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Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Cravens’

5 results.

Oct30

SUP?!

by Jeff Cravens on October 30, 2012 at 10:48 am

Posted In: Talk About Toys

Jeff Outdoors – Surftech Generator AST SUP

The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to

You want a SUP, but you don’t know what to get? I’ve got a great option for a non-packable, general purpose SUP.

The Surftech Generator AST is an epoxy-coated foam-core board that works well in flat water or mild surfing. It’s stable, well shaped and comes in three sizes.

I got the 11’6” board, which is 31.5” wide, so that my bigger friends could paddle it, but I’m glad I got the bigger board for another reason – kids. I’m only 150lbs, so I can take a dog or a child along without sinking the board. If I had gotten the 10’6”, surfing the boat waves would be more fun, and it would be easier to carry and store, but I wouldn’t have the versatility.

I’ve had the board since May of this year and have put many miles on it. I’ve surfed behind ski boats on it, paddled in 15 knot winds, and glided on glass. There isn’t anything that I’d change on the board for what I’m doing with it except make the grab hole more inset for your fingers.

The wide, stable design has been great for getting beginners out on it. I also have not had any cracks despite the kids playing with it and bumping rocks.

Pros

Lighter than any roto-mold or plastic board
More crack-resistant than traditional fiberglass
Relatively inexpensive ($900)
Has tie downs for longer trips

Cons

Grab hole is not very good when hands are wet

Bottom Line

If you’re not looking for a lake board, or a full on ocean surfer, this is the best combo of weight and durability for the money that I’ve found.

└ Tags: Board, Generator AST, Jeff Cravens, Jeff Outdoors, Stand Up Paddling, SUP, Surftech

2 Comments

Sep25

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

by Jeff Cravens on September 25, 2012 at 9:46 am

Posted In: Lies Around The Campfire

from Jeff Outdoors-

The Department of Transportation cam showed that the mountain pass was smoke free, so that’s where we went.

I had been waffling for days between depression and trying to hide from my children without breathing outside air. The smoke from the forest fires was so bad that the Health Department shut down the schools and told everyone to leave the area, or at the very least not to go outside.

Firefighters flying water where it'll be more use than it had been

The Health Department doesn’t have children.

I was trapped in my home with a 13 and an 11 year old who have a penchant for fighting in the most irritating ways. My only respite was an occasional foray into the smoke choked town for groceries. Meanwhile, my wife was on a Mediterranean cruise with her mother and cousin. My compassionate side was thoroughly relieved that she was missing all of this, while my selfish side was wanting to film our children for 14 straight hours and then force my wife to watch the video when she returned. I needed someone to share my pain.

My children were just as stir crazy as I was by the time I got the car loaded with snacks, fishing poles and waterbottles. As we drove for an hour up to the mountain pass, the smoke thinned like my hair, and at the top, it was clearer than my shower door after a vigerous Windexing. I felt better just getting out of the car in the parking lot. The fresh air gave me new vitality while yelling at the children to stop hitting each other with the fishing poles. “If one of those hooks gets stuck in your skin, I’ll have to cut the barb off, and those hooks cost money!”

We started up the Jeep track toward the lake in the fresh, clean air, when my daughter started crying. I thought for a moment she was shedding a tear of joy for being in a land where the only smell was of fir trees. No. She was crying because she wanted the trail to be downhill both ways. I took a physics and topography approach with her, which, if you’re a woman, you’ll know didn’t work. Apparently, I was supposed to say, “Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry you have to walk up hill, but we’ll be there before you know it and I’ll have treats waiting for you at the top!”

Whatever.

When the physics lesson failed, I went with, “Suck it up and stop harshing my buzz.”

We made it to the lake after quite a lot of tears and attitude. At the lake, all memories of discomfort flew out the window. We fed gray-jays out of our hands, fished, waded in the pristine water, listened to the silence of the wilderness, and breathed clean, smoke-free air. While I was reveling in my new low blood pressure and heart rate, I overheard my daughter demanding that my son untangle the snarl in her fishing line. Her reasoning was simple, “I only know how to catch. You know how to fish, so fix it.”

As the sun dipped lower, I decided it was time to go. On the way back down the trail, the children raced, cheated, then experimented with new ways of “accidentally” hitting each other with their fishing poles (without the hooks).

We loaded back up in the car, took one last breath of air, and drove back into the smoke.

The children are now asleep and I’m checking the windows to see where the smoke is leaking into the house. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll take the kids to coalmine or China… you know, somewhere we can breathe better.

