Tear-Aid Repair Tape

This is the tear in my drysuit's neck gasket before the repair.

Each Tear Aid patch kit comes with one 3- by 12-inch patch, one 7/8-inch square patch, one 1 3/8-inch square patch, a 12-inch reinforcement filament and two alcohol pads.

Tear-Aid Instructions

Using the product is simple. You warm the fabric to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, clean it with the alcohol pads and dry it. Then cut the Tear Aid tape to size, so that it extends 1 inch from each side of the tear. You peel back 1/2 inch of the backing and then apply it to the rip while rubbing it aggressively to remove any air bubbles and bond it to the fabric. You then repeat the process on the backside of the tear. For tears that go to the edge, you cut a piece of the reinforcement filament and tape it to the outside edge of the tear and overlap the tape to the backside of the material.

After application, Type A adheres to 90 percent of its full strength and to full strength after one hour. Type B takes 24 hours for full strength adhesion.

Tear Aid Review for Drysuit Gaskets

This is the Tear Aid Patch repair after five days of paddling. You can see that it's starting to unstick in places.

I felt a little skeptical putting the suit on the following morning, so I carefully and slowly stretched the gasket and pulled it over my head. I expected the tape to rip off, but it didn’t. It held up for the remainder of the trip, although  air bubbles started to appear at various spots around the tape after about four days. You can see some of the bubbles in the picture.

Functionally, the gasket sealed around my neck just like it would without a tear. I was pretty impressed with the performance, because it turned a nightmare into a easily manageable situation.

Final Thoughts

If you use a drysuit, you should carry a Tear-Aid repair kit. It’s as simple as that. It’s less messy than Aquaseal and bike patches or Aquaseal and duct tape. It bonds quickly, so you can get back on the water quickly. It works, and it can save your trip. Buy a kit right now. Highly Recommended!

Tear-Aid Patch Kit Type A | $9.95 | Buy It From Amazon

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Tear Aid Review – An Emergency Repair Kit and Patch

The GearPods Survival Pro includes items geared towards helping you survive an emergency in the woods. GearPods claims the kit can handle navigating, emergency signaling, starting a fire, purifying water, fishing and snaring, repairing clothes and equipment, boiling water and cooking. Based on the included items, I see no reason to disagree. It’s a sensible kit that looks like an augmented Adventure Medical Kits Pocket Survival Pack, which was designed by Doug Ritter, the Executive Director of the Equipped to Survive Foundation. For everything included, it weighs in at just over 13 oz. The container is 4.5 oz of the total weight.

Includes:

• GearPods CookMug: Compact 4.0” anodized aluminum cooking mug/pot with snap-in lid
• GearPods Stove: Solid fuel stove with windshield
• Esbit® solid fuel tablets (2)
• Rescue Flash™ signal mirror – 2″x3″ signal mirror with retro-reflective targeting, protective film, plastic sleeve and instructions
• Fox40 Micro Safety™ – loud emergency whistle for signaling distress and communicating location
• Spark-Lite™ – dependable, one-handed fire starter
• Tinder-Quik™ (4) – weatherproof waterproof tinder that burns 1-2 minutes
• NATO “Storm” Matches (10) – vacuum sealed, NATO-approved waterproof and windproof matches with striker
• 20mm Liquid-filled button compass – simple navigation tool
• Mini-LED flashlight – small keychain-type flashlight with rugged case and battery with 24+ hours of continuous use
• Folding knife – light- to medium- use knife with stainless steel razor blade and rugged handle
• Folding saw – light- to medium-use saw blade constructed of 18TPI steel for cutting wood and metal, and housed in a rugged handle
• Katadyn Micropur-1 Water Tablets (6) – 1 tablet per 1 liter (33.8 fl oz) of water; effective against viruses, bacteria, guardia and cryptosporidium
• Sterile, self-standing water bag (36 fl oz) – for pre-treatment water capture and storage
• Heavy duty needle – for repairing clothes and gear
• Heavy duty thread (50ft reel, 10 lbs BS) – for repairs and emergency line for fishing
• Safety pins (2) – 2″ – for repairs, first aid or even improvised hooks for food procurement
• Wire (8ft) – 0.02″ stainless steel wire, non-magnetic – use for repairs and snares
• Braided nylon cord (25ft, 70lbs BS) – many uses including securing gear and building shelters
• Fishing kit – 4 hooks, 2 split-shots and 1 snap swivel
• Duct tape (2″x30″ 9mm) – many uses from first aid to repair
• Weatherproof stationery – 2”x3” (4) – keeping logs, leaving messages, drawing maps
• Pencil (with protective cap) – use with weatherproof stationery
• Fresnel Lens (2″x3″) – redundant fire starting method
• Waterproof and tearproof instructions – with illustrations (PDF)
• Stuff Sac – with drawcord and fastener (2)

