www.adrianshanahan.com » Gear Review

In need of a guardian angel?

Adrian Shanahan — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:47:03 +0000

As most people who know me will testify that I generally like to do do more than a little research on any of the gear I use, this is even on the double when it comes to safety and rescue gear. Its a good way to be to a certain extent but some times my inner gear freak needs to be told to pipe down.

So there I was in i-canoe picking up some extra throw bags for clients to use on courses, I already have a load but like the idea of being able to have a good variety for people to use as it give them to make their own mind up on what features / bag size etc is best for them to invest in themselves.

I was just having a browse through the other stock of throw bags in stock and caught sight of the NRS Guardian Waist Throw Bag. To explain until earlier on in the gear I opted to use a Salamander Golden Retriever as my waist bag of choice backed up with a bigger HF bag in my boat. Some how I managed to misplace my Salamander bag along the line so had being making do with a few different solutions from the Palm to the HF Swifty Rescue belt most recently. I just wasn’t feeling the love for anything I had tried so was about to invest in another Golden Retriever but after having a bit of a look and play with the NRS offering I decided to give it a punt and see how it worked out.

On first impression the bag is neat, tidy and well made and the “feel” of a quality bit of kit. The bag consists of a waist mounted belt / sheath which has a Velcro & zip closure to reveal the inner removable bag.

The part of the set up you actually throw feels really compact without ever coming across as too small or flimsy, and I can confirm after using it myself all day on a River Safety Rescue course that it flies straight and true really easy which is something allot of today’s bigger bags can suffer with. I know the diameter of the rope at 6.4 mm will seem thin to allot of people but for me and the fact I only use this as a just in-case bag fits my needs perfect.

One of the things I really liked was that once you put it on you totally forgot your wearing it as it never once feels bulky or gets in the way between your lower back and the boat, sadly the same cannot be said for the Palm and HF offerings along the same lines.

The set up comes with a couple of little features the although small I really liked. The bag all thought compact is super easy / quick to reload and what’s better you can take it out and replace it in the waist belt without having to remove it belt itself with no faff at all.

The belt also have some handy karabiner attachment points a feature which HF also provide, I was skeptical about these at first but now I am coming around to the thinking that they can be really useful. The other thing which I was really pleased about and I know my mates will get a laugh out of this is how over size the length of the belt is, I’m thinking this down to NRS main market is to the USA and there large frames. I always disliked that the HF belt was rather a “snug fit” when you are wearing thermals / dry suit/ spray skirt combo, the NRS belt can be make go pretty much huge as you like. I would say once you find an ideal fit for yourself use a hot knife to trim off the excess.

The blurb from NRS is pretty simple:

The Guardian Bags are worn on your waist, so whether you’re in your boat or scouting a rapid, the throw bag is always at your fingertips.

Features an internal throw rope in a bag that pulls completely free from the waist belt.
Throw bag contains 55 feet of 1/4″ polypropylene rope, with a maximum tensile strength of 950 pounds.
The Guardian clips securely around your waist with an adjustable belt with quick release buckle.
Webbing loops along the belt are provided for carabiners.

Rope knots reduce tensile strength. For this reason, we make no claims regarding a rescue bag’s strength. Maximum load indicated is for the rope alone.

Rope Length: 55′
Rope Size: 1/4″ polypro
Load Max: 950 lbs.
Adjustable waist belt with quick release buckle
External bag holds internal throw bag
Webbing loops for carabineers

Retailing currently at €54 I reckon it is incredible value for money especially when measured up against some of its competitors. I am so happy with the set up that I am going to pick up the “Pro” version of the bag which comes with “55 feet of extra-strong 1/4″ Dyneema® rope, with a maximum tensile strength of 2,608 pounds” and use this one for courses and demos.

In all I really recommend this bit of kit as it just works so well, you would be a fool not to at least consider one of these if you are in the market for a waist mounted throw bag type set up. Before anyone thinks different I didn’t get this for free in the hope I would give it some promotion or some such.

Some will notice the I have marked all the bags I use with big permanent marker stating what length they are so that in a live situation if someone else was using your kit they would not pick up a bag that is too short and loose potential valuable time in a rescue situation.

