Gibbon Slacklines

Early in the 1980s, a couple of climbers in the Yosemite Valley decided to stretch a line of webbing a few feet off the ground between two anchors and walk across it, tightrope style.

Thus, slacklining was born. A form of tightrope walking, slacklining uses a more elastic line that stretches and bounces, at times feeling more like a trampoline than a tightrope.

                                                     

Back in 2009, a friend of mine introduced me to the sport, showing me how to tie the lines and use knots and a lot of tugging to keep tension on the line so we could walk across. Despite what a pain it was to set up, we'd spend hours at Caldwell Park with a line between two trees. We'd hang out all afternoon, picnicking, taking shaky steps across the rope, and coercing other people to give it a try. It turns a day at the park into an adventure.

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Slim, Yet Burly iPhone Protection

I've been getting a lot of questions about iPhone cases lately, and most of them are regarding a common problem: flimsy latex cases keep phones slim, but God help you if your phone falls out of your pack, while big, tough plastic cases are bombproof but don't easily fit in a pocket.

What's the happy medium?

OtterBox has been my go-to company for electronics cases — I love its Defender case for my iPad — and two of its offerings, the Commuter ($29.95, available for a wide range of phones and PDAs) and the new Reflex ($44.95, available for iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th gen, and Blackberry 8500/9300) cases both find a measure of slender protection. I've been testing the Commuter on my 3Gs and I've had a tester putting the Reflex for the iPhone 4 through its paces for the past few months. Here's what we found.

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Columbia Spring2012 Gear Preview

I'm heading down to the Bay Area today for Columbia Sportswear's Spring 2012 preview event. It's a two part event that starts in San Francisco with dinner, drinks and presentations of next year's Spring line at the California Academy of Sciences. The next day, Columbia's taking ten of us journalists down to Yosemite for a four-day backpacking trip to try out the gear we checked out the night before. It's tough, but hey-it's a job.

I've checked out Columbia's Peak to Peak shell and I've had a tester report on their Neo Wind women's jacket for Backpacker and my Trek Tech column and I've been impressed. I can't wait to see what they've got in store for next year.

This week's going to be huge. I'll be testing out gear from Salomon, Easton Mountain Products, and Magellan as well, so I should have a lot to report on when I get back I'll try to blog and send out pics and reports on Twitter (follow me at @trektechblog)  as long as I have reception to keep you guys posted on what's up.

In the meantime, I'll have a few more posts popping up while I'm gone-I talk up slacklining and Gibbon Slackline Kits for spicing up your barbecues and review a few slim (yet tough) iPhone cases to keep your PDA safe on the trail.

Stanley Nineteen13 One-Handed H20 Bottle: A Good Idea, Poorly Executed

Unscrewing a cap while driving is a sketchy affair, and I’m sure that trying to open a stainless steel bottle on a bike has led to more than one disaster. 

Stanley’s Nineteen13 One-Handed H20 Bottle ($18-$22) caters to commuters with a unique push-button spout. The idea is that the bottle is completely sealed until you push the big button on its side, which opens it up to allow water to flow freely. Great for people who need to steer and drink at the same time. 

The Nineteen13 sports stylish graphics (that winged bear is a great mascot), a stainless steel body, carabiner loop, and cup holder/bike cage-friendly fit. It also comes with a lifetime warranty, which so far is proving to be pretty handy.


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Update: Stanley contacted me to swap out my bottle with a new one to redeem the One-Hander and see what went wrong with my bottle. Impressed with their QC department's response. Here's the update.