Out of everything included, I only find fault with a few items. The first, the Rescue Flash signal mirror works, but it’s much harder to aim than the excellent ACR’s Hot Shot Signal Mirror. I typically carry ACR’s mirror inside my ditch kit, but if you don’t already have a mirror, the Rescue Flash gets the job done. The other two items that make me leery are the Derma-Safe Company saw and knife. Although the saw blade cuts through small trees, it’s much quicker just break them. An example is a three-finger piece of dried driftwood that I tried to saw. It took about 45 seconds to saw through the branch, but I was able to break it in a few seconds using my foot. I suppose it cuts through metal, but I just can’t imagine needing that feature. Frankly, the knife scares me.  It’s essentially a razor blade attached to a plastic handle. It doesn’t lock, so use with care. I suppose it’s just big enough to gut a fish and sharpen the included pencil if you don’t have anything else on you, but forget about fire sticks or anything useful. If you’re planning on fishing during a survival situation, you may want to add some aluminum foil to this kit. I’d also add a mini-lighter if I wasn’t carrying one elsewhere. I don’t fault the kit for not having the last two items.

The rest of the kit is high-quality, like the high-end Fox40 whistle, the LED flashlight, the Micropur and the included matches and tinder. The Spark-Lite fire starter produces enough sparks to light the tinder as long as you fluff up the tinder. Even the button compass, which are notoriously inaccurate, agreed perfectly with my hand-held Brunton Eclipse, which I’ve used to accurately site mountain peaks 50+ miles away.

GearPods Stove, Mug and Burner

One of the included items in the kit that excited me most is the GearPods Stove and Mug. In addition to the included solid fuel Esbit tablets, I tested the GearPods Burner, which burns denatured alcohol, and the 4 oz GearPods Fuel Bottle. I can’t stand the smell of Esbit, so having an alcohol burner is a relief for me. I often use alcohol stoves when camping, so using one in a survival scenario is a treat.

The stove system, including the mug, lid, base, windscreen and stove, weighed in at 4.7 oz. The fuel bottle weighed 0.8 oz empty. The system’s weight breaks down to the lid at 0.3 oz, the base at 1 oz, the mug at 2.1 oz, the windscreen at 0.7 oz and the stove at 0.6 oz. It’s a pretty reasonable weight considering it’s geared towards one person in a survival situation. For comparison, my latest personal camping stove system for two weighs in at 9.2 oz.

As far as boiling water, the mug holds just over 9 oz. That’s enough for soup packets and some commercially available dehydrated or freeze-dried meals. Using 62°F water and 0.7 oz of fuel, the stove boiled in about nine minutes and went out at about 11 minutes and 45 seconds. Without the windscreen the flame seemed to sway even with light breezes. Overall, the performance impressed me. One suggestion to GearPods is to add a scale in ounces to the side of the fuel bottle. A scale would help gauge how much fuel is poured into the burner.

After the boiling finishes, you use an attached one-inch tall fiberglass insulation ring to move the mug without having to use a pot grip or hot pad. It works but is hot to touch. I wouldn’t want to hold on it for longer than necessary to move the cup. For my first test run, I boiled the water with the lid on top. The lid shrunk after it cooled and no longer fits snugly into the mug. The shrinking lid was an early production problem and GearPod addressed the issue with a fixed lid in current kits.

Overall

I’m impressed with the Survival Pro component of the GearPods Wilderness System. It includes a well thought out assortment of gear to cover an emergency. Combined with the Shelter component, someone stranded for a night might even be comfortable.

