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.
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.
Yeah, it’s another flashlight video. If you aren’t a big fan of flashlights, just ignore the site for a week or so. If you do like lights, then you might wet yourself from excitement with all the flashlight goodness I will be posting.
Next up is a video for the JETBeam E3S, probably the classiest looking light that we carry. The E3S is the updated version of the E3P, with a slimmer body, much brighter LED, and improved (in my not at all humble opinion) looks. I’ve been sending a lot of these to businessmen and other guys that do not ncessarily want a black tactical light with a strike bezel on it. Check out the video below for more info.
The JETBeam RRT-3 is the latest model in the Rapid Response line. Like the other models, the RRT-3 uses a rotating ring to switch between modes. The RRT-3 has eight different modes: seven brightnesses from 1 all the way to up 1200 lumens plus variable strobe. 1200 lumens is about 15 times the brightness of a 4D MagLite, or, in other words, a crazy amount of light. The RRT-3 has a range of several football fields, easily, making it powerful enough for just about any task. Add in JETBeam’s attention to detail, top end machining, and flat out good looking aesthetics and you have a heck of a light.
A carry handle, remote pressure switch, and picatinny rail mount are also available if you want to fully trick out your light. Watch the video below for a better idea of what the light 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:
After the wild success of the iTP A3 flashlight, the H01 headlamp from them has been hotly anticipated. The H01 shipment just landed at the store a couple of days ago, so I spent some time this weekend making a video review showing the light in action.
My verdict is that the light is hard to beat at $29.95. It is one of the only single AAA lights on the market, meaning that it is small and light while still having a tough hard anodized aluminum body like the A3. The headband and holder are super comfortable, and the soft rubber holder holds the light very securely. The H01 has three brightnesses, starting with a low low, then going to a medium and finally high as you turn it off and on to switch modes.
The H01 also comes with a pocket clip, for those of you that prefer to have the light attached somewhere other than your head. I actually prefer my lights this way, since having it down at my chest or waist level creates better shadows on the trail at night, giving me better depth perception.
One of the big benefits of having a retail store is that we can pick up some premium brands that were previously unavailable to us. You have already seen me mention a few of them, but the big one we have been waiting for was Surefire.
We picked up about 25 of their items to start out with, including flashlights (of course), batteries, headlamps, and pens. Yes, Surefire makes pens, and some awfully nice ones at that. We plan on carrying their entire line before the end of the summer, including their knives, so just drop me a line through the store or comments if you have any questions or want something that we do not stock quite yet.
Surefire has been busy updating their line with new lights and new LEDs to make their existing lights brighter and more powerful. My personal favorite that they have right now is the LX2.  It has a two stage switch, so you press softly for the low level and a little harder for the high level. The high level is right at 200 lumens. Considering that Surefire measures their lumens by doing something like leaving the light running for 10 minutes and then measuring the brightness at a meter away, 200 lumens is quite bright. Most companies use the theoretical lumens that are coming out of the LED based on the current and voltage going to it, so take that into consideration when you start thinking that 200 lumens is low compared to some of the other lights we offer.
I’m working on videos for all of the new lights and hope to have them up in the next few days. Keep an eye on the blog and youtube page for updates.
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.
