Gear Review: Anon M1 Snow Goggles's Magnetic Changeable Lens

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal

This goggle doesn’t exist yet. It’s new for the 2012-13 season, but Red/Anon (a Burton brand) released the above YouTube vid to give the world an idea of what’s to come, and we have to admit it looks intriguing. Smith already has their Outrigger I/O-I/OS lock/unlock system that allows lens changes much more quickly, but Anon is promising something mas rapido, with magnets holding the lenses in place and small levers at the bottom of the lens and goggle frame junction facilitating a quick swap even while you’re still wearing the goggles.

Pitfalls? Well the lack of a mechanical latch to hold the lens in place might mean that it could detach inadvertently — say, during a face plant in a few feet of powder. And what we’d really love is for someone to invent a light adaptive and tint-adaptive lens to make swapping a thing of the past.

$199 – $220, depending on the style. LINK

 

Adventure Journal: Congress Moves to Push Bikes Off National Park Roads

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal

If you’ve ever ridden a bike on the pavement at Arches National Park or Yellowstone, you know how liberating it can be. Cars are often jammed on roads that weren’t designed for the freeway-like crush that hits parks every summer, but on a bike you can cruise at a comfortable pace. And just like riding anywhere else, you’re more a part of the scenery, not walled off from it. But the current transportation reauthorization bill worming its way through Congress could make it illegal to ride a bike on any federal road that has a pathway running parallel to it, not just those within national parks.

If no parallel, alternative pathway exists, cyclists would have a right to the road. Reassured? Don’t be.

Continue reading this story and sign the petition

Gear Reviews: The Best New Cameras

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Gear of the Year 2011 - Fall/Winter.

Retro Camera

Photograph courtesy Fujifilm

Fujifilm’s X100 

At last, a great-looking retro camera that shoots as good as it looks. Fujifilm’s X100 is the runaway camera of the year, thanks to its 1950s rangefinder styling. But this is one digital model that backs up its pretty facade with dynamite performance. Photos produced by the 12.2-megapixel CMOS sensor are stunningly true to life, with the strong color accuracy, great skin tones, and a minimum of noise even in low-light situations. The metal body feels rugged but not heavy, the flash results look natural and blend nicely with ambient light, and the viewfinder displays all the settings you need. Oh, and the operation is nearly silent. Its best application might be for travel shooting, where being unobtrusive counts. Keep in mind its fixed focal length lens (f/2, 35mm equivalent) can’t be swapped for a telephoto ($1,200; www.finepix-x100.com).

Rugged Camera

Photograph courtesy Nikon

Coolpix AW100 

It has to be said: What took you guys so long? Nikon was the second-to-last major camera manufacturer to make a rugged point and shoot, but the very tough Coolpix AW100 was it worth the wait. The Nikon is packed with high-quality specs, including full HD video at 1080p, and it cranks out top-shelf images in challenging conditions. It’s drop-proof from five feet, waterproof to 33 feet, and freeze-proof to 14ºF. ($380; www.nikonusa.com)


Compact Camera

Photograph courtesy Olympus Imaging America Inc.

Olympus E-P3 

The first versions of the compact Olympus E-P series performed as if they had a Celica engine in a Corvette body, but no more. The E-P3 is a hot rod under the hood. Critically, its autofocus is blazingly fast—it evaluates focus 120 times a second—and combined with 3.0 frames per second shooting rate you get a compact camera that’ll grab action like a much bigger DSLR. There’s a new built-in flash, too. And with the Micro Four-Thirds format, you can swap lenses for a bigger zoom or better light gathering, depending on whether you want to pull in the big game or shoot after sunset—the versatility is incredible ($900;www.olympus.com).

 

Travel Tech: Air Display App Adds Instant Screen Real Estate on the Go

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Gear of the Year 2011 -  Fall-Winter >>

The Air Display ($9.99) app solves a problem of the modern world: Not enough screen. Even on a 15-inch laptop, real estate is lacking. Processes as simple as emailing can feel constrained and if you’re working on something more involved, say, bouncing between Power Point and a spreadsheet, forget about it. But Air Display turns your iPad (or iPhone, but let’s get real) into a second display and, while we aren’t talking about magically adding a 30-inch big screen, it does improve the situation dramatically.

Gear of the Year Fall-Winter 2011 Awards Are Here

Gear is close to all of our hearts. It keeps us dry and safe. It renders "bad" weather harmless. It helps us explore new places and challenge ourselves in ways we couldn't otherwise. And it just keeps getting better.

For our Gear of the Year Fall-Winter 2011 awards, longtime Adventure contributor Steve Casimiro scoured the best of the best new gear to shape a collection of products that says something about where we are today. Besides core responsibilities to keep us warm, dry, and safe, we've evolved to also expect quite a lot from our gear these days—which is obvious from this spread. So check out the goods. You're sure to find a thing or two you really, really need. 

—Mary Anne Potts 

Gear Review: Nau's Better Than Cargo S-Cargo Pants

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >> 

You know what drew me to the S-Cargo for travel pants? Under “design inspiration” Nau writes “I...hate cargos. But I love these.” Ha! Sometimes that’s the perfect approach—to take something you despise and craft it by eliminating the offending properties.

Me, I don’t particularly hate cargos, but I would agree they’ve overstayed their welcome. And no matter how utilitarian for travel, do you really want to be trying to sweet talk your way into an international upgrade looking like a refugee from boot camp? No.

The S-Cargos ($125), then, fit the bill ideally. They feature two extremely low profile pockets on the legs with just enough room to slip passport and Moleskine journal or perhaps a map, but otherwise look like normal pants. Normal meaning something you’d wear to work, dinner, etc.