My Other Reviews of the GearPods Kits

• GearPods Shelter Kit Review
• GearPods Health Kit Review
• GearPods Survival Pro Review

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: GearPods Survival Pro Review

Because a first aid kit is only used when an injury occurs, I’m looking at the parts of this kit without having to use them. The kit is contained in a small nylon pouch inside of a GearPods Medium container (3.25” diameter, 3.25” height). It includes:

• Ibuprofen – 200mg (2)
• Aspirin – 325mg (2)
• Burn Cream with Aloe Vera
• Cleansing Wipes (2)
• Insect Protection Cream
• Sunscreen Lotion – SPF 30+
• Insect Sting Relief Towelette
• Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac Cleanser
• Lip Ointment
• Hydrocortisone – 1%
• Iodine Wipes (2)
• Antibiotic Ointment
• Moleskin – 2″x2″ (2)
• Cotton Swabs (5)
• Medical Tape (0.5”x2.5yds)
• Tweezers
• Alcohol Prep Pads (2)
• Butterfly Closures (3)
• Knuckle Band Aid (2)
• Small Bandages (5)
• Large Bandages (5)
• Gauze Pads (2)
• Stuff sac with drawcard and fastener
• Contents Sheet

Because I’m a Wilderness First Responder, I like to customize my kits to suit the situations that I anticipate encountering. My personal lightweight first aid kit weighs 8.3 ounces and is designed for 2 to 4 people on a 10 day trip. I typically beef up the medication on longer trips based on the people coming along. The GearPod kit weighs only 4.8 ounces including the container. If I were to use this first aid kit on a trip, to make it acceptable, I’d add to it. Most importantly:

• Latex or Nitrile gloves
• More medicine, including Acetaminophen (Tylenol 500mg), Antihistamine (Diphenhydramine 25mg), and Diamode (Loperamide HCI 2mg)
• More and larger gauze pads
• Co-hesive, Elastic Vet Wrap, 2″
• Triangular Bandage
• Syringe with 18 Gauge Tip, 10cc

A few items, I’d remove. Most of the following, I’d be carrying as duplicate items elsewhere in my kit.

• Insect Protection Cream
• Sunscreen Lotion – SPF 30+
• Insect Sting Relief Towelette
• Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac Cleanser (I don’t run into these too often and train those I’m with to look out for it. Only on one trip did someone I was with get Poison Ivy. She wiped with a leaf.)
• Lip Ointment

It’s hard to find a commercially available first aid kit that’s perfect, so I end up building my own. In the case of the GearPods Health kit, I’d have to restructure it significantly to take it to my standards. For about the same price both of Adventure Medical Kits’ UltraLight / Watertight .7 First-Aid Kit and their UltraLight / Watertight .9 First-Aid Kit offer a more complete kit that is just as watertight. As a separate component, I give the GearPods Health kit a pass. Included in the Wilderness system, it’d have to be beefed up to make it worth carrying.

On a side note not specific to the Health kit, I’ve found that the containers leak slightly. I let a container float in a sink full of water. After four hours, I wiped off the outside of the container to make sure no water splashed in and opened both ends. Inside each end, water beads were creeping up the threads and into the container. Not a ton of water, but a bit. Looks like my tests are concurring with Derrik’s tests.

My Other Reviews of the GearPods Kits

• GearPods Shelter Kit Review
• GearPods Health Kit Review
• GearPods Survival Pro Review

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: GearPods Health Kit Review

You can use to link to Kayalu’s website to see the specifics of the camera mount. I’ll say that I found every component of the mount high quality. The only problem I had was I wanted to mount the camera in the center of my kayak, which has a ridge. Because the surface wasn’t completely flat, it made the mount slightly wobbly. I managed to fix the problem by carving out a flat foam platform for the mount to sit on. A friend of mine, who is just about to finish paddling up the Inside Passage, has been using one on the trip to shoot video. It’ll be interesting to see what he comes back with.

If you’re looking for a way to mount a camera onto your kayak, the Kayacam or Kayalu’s RAM Locking Suction Camera Mount with Toughbar are two great and inexpensive ways to do it.