Jeff, Intrepid Dad and inspired writer

└ Tags: breathe, dad, fish hook, fishing, Jeff Cravens, kids, smoke, wildfires

4 Comments

Jan24

Fischer-man goes skiing

by Jeff Cravens on January 24, 2012 at 8:36 am

Posted In: Talk About Toys

Jeff Outdoors –

Fischer S Bound

The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to

I was born and raised in Tennessee. Our idea of having fun in the snow was bending up an old highway construction sign and using it as a sled. Most southerners haven’t skied, because there’s no place to ski south of the Mason-Dixon line (except at Dollywood on plastic snow). Occasionally, a fellow southerner goes on vacation and finds himself on a pair of skis. You have seen them out there. They are the guys wearing jeans, hunting coats, work gloves, and a ball caps with sports teams logos on them. If you look carefully, you’ll see that they have switched their Skoal cans to their left hip pockets because they have bruised their right hips from falling on their Skoal cans several times.

About 22 years ago, I started cross-country skiing in the mountains of West Virginia. I had all the wrong gear. Eventually, I ended up on the Olympic Pennensula in Washington State where they haven’t heard of groomed trails, and a guy at Olympic Mountain Sports set me straight. I needed beefy boots and metal edged double camber skis with a waxless base (due to the varying conditions the Olympics have). This meant Fischer E-99 Crown (Inbound or Outbound Crown beginning in 2004), or Karhu Lookout skis. Fischer and Karhu have been making the best all around waxless base metal edged skis since the 70’s. There are other companies out there, but you can’t go wrong with these two. Karhu has kept with a more aggressive kickplate (scales stick up slightly above the surface of the base) for better grip, but creates more drag. Fischer tends to use a less aggressive pattern (scales do not stick up past the base), which helps with smooth speed, but reduces the angle of slope you’re able to “kick” up.

Several years ago, companies started putting more width and shape to their double camber skis. I shunned the change at first, then bought a pair of Fischer S Bound skis. The shape is not outrageous for kick ‘n glide skis, but they still don’t fit in groomer tracks. My old E-99s fit in groomer tracks beautifully. They also don’t climb as well as the Karhu Lookout (my favorite for getting in a long workout with sizable hills). The real strength of the S Bound shows up when you spot an untracked 25 degree slope. In most snow conditions the S Bound will carve a tele turn, if you have a stiff enough boot to hold the edge. In powder, the skis will drive down just like any double camber would do, but the wider shovel and shape allows you to turn in all but the steep airy powder.

There is no doubt that I’ve left my favorite logging road trails with bigger grins after buying the S Bounds. There is nothing like getting a great workout, then carving turns down a virgin slope on the same pair of skis. I still ski my old E-99s or bum my friends Lookouts when the snow conditions are horrible or when I’m skiing with a bunch of skinny skiers and I need to keep up. The S Bounds are for the days when I need my spirit to fly free and I’m not in a hurry.

Pros

Allows for turns in many conditions
Easier for new backcountry kick’n glide crowd
Build quality that you would expect from Fischer

Cons

Kick plate is not as aggressive as it needs to be
Won’t fit in groomed tracks
Not as fast as skinny waxless skis

Bottom Line

If you want to cover a lot of hilly ground, stick with the narrow skis and aggressive kick plate. If you want to get nab some turns and you’re not skiing groomed cross-country trails, they’re more fun than a barrel of drunken monkeys.

Wanna shop the skis? Click on the skis.

└ Tags: Fischer, Fischer S bound, groomed, jeff, Jeff Cravens, Jeff Outdoors, Olympic, ski, skiing, skis, washington, West Virginia

Comment

Jan22

Via Rapida’s Got Your Back.

by Jeff Cravens on January 22, 2012 at 8:30 am

Posted In: Talk About Toys

Jeff Outdoors –

Mountain Hardware Via Rapida 35

The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to

I own far too many backpacks. So, when I got invited on a Swiss Alps hut ski trip, the first thing I did was buy a new pack. The recommended pack size was 30 liters, so I narrowed my scope to two packs designed for 30 liter ski mountaineering. The Deuter Freerider Pro 30 and the Mountain Hardware Via Rapida 35. They both looked perfect for a 6 day hut trip on spring snow. I have loved my Arc Teryx Borea ski pack, but it’s a bit big and heavy for a European hut trip (no sleeping bag, stove, fuel, or dinners to pack). Eventually, I found the Via Rapida in a local shop in medium and bought it. It’s 2135 cubic inches with the lid, but it shrinks beautifully for day skiing.

So far, I’ve hauled it around the local ski hill, skied on the local trails many times, hiked up my icy road a dozen times, and skinned up a local peak with it on New Year’s Day. I’ve gotten used to the new strange features it has and have come to appreciate some of the little things.

The lid comes off easily. I’ve found that I don’t use it at all… yet. Once the lid is off, there is a little flap that acts as a top, which fastens to the same buckles that the lid snaps to. The buckles are switched so that you don’t accidentally snap the left side into the right side, etc. This seemed nonsensical to me at first, but when I started strapping all kinds of gear to the outside when I was snowshoeing with friends, I quickly came to appreciate the difference, although different color buckles would work just as well.

The drawstrings and locks are funky also. Pull on the red tab to close, pull on the yellow tab to open while pulling the collar open. You could also just squeeze the barrel lock, but once you get used to grabbing the tab, it becomes easier than trying to squeeze the little lock with gloves on.

