked for some compasses that could be used for real orienteering as opposed to the tiny button compasses we had been stocking at the time. The Suunto models have sapphire bearings to make their movement fast and accurate, sturdy construction that can handle being tossed around in your pack, and other features that make them easy to use and reliable.
We just picked up several new compass models and started dabbling in their watches as well. Hopefully nobody from Suunto is reading this, since lumping their products in with other watches on the market is kind of insulting. Suunto calls them wrist-top computers, outdoor sports instruments, and other multiple word names which are probably more accurate monikers. Some models feature triple sensors to give you an altimeter, barometer, thermometer, and compass within easy reach on a hike. Their heart rate monitors are incredibly accurate and several of them have a mode called Training Effect which will show you a number that tells you how effective your workout is at that exact time. The Training Effect incorporates quite a bit more than just your current heart rate, so you can use the number to see how beneficial your hard work is to not only burning calories but also your long term fitness goals.
I have been wearing a Suunto Observer for a few years now, and love the thing. It is compact compared to most triple sensor models on the market, meaning that my girly wrist was not completely dwarfed like with most of the competing products. The body and design are stylish, so it did not look completely out of place with business attire back when I had to dress like an adult.
Go with Suunto and you won’t be disappointed. I’ll work on getting some product videos up soon.
We love hammocks here at Going Gear. I use them, all of my employees use them, and I finally convinced my wife to use them on overnight trips. They are light, easy to set up, comfortable, and very versatile. I have received a few requests to make a video showing the setup of an ENO Double Nest hammock, so I made a quick video on a recent hike in the North Georgia Mountains featuring the hammock, some Slap Strap Pros, and my hairy beast of a mutt.
Jetboil makes my favorite cooking systems on the market. I am lazy, and a Jetboil FLASH is a lazy man’s dream. They are super simple to use, easy to setup, extremely fast, very efficient, and lightweight. The FLASH system is new this year, with an improved design over the original Personal Cooking System and a temperature sensitive gel on the side of the cup that shows you when the water has reached the optimal temperature. The FLASH is so efficient thanks to the insulation and Fluxring that it can boil 16 oz of water in right at two minutes, which means that you have your food faster and you save your fuel for more uses per canister.
They have larger systems as well, if you want to do more than just boil water. The Group Cooking System has a larger pot that you can use to cook meals for groups and the Helios has a remote canister setup that allows for cooking in a much wider temperature range compared to regular canister stoves. They even have a Coffee Press for making coffee in your FLASH and other accessories like hanging kits, extra pots, cups, and much more.
My EDC light is the SC30 from Zebralight, so I was very excited when Zebralight announced their first headlamp to use a real reflector, the H31/H31w, which was essentially the SC30 at a 90 degree angle. The interface on both the flashlight and headlamp is sublime with its instant access to all three modes from being off. Not having to cycle through bright modes to get to a super dim mode or vice versa is much more useful than I realized before having a light like this. The headlamp comes in two flavors, the H31 and H31w. The H31 is the cool white version, while the H31w is the warm white version, with a tint closer to what you would see with an incandescent light.
Both versions come with a headlamp strap and a pocket clip. I personally prefer the pocket clip, because having the light attached to your belt, pack strap, or anywhere else lower than your head creates much better shadows on the trail, giving you excellent depth perception compared to having a light on your head. Watch the video below for a better idea of what the headlamps can do.
NiteIze is one of those companies that makes products that are brilliant in their simplicity. One of their new items is the KnotBone Adjustable Bungee, which adds flexibility to, well, flexibility.
Two sizes are available, both giving you a wide range of lengths to which you can set the cord. Adjusting is quick and easy, and the cords hold securely once adjusted. Watch the video below for a better idea of what they can do.
When the Gearpods products were released last year, I was impressed with how well thought out the kits and components were compared to other premade kits and containers on the market. Imagine my delight when they decided to update the line this year, improving the quality and moving the production of the main components to the US.
The new pods use Nalgene style threads to achieve their watertight feature instead of a rubber gasket like the first version. They also added some new colors, bringing the available color total to four with orange, black, tan, and olive drab. I made a few videos showing the connect systems, custom kits, and stove kit:
I’m trying to beef up my selection of items to the point where you can buy everything in the store that you would need on a camping trip other than apparel, and sleeping bags were a big hole in my product selection. A huge shipment of Snugpak products just came in to fill that hole.
For those of you not familiar with Snugpak, they are an English brand known for making roomy and comfortable synthetic sleeping bags that can still pack down to a tiny size. We have a healthy selection of their warm weather (32 F+) bags and will pick up some of the colder weather bags in the coming months for those of you that live in a climate where it actually gets below 32 F. Living in Georgia, I forget that other people actually remember what snow looks like.
They also make some cool packs, and we picked up a few of them to gauge interest. As with anything else we sell, if there is something from them that you want that we do not stock, just let me know and I will get it.
What’s next in the new product onslaught? How about some laziness aids? ENO is a company out of North Carolina that makes some really nice, comfortable, durable, and lightweight hammocks. They have all the accessories to go along with the hammocks, including pouches, bug nets, rain flies, etc.
Hammocks are a great way to cut weight and get yourself off the ground and away from the less adventurous critters. I always have my best nights of sleep in a hammock, especially when I couple it with a sleeping pad. You can add under quilts for cold weather, making it a four season sleeping option. The rain flies can be adjusted to not only block the rain, but any prevailing winds.  Mount them up higher on a summer night to catch any breezes that happen to be coming through the area. As long as you have a couple of attachment points, you can use your hammock. Even if you don’t have a way to attach it, being creative enough will still get you hanging.
The ENO Single Nest is, well, for a single person. The Double Nest is their more popular model, since having another person with you is (usually) even better. Just hope it is someone that you want to be in a hammock with, and not some dude that forgot his tent (and his camp soap).
I promised lots of new brands recently, and Maxpedition is the first big one of many. If you are not familiar with Maxpedition, they are a manufacturer know for making super durable, comfortable, and versatile packs and accessories. A lot of their products lean toward the military/law enforcement market, with concealed carry pockets, PALS attachment points, etc., but they have an equal amount of products perfect for general outdoor use.
I am a big fan of the backpacker oriented brands like Gregory, Arc’Teryx, Osprey, and others, but they always leave me wanting more pockets and organization options. I can never have enough pockets. If I had a backpack with five hundred pockets, I would still strap on an exterior pouch or two.  Maxpedition is very strong in this area, giving you all sorts of pocket, pouch, and accessory options to add to your current gear to make it more versatile.
I started out with about fifty items from them, but eventually intend to carry the majority of their line. If there is anything you want in particular, just let me know.
Camelbak Better Bottles are my preferred delivery method for hydration, with their high durability, ease of use, and no spilling. I talked about them a while back and my enthusiasm has not diminished.