Price: $49.99 | Buy It: Kayalu Kayacam® Camera Mount

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Kayacam by Kayalu Review

The Reaction

ChemFire uses a combination of potassium permanganate and glycerin. When these two chemicals are combined they react to produce fire. These items were/are often found in military survival kits and in many emergency kits sold in Europe. Back in the day, potassium permanganate was used to treat water and as a disinfectant, but it’s messy and stains skin and clothing purple, and if mixed incorrectly it can lead to death or violent illness.

The Product

The Ohio based company that manufactures ChemFire packages the potassium permanganate into small pill capsules and provides the glycerin in a small eye dropper. The weight of the kit they sent me for testing was 0.8 ounces for 10 capsules and one dropper bottle. So, it’s pretty light. This package is a unique way of providing the two chemicals and it seems like the capsule helps in producing the reaction.

The Test

To make the reaction work, the capsule is opened and two drops of glycerin are added to the capsule. The capsule is closed and placed under the tinder. A few seconds later the magic begins with instant fire. The reaction produces fire for up to 30 seconds, which with a good dry tinder pile should get your fire started with no problems. I found that sometimes the reaction would only last around 10 seconds.

During my home testing, I found that often excess potassium permanganate would be left over after the reaction finished. And as shown in the following video just emptying the capsule and adding glycerin doesn’t work nearly as well as using a capsule. After testing the capsules on cement at home, I cleaned the pad with a hose and it turned everything purple. My only concern when testing was that I didn’t want to hold on to the capsule too long after the chemicals were mixed.

When lighting a real fire, I first used dry cedar tinder, and it burst into a hot flame very quickly — much more quickly than if I had used just a lighter. With birch bark, this produces a very hot and fast fire, but I didn’t think it was significantly faster than using a match or lighter. In wet weather, which I didn’t get to test the product in, I think this product would produce enough of a flame to start a well tindered fire.

The Conclusion

ChemFire is a fun light product that is easy to use. Starts a fire quickly. I found that I couldn’t be sloppy with my fire building; I still had to gather good dry tinder. For campers with kids or scouts this product would provide entertainment and a science lesson. The weight and size is small, so it’d take up little room. If I were to carry this on trips, it’d be more for fun than as a replacement for a lighter or matches, but it might just come in handy on those wet cold days were I want a fire to warm up, and the tinder is just damp enough to make fire starting a hassle.

This is a product worth trying out.

Product’s Website: ChemFire Fire Starting System

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Review ChemFire Capsules Fire Starter

Hmm… I Have to Spend $14.99 More?

When I first opened the package, I found out that the lighter didn’t come filled with lighter fluid. You have two options at this point:

1. Buy a butane lighter filler.
2. Buy the Brunton Fuel Tool, which will set you back another $14.99.

I choose to purchase a Fuel Tool, which I would also need to fill up the Glorb Lantern, which I was lent for this review. The Fuel Tool screws onto a standard Iso Butane canister and then injects fuel into the lighter through a port located behind the flashlight. You have to remove the flashlight thus turning it on to add fuel to the lighter. Although during testing I didn’t have to refill the lighter, I could see how this would be nice on an extremely long expedition if I were also packing Iso Butane canisters.

The Jist

To access the lighter portion of this tool, you have to push a black button located on the side of the lighter, which is opposite of a hinge. The button releases a latch and the whole top portion of the tool flips back revealing the hidden lighter. It is actually fun to play with; the flip top and provided me with minutes of entertainment. On the top of the lid is a mirror, which is almost usable to look at yourself in. I suppose that if you were really extraordinarily luck that the mirror could be used to signal someone halfway across the campsite, but more likely it could provide several minutes of fun as you flash your paddling partner with a piece of the sun. Pushing down on a black button until you hear a click starts the lighter. This action produces a blue flame that is difficult to see in the daylight. This flame jets out of the lighter regardless of the direction that you hold the lighter, which makes it an ideal tool for lighting fires and stoves.

Occasionally, the lighter would misfire, and I would have to click the button a couple of times to produce flames. The flame is very difficult to blow out, and seems to stay lit is the light winds that I had the unit in. I was able to blow out the flame when I tried hard. The flame is controllable, but I found that the unit wouldn’t light unless the flame was turned close to maximum output.