There are two stash pockets that are accessible from the top and have zipper closures. I didn’t think I’d ever use them, but now I use them so much I don’t like using my other packs.

Even the key zipper pulls and buckles can be used with mitts on because they’ve added medial tubing so each zipper tab sticks out. There are easy to grab compression straps on the sides, which double as ski stabilizers AND they are all quick release instead of just sliders. The ski straps/loops on the sides are nice and burly and wide enough for all but the big powder skis. I though my double cambers would flop around in them, but the compression straps held them tight. There is no reinforcement on the sides to keep your edges from cutting the material (it is ripstop, though). In fact the whole pack is fairly light nylon compared to my Borea, but it hasn’t had a breech yet. The front panel is made of Dyneema (whatever that is) and is supposed to be able to handle sharp mountaineering type things without getting thrashed too much.

The pack has a funky feature that allows for strapping your skis in a cross fashion on the front panel, but it interferes with storing your shovel, so I’m not sold on that feature. Maybe if you are a snowboarder, you could use this feature, but then, if you’re a snowboarder, I’m not going to wait and find out. If you have a shovel with big enough holes in the blade, there are these cute little aluminum bottle openers attached to little bungee cords that hold your shovel on the outside of the pack. It’s remarkably fast to remove the shovel, yet it stays put in a yard sale.

The big front Dyneema panel pocket has a zipper top, but the pack’s compression straps tunnel through this pocket, which allows snow to get in. The adjustment of the compression straps is inside this front pocket (nearly inaccessible), which I thought was a bad design, until I realized that the straps only need adjusting in unusual circumstances. And when those circumstances arise, you’ll happy to have the flexibility.

I’m not a fan of white material on anything that I use in the snow OR the dirt. It’s a stupid choice of color for several reasons. My Via Rapida has white on the front panel. Also, there is a nifty little whistle on the sternum strap that I have not been able to rip off. The whistle sticks up enough that when you have gloves on, you think that the whistle is the buckle release, so you end up squeezing the whistle for three minutes thinking that the buckle is stuck. This is a bad idea for rescue situations. I don’t think you’d get much sympathy from your buried ski buddy, when, after the rescue, you tell him he could have breathed a bit sooner if you hadn’t been squeezing your whistle.

There are a lot of little tweaks that this pack has that makes me think they asked the right people when they designed it. For instance, there are sewn patches on the shoulder straps that are burly enough to hold a King radio, as well as little rings that are great for clipping on a camera or altimeter. The waist buckle system takes some getting used to if you’ve never used one like this, but in the end, you’ll like it. And the whole waist belt comes off for the super light days or air travel. The key ring in the pocket is easy to use with mitts on, and even the shovel handle keeper is quick release and steadfast.

Lastly, the frame sheet keeps this pack light, yet strong enough to haul 30 pounds on a training hike. The 30 pounds on a steep narrow trail felt like nothing. I had excellent center of balance, no rub spots, and overall comfort.

Pros

Designed by backcountry users for backcountry use
Very adjustable
Just enough gadgets and features, which are well thought out

Cons

Front pocket exposed to snow entry
Stupid little whistle on the sternum strap
It’s $180, which is more than some other similar packs
Someone always asks, “Why did they name it Via Rapida?”

Bottom Line

The absolute best day ski pack I’ve ever tried.

There you go. The Jeff Outdoors has spoken.

Wanna shop the pack? Click on the pack!

└ Tags: adventure, back, backpack, Jeff Cravens, Jeff Outdoors, Mountain Hardware, pack, ski, skiing, Via Rapida 35

Comment

Jan14

Oh, the Head Bone’s Connected to the…

by Jeff Cravens on January 14, 2012 at 4:47 am

Posted In: Talk About Toys

Jeff Outdoors –

Giro G10 Ski Helmet

The man abuses outdoor gear, so you don’t have to

I’m the guy who only bought a ski helmet when my buddy told me his wife wouldn’t let me ski with him anymore until I bought one. I reluctantly left my Happy Humper Woolie hat at home and donned my new Giro helmet. On the first run, I wiped out and the tip of my ski left a dent in the top of the helmet the size of a nickel. I’ve been wearing a helmet ever since.

Last year, I bought a new Giro G-10 after trying on several brands. On the first run, I wiped out, hit a rock, and got a dent in the top about the size of a nickel. Go figure.

The Giro adjustment system is pretty much awesome. It has a dial in the back that works crazy-good. Everything about the helmet is comfortable and there are no rub spots. I wonder if they broke into my house and measured my head when I was sleeping?

The side webbing is adjustable with quick-flip buckles, the goggle retainer in the back is big enough to use with gloves, and the vent slide is easy to find and use with gloves on as well.

The G-10 does not have a visor, which I like. There is also nothing to keep your goggles from sling-shotting to the back of your head when you perch them on the front of the helmet. I have spent more than a few chairlift rides trying to find my goggles as they dangled on my back.

Pros