Monday, November 8, 2010

Looking at new gear



If you read this blog off and on, you'll know that I'm a sucker for new gear that looks useful for sea kayaking. Reading this month's Sea Kayaker magazine, I discovered Aussie company CGear and their very cool sand mats. Some of my favourite kayak camping is on a beach, overlooking North Carolina's great coastal waters. But pitching a tent on sand, and traipsing damp sand through all my tent gear's a pain. CGear's small 1.8meter squared (6'x6') mat looks as though it just may do the trick--sand falls through the mat and doesn't came back up again.

These mats should also be perfect for our WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. Throw the mat out, strip off, clear all the sand off the damp, tired body, and jump into my pit--this should make for much better in-and-out procedures.

The small mat weighs 1.65kg (3.65lbs), which sounds just fine.

I'll keep you posted...

3 comments:

gnarlydog said...

I am with you: I hate sand when camping.
The mat looks just like fancy shade cloth but not sure if shade cloth is as effective.
1.65Kg is about the weight of my tent. OK for car camping but hard to justify when schlepping it in a kayak.
Then again, I love going ultralight

Dana Law said...

Sand mat. I'll take one just for grins. You'll have one here when you come out in December.

Steve said...

I've been looking for a lightweight
sunshade for Spartina for those hot windless days. I was very happy to see they suggested using the sand mat exactly that way. This might be just the thing to drape over the boom and tie off to the deck cleats.

Thanks Kiwibird!