The fabric is organic cotton with one percent spandex—and that one percent makes all the difference. When you’re into the third or fourth hour of your flight and everyone else is squirming against their restrictive denim jeans or plain cotton chinos, you’ll be smiling because the S-Cargos move with you in every direction. And movement, of course, is where travel begins.

Gear Review: Revo Stern Sunglasses Make Life Look Better

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >> 

Earlier this summer I was at the beach, raving to my son about the clarity of the water. “The kelp,” I said, “it’s so golden. And the blue...I can’t remember when I’ve seen the water so blue.”

“I don’t see it,” he said. “Maybe you should take off your sunglasses.”

I took off the Revo Sterns. D’oh! Back to everyday color.

Revo claims its new polarized lenses are revolutionary and, while that’s a fairly typical marketing overstatement, they are a dramatic improvement. It’s true that my local section of the Pacific has rarely looked so good, and no doubt some of that is due to the “Water” lens. But revolutionary? Let’s call it a great evolution.

“While some lenses address this problem by blocking this entire color range (resulting in color distortion and the inability to accurately recognize colors),” says the company, “the Revo Water lens filters only specific wavelengths, resulting in accurate color that eliminates the blue haze without color distortion.”

The Stern is a strong frame that’s a cross between a Wayfarer and a Frogskin. It’s thick and bold and looks like it would weigh heavy on the bridge of the nose, but in fact feels quite light and comfortable. The lenses are polycarbonate, the frames nylon with elastomer nose pieces. Light transmission on the Water lens is ten percent.

The Pacific isn’t on the Pantone chart, so I can’t quibble about accuracy—I just know that everything I looked at looked better. A whole lot better.

Gear Review: The Burly, Supportive TrekSta Kobra II GTX Trail Hiker

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >>  

TrekSta is a relatively new brand and they’ve hit the market with a rush. There’s nothing wimpy about the TrekSta Kobra II trail shoe—this puppy has a strong personality. The styling is bold, the chassis is large, the lift high, the Boa lacing convenient but not adaptable. Good on them for taking a stand and for embracing Boa, a love it or hate technology when placed in trail shoes.

The Kobra is for those who want a burly, supportive hiker, a shoe that can undergird a backpack and go all day with fear of leaving you flatfooted. The outsole is thick, with a raised heel and significant ramp that puts a well-padded wedge of rubber between you and the rocks and roots of the trail. The midsole, too, is pronounced — this is a shoe for those with high arches. The Kobra is built with what TrekSta calls Nestfit, an integrated system between the outsole, midsole, and upper, and the goal clearly is to serve as a solution to flimsy trail runners that result in tired or injured feet.

Is everyone here familiar with Boa? No? Well, it’s a lacing system that uses a ratchet to pull a thin wire cable and tighten the shoe around your foot. It’s an amazing technology — when used in a shoe like the Kobra, the Boa cable wraps around the heel and pulls your foot into the pocket more securely than any other method. As you rotate the dial and tighten the cable, you feel a uniform compression — no hot spots or pinching. The downside is that you can’t make regional adjustments — loosening the toes and tightening over the arch, or vice versa. As I mentioned, you either love it or you hate it.

And the same, too, is true of the Kobra II as whole cloth. If you have a high arch, crave support, and like the wraparound security of Boa, you’ll never want to take this shoe off. If you are none of those things, well, then, not ($150; treksta.com).

Gear Review: Outdoor Research SoDo Shirt - The Only "Safari Shirt" You Need

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >> 

There’s a reason why what I call the "safari shirt" hasn’t changed substantively since Hemingway was shooting elephants in it: The lessons learned from a hundred or more years of use across the wildest hot-weather terrain in the world are every bit as valid today. And while I have a whole closet full of these kinds of shirts, one of my favorite’s is Outdoor Research’s SoDo ($68).

A month or so ago, I headed into the Mojave Desert for a couple nights of backpacking and the SoDo was the only on top I took. During the day, when temps climbed well into the 90s, I rolled down the sleeves and protected my arms with its SPF50 coverage and turned up the collar to keep the sun off the back of my neck. Hanging in the shade, I simply rolled the sleeves all the way up. And when night’s cooling temperatures arrived, made colder by the strong gusting winds, I rolled them back down and took advantage of the nylon shirt’s wind resistance.

Some safari shirts pack so many pockets you don’t want to wear them anywhere but into the bush, but the OR version has just two pockets and once of them is zippered and hidden behind a flap. The effect is much more subtle and gives the shirt a chameleon quality—you can wear it to dinner, wear it to travel, and you don’t need a pith helmet accompaniment.

The SoDo has mesh arm pit vents and mesh lining on the shoulders to enable a skoch of circulation. It’s not huge, but it helps. And the nylon dries reasonably quickly, though not in an instant. Indeed, as the styling of the shirt makes it more versatile, so does the weight—the SoDo isn’t the lightest or fastest drying shirt in my closet, but whatever it gives up in the hottest temps you get back in the cooler ones. Very rarely is it overwhelmed; much more common is that it’s the one and only shirt you need.

Gear Reviews: Hand Planes Make the Amazing Pursuit of Bodysurfing Even Better

By Contributing Editor Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal. See more of Casimiro's gear recommendations in our Ultimate Hiking and Camping Gear Guide >>

I’m all fired up on handplanes. The beach below my house, Salt Creek, is madness in the summer and long stretches of it are blackballed from board surfing. A perfect alternative is bodysurfing using hand planes, miniature boards that lift you out of the water, set you trimming, and give a measure of control otherwise missing.

You can buy beautiful hand planes — state of the art Brownfish models go for $140 — but the little sticks beg to be done it yourself. Since we’re talking about a decidely low-fi pursuit, any old plank will do, so long as it’s well sealed.

See a video on The Adventure Life >>