Gear Freaks
February 27, 2006-We've received a few emails about gear recently. Without wanting to get too carried away with techno-clobber, there are some important bits of kit that make kayaking in Antarctica possible (or bearable, or even... enjoyable!).
We reckon the single most important piece of gear we have is our Kokatat Expedition drysuit. It's an awesome bit of gear. It has an integrated Goretex sock, latex wrist cuffs and a latex neck cuff. We can wear nice thick woolly socks and an inner layer of either thermals or polartec, jump into the drysuit and stay dry all day! Finishing the day with dry warm feet is quite exciting for us, as water is inevitably pretty hard to keep out. Andrew broke a neck gasket on his dry suit, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as his neck had been chafing and he tends to overheat more than the others when we're on that watery path that is our road south.
We also have some great down jackets supplied by Paddy Pallin. Without these we'd be a lot colder!! There's heaps more gear that we wouldn't be without, but these two items are a couple of the keys. We couldn't go far without the kayaks, of course, so these are pretty essential (we're paddling with a Mirage 580, Nadgee Expedition and a Sea Quest).
The kayaks have taken a pounding on this trip with many difficult rocky landings, seal launches and brash ice all taking their toll. They've held up really well although some minor repairs have been needed. On one particularly nasty rock landing through a small surf/slop we split the seam on one of the boats, and another has lost a lot of gelcoat, exposing the 'glass to damage. We were able to fix both these in the field.
That's mention of just a few items that we have with us... of course, there's many more. Right now though, rather than talk about it, we're going paddling!
We reckon the single most important piece of gear we have is our Kokatat Expedition drysuit. It's an awesome bit of gear. It has an integrated Goretex sock, latex wrist cuffs and a latex neck cuff. We can wear nice thick woolly socks and an inner layer of either thermals or polartec, jump into the drysuit and stay dry all day! Finishing the day with dry warm feet is quite exciting for us, as water is inevitably pretty hard to keep out. Andrew broke a neck gasket on his dry suit, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as his neck had been chafing and he tends to overheat more than the others when we're on that watery path that is our road south.
We also have some great down jackets supplied by Paddy Pallin. Without these we'd be a lot colder!! There's heaps more gear that we wouldn't be without, but these two items are a couple of the keys. We couldn't go far without the kayaks, of course, so these are pretty essential (we're paddling with a Mirage 580, Nadgee Expedition and a Sea Quest).
The kayaks have taken a pounding on this trip with many difficult rocky landings, seal launches and brash ice all taking their toll. They've held up really well although some minor repairs have been needed. On one particularly nasty rock landing through a small surf/slop we split the seam on one of the boats, and another has lost a lot of gelcoat, exposing the 'glass to damage. We were able to fix both these in the field.
That's mention of just a few items that we have with us... of course, there's many more. Right now though, rather than talk about it, we're going paddling!
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