Category: Tools & Gear

  • 5 Apps No Adventurer Should Be Without

    5 Apps No Adventurer Should Be Without

    In August, I loaded up my car with climbing gear, hiking boots, my new tent, my old, beat-up sleeping bag, my recently shaved dog and everything in between. We spent the better part of the last month road tripping from Myrtle Beach, north along the East Coast to Quebec, west to Montreal and back down south, along the Appalachian Trail. After three solid weeks on the road, I’ve come to appreciate my smartphone’s knowledge of the weather, sense of direction and ability to Google, “free camping [insert state here].” I also downloaded an embarrassing amount of iPhone apps throughout my trek. Here are the five I found most useful, that no adventurer should be without:

    AllTrails
    Price: Free

    AllTrails is the best hiking app on the market. Users vote on, review and contribute pictures from various hikes. Think of it as the Yelp! of hiking. With a wide variety of trails across the country, paths range from easy to difficult (and trust me, they mean difficult- many of the tougher climbs require technical climbing). Both mountain bike and hiking trails are featured, but hiking definitely dominates most of the database. The app features length, type of trail and all kinds of details, like if you should bring your dog or not. The best part is the option to search for trails around you, making AllTrails perfect for road trips and even discovering new hikes near home.

    Fishing Spots
    Price: Free

    This is awesome for finding good fishing spots nearby and what kind of fish users are catching. Users share tips for snagging the biggest catches in the area and demonstrate what type of bait to use. As far as apps go, it’s a bit on the excited side of notifications, but the information is incredibly useful and I’d highly suggest using this app if you’re looking for a new fishing spot.

    Slow Shutter Cam
    Price: $0.99

    Slow Shutter Cam’s simple to use and perfect for capturing starry night shots from your iPhone.

    Launch Sites
    Price: Free

    Those who travel with boats will love Launch Sites. It shows spots to launch kayaks, canoes and paddle boards all over the country. It has an extensive selection of over 17,000 launch sites across the U.S. Plus, fellow users report any fees, facilities and overall reviews of the launches.

    Woodall’s
    Price: Free

    Those desperate for a place to pitch their tent need look no further than Woodall’s iPhone app. Don’t let the name scare you. Although Woodall’s is primarily meant for RVs, there’s plenty of information about tent pitching too. Users filter their results based on location, pet availability and swimming sites. My only complaint is that most of the sites are in the $20+-range. I’d suggest checking out www.freecampsites.net before looking on the app, but it’s great in a pinch.

  • Lenore Capsule Ignoble Bags Review

    Lenore Capsule Ignoble Bags Review

    Every once in a while around here at Nerve Rush, we take a look at the gear that enables us to do the adventures we love. Today we take a look at the Lenore capsule backpack/duffle from Ignoble Bags.

    Lenore

    After finding the Cora from Ignoble, I started browsing their other designs and the bag that stood out the most was Lenore – an interesting combination secondary bag that seemed equally good looking, versatile and useful. I decided to get it in my hands and put it through its paces to see if it lived up to expectations in person.

    The Description

    The official description of Lenore via Ignoble’s site goes like this:

    Constructed from 1680D ballistic nylon with a fully lined nylon Ripstop interior, YKK branded nylon zipper closures and nylon webbing, the Lenore Capsule Backpack is an ultra-soft, ultra-robust travel bag. The pack features padded straps, a padded airmesh back, a padded exterior duffle bag style handle, left and right exterior stash-pockets, and a dual-zippered main compartment with internal hanging-pocket and book-sleeve. Lenore also features a simple but effective shoulder strap restraint system that allows the backpack to be quickly converted into a mini-duffle, for convenient and balanced carrying via the bag’s padded duffle handle.

     You read that right, the Lenore is one of the most stylish (and possibly only) backpack/duffle transforming travel bag out there. Take a look for yourself

    The Bag

    The Lenore is one of the most versatile bags I’ve come across. It’s best described as a small backpack with duffel bag transformation capabilities. This means you can easily use it as your primary bag and wear it as a backpack or turn it into a duffel bag and carry it as a secondary bag via the handle. I’m in love with this concept and Lenore and don’t understand why more manufacturers haven’t utilized this idea. If you’re a frequent traveler, the ability to have a secondary bag for use on longer trips while having the small form factor for day trips is invaluable. I’ve taken the Lenore to Jordan and back as well as quite a few other places and it’s quite possibly the best secondary bag I’ve ever used.

    It’s a bit difficult to explain in writing, so watch the demonstration below.

    The Lenore Transformation

    It’s incredibly simple to transform Lenore from a backpack to a duffle in just four steps.

    1. Buckle The Arm Straps

    2. Tighten The Shoulder Straps

    3. Tidy Everything Up

    4. Go

    Simple – It takes about 15 seconds to actually make the transformation (here’s the official conversion pdf from Ignoble).

    The Durability

    While I’m not convinced that the Lenore is quite as water resistant as the sister bag Cora, but it is just as durable. Besides using it as a travel bag, I’ve also used it for day trips and as a gym bag. When I released Impossible Abs, we did a photo shoot at an abandoned property in Chicago. I lugged the Lenore up hundreds of feet, dropped her, scratched her up and she . The only thing that impressed me more than the consistent style of Ignoble Bags is their impressive durability and the fact that they hold up so well when I’m consistently tough on them.