The flashlight portion of the Firelight, I found less useful. I’m not a smoker, so I don’t carry a lighter on me at all time, so there was never a time that I actually would have used this flashlight. Even when cooking dinner after the sun went down, I didn’t use the flashlight, because I always had a headlight on. The Firelight also ships with a plastic lanyard. This is easily removable, and I recommend removing it because it is very awkward.

Conclusion

Overall, I found the lighter portion of the firelight well worth the weight of carrying it. It made starting fires easy, it stayed lit in winds, and it started reliably only misfiring occasionally. If you have the extra $55 to spend on the Firelight and Fuel Tool, it makes a great lighter. Unfortunately, after this goes back to Brunton, I will go back to a Bic disposable lighter.

Date Reviewed: 3/28/2004
Product Reviewed: Brunton Firelight
Cost: Retail $40 (plus Fuel Tool $14.99)

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Review: Brunton Firelight

That main problem that I have is that I find it hard to write on any piece of paper or lightweight notebook and my old favorite journals weighed 11 ounces. My compromise journals weighed four. It never felt right to me to write on detached paper, which is the lightest way to travel. So, I’m always on the lookout for the perfect notebook to take on a paddling trip. And I may have just found one.

Moleskine notebook used for tripping.

What’s All the Hype?

Moleskine notebooks and cahiers have been around for a number of years, and they trace their history (a history of Moleskine is included with each one you buy) back to small hand stitched notebooks available in stationary shops in Paris. They claim to directly descend from notebooks used by Hemingway and Van Gogh, and they’ve been catching on all over the world, so much so that they’ve been used on TV shows, they’ve been exhibited in museums, and every hipster uses one now instead of a PDA. I gotta admit, I’ve also been taken, but it didn’t happen right away.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

When I first heard all the hype, I dismissed the journals as just another fad, but when I actually saw one in a store, I just had to pick some up, despite their outrageously high asking price. They fit perfect in your hand, feel durable, and the paper just feels right. I bought a notebook and two packages of cahiers. Twenty dollars later and I was plugging them to my friends, family, and now you.

It’s Not Just a Journal; It’s a Way of Life

I don’t know if I buy into the hype (or maybe I do and they have me believing that I don’t), but I can see why there is hype. These little things are great and even more perfect for the paddler looking for a lightweight and small solution for journaling. The Moleskines come in several sizes and flavors, but the two smallest sizes are the most interesting. The Pocket Notebook has a hardcover, 192 3″ x 5″ pages, a built in rubber band to close it, a fabric bookmark, and a pocket in the back to hold stuff in. (i.e. your wilderness permit.) It weighs 4.6 ounces. The Pocket Cahiers have a soft cover, 64 3″ x 5″ pages with 16 detachable pages, and a pocket in the back to hold stuff in. It weighs 1.3 ounces. They all come with a variety of page styles, including: graph paper, lined, and plain. The lines on the lined version are slightly smaller than college paper, but still big enough to write on easily, and the graph paper version uses small squares than what I’m used to, but still plenty big. The paper itself is off white and the ink from my Pilot G2 (best pen on earth) is slightly visible through the paper.

So, Does It Work?

Oh yaaaah, it does. My journals typically take up around ten pages per day in the 3″x5″ size, so for a ten day trip, I need to carry two Cahiers, but still that’s only 2.6 ounces and saves weight over my old small journal. But more importantly, these small things feel weighty in your hand, they feel deserving of thoughts, and unlike other notebooks I’ve used, they seem to speak to you and say fill me, and fill me soon. It’s also the perfect size to carry with you everywhere. (Does this mean I’m buying the hype?)

Conclusion

It’s hard to say anything negative about these Moleskines. My ink shows through is about the only bad thing, but overall these are the best things since man figured out that a boat could float. If you like to keep a journal, you won’t be disappointed.

Date: January 6, 2006
Product Reviewed: Moleskine Notebooks and Cahiers
Weight: 4.6 ounces and 1.3 ounces
Cost: $4.99 to $9.99

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Review: Moleskine