The Guardian Waist Throw Bag is available from i-canoe and all other NRS stockist.

Adrian

“…right tools for the job?”

Adrian Shanahan — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:12:20 +0000

Hey all,

I’ve been rather lazy on the blogging front over the last while up until I saw this thread over on the UK boating site UKRGB. It starts of pretty simple looking to identify a type Prussik knot and as all online forums seem to splits into a couple of different directions with all sorts of information / miss information popping up.

There were a couple of things which I found interesting. Firstly it confirmed to me that boaters and ropes / rope work are strange bedfellows. There seems to be an assumption in the wider paddling community that if someone can paddle ( X ) grade river they are automatically totally up to speed with the rope stuff.

Secondly and the thing that struck my interest is that kayakers seem to have an aversion against using out of the ordinary such as “mechanical devices” or tools which might make things easier.

I have constantly heard people preach the K.I.S.S . principal but I wonder have some of these folks closed their minds to their own detriment, are we missing out on using the right tools for the job?

I thought I would share a bit of kit I have been using for a few years now and I honestly think its a savage tool that can complement almost any WW kayakers tool kit.

Its called a Robot and manufactured by an Italian company called Kong.

“KONG ROBOT DESCENDER: A versatile piece of gear in the vertical world. Some of its many uses include a belay device, rappel device, ascender, in place of a pulley in a z-drag system and the list goes on. It can accommodate ropes between 5-13mm in diameter in a single or double configuration. It even works great with ropes of different diameters”

These are usually used by mountain guides and cliff rescue teams in the Alpine regions but due to the fact it is so versatile it has quickly become an invaluable part of my paddling kit .

The specs stack up like this:

Material: aluminium alloy

Weight: 158 g

Dimensions: 52 x 148 mm

Max Load: 22 kN

Rope diameter: 5-13 mm

It weights in about the same weight as a standard steel crab or about twice the weight as an alloy carabineer. Size wise its not much bigger than a large paddling wire gate crab and fits nicely into the pocket of my PFD.

So now we know that its nice and compact just what kind of practical applications does it have to us in a white water environment?

Kayakers seem to be obsessed with Z-Drags and all sorts of mechanical advantage set ups and this little tool makes those easy set up and extremely effective in their operation. The device works as both an auto locking calming pulley all in one.

Once you are set up like this you can operate it just as an auto locking 1:1 system or using a prussik and another crab and have an auto locking 2:1 system.

The use of the Robot for this kind of set up just makes it very easy especially when there are only a small number in your group as the auto locking function allows you to take breaks during each pull without loosing tension. It can be set up to use just as a “pulley” to reduce friction without engaging the auto locking if you so wish. For the demo there I didn’t add a pulley on the prussik end just to keep it gear light.

I would carry the Robot for that function alone but another great thing it does is works as a rappelling device, so if you ever have to portage a cliff or lower yourself down to a get your sorted there to.

All you have to do is make a sit harness with your sling / tape and your away, I also make use of the Spectra belay loop that comes on Astral WW PFD’s to make things even safer.

That’s just one way of using it as an abseil device there are a few more combinations depending on what dia of ropes you are using etc.

One of the great things is just how well it handles double ropes so that you can lower down a drop on a looped rope. You can even use ropes of different dia without any issues.

With the addition of a sling the Robot can also be used as an ascender in much the same way as you would set it for a 2:1 z-drag.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg as to what this device is capable of and with a little bit of learning and practice you will no doubt find endless more applications for it.

So the Robot covers a tasks that you would normally have to use a hand full of others.

In summing up I would say that we as white water paddlers should open our minds to learning and understanding new & possible more efficient ways of doing things rather than just accepting everything that is said to be “best practice” and taking it as gospel.

Needless to say I’m only covering some of the uses of Kong Robot, no amount of reading stuff of the net will make up of hands on experience or being showing by a quality / experienced coach. If you have any questions or comments on what you might like me to cover in the future fire away.

Adrian

How to replace a latex neck seal 101.

