Equipment Outfitters

Shirts, Pants, Socks and Shoes

Camp-style clothing should be hardwearing and in a colour that disguises dirt. Fabrics that are easy to wash, quick drying and don’t need ironing are the way to go. They need to be quite colour-fast, though, especially if you plan to use a laundrette where the sorting is done by others.

Shirts with long sleeves (they can be rolled up if it gets too hot) will protect your arms from the sun while you’re driving. Buy them in a light, summery fabric such as polyester/cotton. Big collars can be folded up to protect your neck in the angled late-afternoon sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Dry Foods

The smaller collapsible cupboards that consist of shelf space only are as good for storing canned and dry foods as they are for storing clothes. The same goes for card‑board boxes, and these can be used in the usual way, opening side up.

Wet Foods

If you do not have a fridge or freezer, keep perishables such as milk, meat etc. in a cooler box. If you keep buying ice, you should be able to keep the temperature acceptably low. Pickling or marinating meat was an effective method of preservation before the advent of the freezer: vacuum pack the whole mixture in strong plastic bags (you can buy your own machine that does this) and keep it cool — it will not only last longer but will taste better as well. Vacuum sealable containers are particularly efficient if you exclude as much air as possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Caravanning and Camping Barbecue Units

Portable barbecue are becoming more popular among travellers as the designs become more sophisticated and the products lighter and more efficient. Kettle barbecue are a good example as they are lightweight and long lasting. They come in a wide range of manageable sizes and can be used to make a wide variety of foods. With the lid on, the air flow can be finely tuned and they are mercifully easy to clean. More important, they contain heat well and are considered a perfectly safe place to make a fire when there are non-permanent places available. Their ideal fuel is compressed charcoal brikettes, which are light and conveniently packaged. Read the rest of this entry »

Charging down a hill at warp speed on a bike is a rush that most of us have enjoyed at some time. As bikes developed they headed down the path of tradition, and for a while, all a bike buyer could find was a road-racing-style bike or a cruiser. Road bikes were fine for speed and offered a broad range of gears. But road bikes offered little comfort and didn’t take very well to rough surfaces. Cruisers were very comfortable, but heavy and not geared very well. All that changed in the early Eighties when a Japanese bike company by the name of Specialized purchased a unique bike made in Marin County, California, and took it home for a closer look.

The mountain bike can trace its roots back to when a small and unknown group of riders in Marin County, California first began riding stripped down and beefed up Schwinns on mountain roads just prior to WWII. One can only assume that the natural propensity of extreme oriented riders continued to pursue downhill riding until a few notable pioneers of the modern mountain bike began simultaneously experimenting and redefining the equipment they were riding. According to one of those pioneers, Gary Fischer, the early Schwinn “Ballooner” Cruiser bikes everyone was riding were so heavy that they were pushed, not ridden, uphill. Fischer is reported to have been the first to equip a Ballooner with multiple gears, an act that made it easier to pedal uphill, but also added 25 lbs (11.35 kg) to their weight. Read the rest of this entry »

Skiing in its own right is a pretty extreme sport, and has been for years. One skiing discipline that is as amazing as it is extreme is speed skiing. Imagine screaming down a mountain at 150 mph (240 kph) on skis. That is exactly what current world Record holder and 1992 Olympic Bronze medalist Jeff Hamilton of Truckee, California did in 1995 at Vars, France, becoming the first skier to break the 150 mph barrier, and the fastest non-motorized human on the planet.

Consider the forces at play when traveling at 150 mph. The skier is literally skiing faster a sky diver in freefall. The skis are no r even touching the ground at that. Instead they are riding on a cushion of Even the slightest error in judgment or at that speed can be deadly. Read the rest of this entry »

The hydrofoil, a wing that creates lift in water, is not new, and hydrofoils are commonly used on powerboats today. They are even used on sailboats to minimize resistance and set speed records, which is itself an extreme endeavor. However, it wasn’t until 1989 that a hydrofoil attached to a chair became commercially available for athletes seeking a new tow-behind water challenge.

The air chair, as it has become known, was designed by a couple of friends on the Colorado River, one of whom was the co- creator of the kneeboard (a waterski that the rider kneels on) and a hot dog waterski pioneer, Mike Murphy. Murphy’s friend Bob Wooley became fascinated with the concept of riding a performance hydrofoil, and after several months of experimentation attached the foil to a “sit ski,” a seated version of a waterski. Read the rest of this entry »

Sports are about competition, but also about contact. Sports which involve the thrill of speed invariably require specialized equipment to undertake them, but for the sportsman, the nearer to the elements you can get, the greater the sense of accomplishment. So for water skiiers, what could make more sense than dispensing with the skis?

Barefoot Water Skiing began in Winter Haven, Florida in 1947. Water skiing pioneer Chuck Sligh theorized that water skiing without skis might be possible if the ski boat went fast enough. A 17-year-old boy named AG Hancock proved him right, becoming the first water skier to drop a ski and continue barefoot successfully. Hancock left on a family vacation before he could show the trick to Cypress Garden’s Dick Pope Sr.. A few days later, Pope’s son Dick Jr. successfully dropped a ski and got all the glory— photographs, newspaper stories, newsreels, the works. Barefoot skiers soon adapted many of the freestyle moves of traditional waterskiers. Spins, backward maneuvers, body drags, and other tricks made barefooting an exciting new discipline. Due to the speeds required to barefoot, the tricks are especially difficult, and dangerous, since the water becomes very hard in a high-speed impact. Read the rest of this entry »