North Water Hydration Holster Review
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When I’m out on a long distance trip, I like to hydrate by using a hydration pack, but for day trips and calm water, I prefer a water bottle. Keeping that water bottle handy without having to pop a sprayskirt is a challenge. While the deck bungees works well for some things, they don’t have enough holding power to keep a water bottle on deck. And I tend to stay away from storing anything more than spare paddles and a map on the deck, because it annoys me to have anything large up there. That’s why I like to use the North Water Hydration Holster.
The North Water Deck Mounted Hydration Holster
just fine. On shore, you can remove the holster and wear it as a fanny pack to go hiking. The holder has a bungee cord that helps keep the bottle in place and two straps tightened by ladder locks control the size of the water bottle holder.
While the fanny pack idea is a good one, I’ve found that the webbing that wraps the perimeter deck line is too long and it flops around unless you tie it together under the bottle holder. This makes one more step to take it off of the kayak, so I’ve never use it as a fanny pack.
The main use is for holding a bottle on the kayak’s deck, and the Hydration Holster does this exceedingly well. I haven’t lost a water bottle since I started using it even when getting into 2 to 3 foot surf. The holster’s profile is small enough to not be annoying like other larger deck bags are.
If you’re looking for a good way to keep a bottle on your kayak’s decks, this is a smart product.
North Water makes other great products. While you’re at it, check out the North Water Sea Tec Tow Rope Review.
Bryan Hansel
Bryan Hansel is a freelance writer, award-winning photographer and a former American Canoe Association L4 Open Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor. His home port is on Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota. He also teaches photography workshops.
7 Comments
Asbjorn
Hi.
I was wondering if you could tell me more about the fitting of the DECK SLATES i see you have put on your deck. As a fellow sea kayaker I always look for good ideas, and this looks like something I might fit to my explorer ;-). If you could the send me a “birdseye” photo of the deck slates, I would be able to better gain an idea for its design and how I would my “future add-on to my deck” to look.
Bryan Hansel
Stay tuned as I’m planning to do a Kickstarter project to get these made for sale.
Bryan Sarauer
Hi Bryan,
Any update on the Kickstarter campaign?
Cheers,
Bryan
Bryan Hansel
All the graphic design work is done, I’ve gotten quotes and now I just need to figure out how to do a Kickstarter campaign. Have you done one?
Bryan Sarauer
Nope. Good luck with it, I look forward to seeing it.
Rob Pealing
This strikes me as just another bit of stuff to have that is not needed. A bit of string on a water bottle and a $1 dollar karabiner works for me.
Bryan Hansel
I’ve always found that in any sort of waves, water bottles wash off the deck and I don’t care to retrieve them and put them back under the bungee. How does your system fix that?