Adrian Shanahan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:37:09 +0000

Hi,

So very recently I loan my cag to a client and we had a bit of an oopsie with the neck seal when it was being taken off. This happens loads of folks & and I know people panic and think it will cost a fortune to send it away to be fixed. With a little bit of concentration and less that 20mins you can have the job done and ready to rock and roll for full use 24hrs later.

Now to be fair I have done a bunch of these back in the days when I worked in an outdoor shop many many moons ago but its seems more daunting that it actually is. The folks in i-canoe hooked me up with a Kokatat neck seal repair kit which has everything you need to do the job, the seals come in two sizes so everyone is covered.

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So as you can see in the kit you get:

The replacement seal
Small section of sandpaper
UV protection solution
Aquasure glue
Instructions

There a a bunch of different ways to go about this and I chose not to follow the instructions provided by Kokatat as I had my own way of doing it. So in addition to the kit I also need a craft knife ( or in my cast my NRS wingman) and a method of stretching out the neck of your cag. I have always favoured the use of this specialist bit of kit.

I’ve always used a traffic cone in the past to stretch out the neck of my cag and make the repair easier for me, sadly when the way the Peak creek Cag is made it doesn’t allow it to slide far enough down the cone to get enough of a stretch. I could have resolved this by padding out the cone higher up with some towels but I was feeling kinda lazy& there happened to be a small bucket right beside me that looked like it would do the job just fine.

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So as you can see from the photo I slid the cag over the bucket and using a sharp craft knife I trimmed away the damaged neck seal while still leaving about 35mm of the existing seal. All you have to do now is slide the new seal over your cone/ bucket so it rests pretty close to its finial position. And then lift back the edge as per photo ready for sanding / gluing.

The Next step is just to take the small piece of sand paper you got in your repair kit and give the part of the latex you intend on gluing a very light sand just enough to create a key for the glue to adhere to. Now we are ready to get with the gluing, so open up the tube of Aquasure and apply an even bead around the existing next seal. Be careful no to go to close to the edge or you will stick your cag to the bucket when you pair the new seal.

So once you have applied glue the whole way around the seal it should look kinda like this, the next bit is super easy as all you have to do is fold the new seal on to the now glued section. The trick here is not to be afraid of it and just do it, once it sitting on it rub around the joining with your thumb to make sure you get a good seal and press out all of the air bubbles.

Now were are almost done the new seal is sitting perfect and we have no glue seeping out on our cag. I always like to add an extra bead of aquasure around the seam as it just a nice bit of reassurance and can’t hurt.

Right that’s the job done. The glue sets in 6ish hours but I always like to leave it a little longer before I take it off the cone/ bucket and then give it an additional 24 hours to to make sure the glue is fully cured. Your cag will now be ready to rock and roll and be 100% dry again.

This is one of those things I reckon every one should try as its pretty easy and only takes 20minutes max, I think it took me longer to write this post that to fix the seal.

If you have any questions fire away.

Laters,

Adrian

EDIT: I have written another guide for a different method which you can find here

The cutting edge…..

Adrian Shanahan — Sun, 10 May 2009 14:14:32 +0000

Howdy,

So a couple of weeks ago I made what could only be described a an armature mistake when out paddling, just before the get one of our group ask if they could borrow my river knife to cut some foam. So I took it out of my pocket and unclipped the lanyard it was attached to, they when I got it back I just stuffed it into my PFD pocket and was on my way. Fast forward a short while later I jumped out on the bank to set up some rescue, and when taking a sling out of my PFD pocket my knife flew out in what seemed like a comedy slow motion and straight into the river, where it now resides permanently.

The knife I had I was pretty fond of I had bought it while working in France a few years back, I had a spare Peak UK river knife but I just never liked it! So I dropped into the folks at i-canoe to check out what they had in stock and catch up with the lads. They stock NRS kit which I have always thought was well designed & put together right. The first choice was do I go for a sheath knife or a folding type which I have always favoured.

The 3 models to choose from were the Wingman / Pilot / Co-pilot, I whipped them all out of their boxes and took some photos to help you get a better idea of their scale.

The Co-Pilot is by far the nicest of any of the sheath knives that I have come across, its compact but just the right size while never feeling bulky. If you are the like the Idea of having a knife on the outside of your PFD this is the bit of kit for you, the sheath clips perfectly into lash tabs that are on most rescue vests.

I have to say I was very tempted by the Co-Pilot but in the end I decided to to stick with the folding style that I’m used to. The Wingman is a super bit of design, it is super compact so that it will fit nicely into your PFD pocket but when its open its just the right size to do the job when you most need it.

There was one only one improvement that could be do to make this knife better, its not the easiest to open with one hand should you ever need to do that. I’ve resolved this with a little bit of tape and 5 minutes, check out the picture below.The bit of tape also allows you to open the knife with you teeth if you are really under pressure. Just a note for the left handers out there, the belt clip on the knife can be whipped off and changed over to the other side with relative ease to make it more ergonomically for the left hookers.

Last but by no means least in the line up is the Pilot knife. Its a full size knife which comes in just over 7 inches long, I reckon its a bit long for kayaking use but for rescue professionals / divers / sailors this is a serious but of kit for you. The construction is super solid and due to its one piece design I could never imagine you breaking this knife.

I think that what river knife paddlers carry with them when out boating is the one piece of kit that never get much thought, the thinks to look out for when you are looking for a knife should include.

Blade, is it serrated or smooth or a combination of both, the combined is best as have the best of both worlds.
Knife tip, is it blunt or pointy. Many a person has done a bit of unintentional self harm with pointy blades, pointy blades can be helpful of you ever needed to puncture cut something like a spray skirt ( A sharp blade can make up for this ).
How are you going to attach it or where are you going to put it?
What is it made out of, lots of river knives are made out of polished chrome which wont last long in a river environment. And even some blades that are stainless steel they are still not up to the riggers of river use. All of the NRS knives above are made from 420HC Stainless Steel which is perfect for what we boaters demand of it.

All in all I reckon NRS have you pretty much covered no matter what style of knife you prefer to use, one of the best thing about them aside from there design & savage build quality is that they are super value to with the Wingman coming in at just €25 and the Pilots costing a little bit more at €35.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have a quality river knife and more importantly how and when to use it.

That’s all until next time.

Adrian

Some “Sweet Protection”.

Adrian Shanahan — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:37:19 +0000

So along with this months water I also took delivery of 2009 Full Cut Rocker, delivered in person by i-canoe owner Mr Colm Healy. I have to say my first impressions is that it was very yellow or as Sweet have decided to call it Rescue Yellow. Having had the previous model for quiet some time and being very happy with it, I was pleased to see that Sweet have refined the design a little more and added some nice little touches that are a real improvement. I will crack out the camera and do a bit of a comparison review in the next few weeks.

Peak Uk Creek Cag

Adrian Shanahan — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:46:04 +0000

Wow….where do I start!

After nearly 3 months of solid boating I am super impressed!

I have been using Peak UK kit now for a numbe of years so when I decided to up grade early this year I was always going to lean more towards Peak UK over other manfacturers.

For a long time now Peak UK kit has always looked a little on the basic when compaired with some of the offerings from Palm and other such makers that come with all the “bells and whistles”. This time round Peak have not decided to play sheep and make a dry top that is just a copy of what everone elso has on the market. They went away and came back with what I think is the best engineered “creek” dry top available on the market today! I realise that is a bold statement but I honestly think it’s true.

I bought this dry top, sight onseen but I knew from the previous Peak stuff I had before and that this was there top of the range offering I wouldn’t be going too far wrong.

The material (X4) is bomber, from the first time you feel it and wear it on the water you will know just what I mean by saying this. The fit and finish of the top is just what you would expect from any manfacture who are selling kit at this price. You can feel the quality of the garment the monent you pick it up.

The cut of the top feels just right, when you are boating no matter what kind of position you twist yourself into it never feels restrictive at all.

Most important it does what it is ment to do it is 100% dry and breathable!!!! This is a piece of kit I can see lasting the average weekend paddler for years and years to come! It just feels solid.

I would say this is prob the best bit of kit I have ever owned.