    The Specs

    The technical specifications and dimensions of the Lenore are as follows:

    •  Average Weight: 1 lbs 12 oz (793 g)
    • Bag Dims: 12.5″ W x 19.5″ H x 8″ D
    • Internal Book-Sleeve Dims: 12″ W x 11″ H x 5″ D
    • Total Capacity: 27 Liters

    It’s also worth mentioning the Lenore has the following features

    • 1680D Ballistic Nylon and Ripstop Construction
    • Padded Shoulder Straps and Padded Airmesh Back
    • Padded Exterior Duffle Bag Style Handle
    • Shoulder Strap Restraint Loops for Conversion to
    • Mini-Duffle
    • Large Dual-Zippered Main Compartment
    • Zippered Left and Right Exterior Stash-Pockets
    • Side Compression Straps
    • Internal Hanging-Pocket
    • Internal Book-Sleeve
    • Top Exterior Webloop Handle

    The Price

    Priced at $249.99, the Lenore is a great bag, but feels a bit over-priced (especially since I used it as a secondary bag to the Cora rucksack). That said, it is a GREAT secondary bag, but if you’re on a budget you might want to first pick up the Cora – my personal favorite from Ignoble (that said, if you’re going to do both, you might talk to Dean at Ignoble and he might give you a pricing break :).

    Lenore might not be the best choice for those on a budget, but there’s no doubt it’s a solid bag, well made and incredibly versatile and worth every penny.

    Get the Lenore Capsule at Ignoble Bags.

    Use the code IMPOSSIBLE at checkout and Ignoble will donate 25% of the purchase price of any bag sold between now and the end of the year (Dec 31, 2012) to the Impossible HQ campaign to build an #impossible school in Guatemala.

  • Cora Rucksack Ignoble Bags Review

    Cora Rucksack Ignoble Bags Review

    Every once in a while around here at Nerve Rush, we take a look at the gear that enables us to do the adventures we love. Today we take a look at the Cora rucksack from Ignoble Bags.

    Meet Cora

    Nerve Rush meet Cora. Cora meet Nerve Rush.

    I discovered the Cora last year and knew I had to get my hands on it. Over the last year, I’ve taken it through my trips to the Carribean, the Middle East, Texas, the West Coast– even Canada (yes, we are extreme). On almost every adventure I’ve done this year, the Cora has been there right along side me. The experience has been really incredible.

    The Description

    The official description from Ignoble Bags reads

    Constructed from 1680D ballistic nylon with a fully lined nylon Ripstop interior, YKK branded nylon zipper closures and nylon webbing, the Lenore Capsule Backpackis an ultra-soft, ultra-robust travel bag. The pack features padded straps, a padded airmesh back, a padded exterior duffle bag style handle, left and right exterior stash-pockets, and a dual-zippered main compartment with internal hanging-pocket and book-sleeve. Lenore also features a simple but effective shoulder strap restraint system that allows the backpack to be quickly converted into a mini-duffle, for convenient and balanced carrying via the bag’s padded duffle handle.

    IGNOBLE bags are quality made in the U.S.A., hand assembled in small runs by a military-grade soft goods production facility

    That’s a lot of words to say the Cora is a drop dead gorgeous, made in the USA product thats super soft and can still hold up  in the toughest conditions – as tested first hand by yours truly.

    The Looks

    Let’s not beat around the bush. The Cora is SEXY. Seriously, the first time I saw it, I knew I wanted it. I’m sort of a bag guy, but man, it’s beautiful. But I’ll shut up. Just take a look at some of the photos.

    The Space

    Cora has enough space for all your stuff. I’ve done 2-week trips to Austin, 2 month trip to the Dominican Republic and a 6 week road trip with the Cora bag doing most of the heavy lifting.

    At the same time Cora isn’t a pain to lug around. If you’re the entire container, you can cinch up the top of the bag to make it smaller. If you need more space later on, it has a pull-string top that gives you a few extra inches of space at the top of the bag. In fact, I found that the more items I added to Cora, the more sturdy and durable she became.

    It’s the perfect intersection for a bag. Light and easy to carry around, but plenty of space inside to hold your gear.

    Durability

    Durability is a little tough to describe so I’ve put the Cora through hell. I’ve traveled to several countries and done several trips with JUST this bag. It’s absolutely phenomenal. It’s tough to describe it, so I thought I’d share a story.

    One time, I found myself stuck in a 15 minute downpour on the way to meet some friends at a coffee shop. I immediately thought about all the stuff in my bag that would get soaked and be rendered useless

    • My laptop
    • My clothes for the week
    • My kindle
    • My notebooks

    I wanted to freak out, but I realized that anything that was soaked, was already wet. There was no hope…

    Then I got to the coffee shop and opened up my Cora…

    I fully expected my bag to be carrying the same 20 pounds of extra water weight that I was carrying around no my sweatshirt and jeans that I was currently wearing.

    You can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I found out everything was dry! Everything. my laptop, my clothes, even the paper in my notebooks. I really couldn’t believe it. I thought for sure that my laptop or clothes or at least the paper that I had in the bag would be ruined, but nothing. Completely dry – definitely more than I could say about my clothes at the moment.

    While Cora is definitely great at keeping out water, it’s also held up to being dropped, thrown around, stashed in every mode of transportation from airplanes to buses to camels without a scratch on it. I don’t know Dean and his brother are using to make Cora so freaking durable, but whatever it is – it’s working.

    The Cons

    My biggest (and only) complaint with the Cora is that it doesn’t have any laptop sleeve area for travel.

    Thanks to our friends at the TSA, this makes things a HUGE pain if you only travel with one bag and try to fit your laptop in your backpack with a bunch of other stuff. Because of it’s form factor and top-opening, it’s not easy to pack and unpack the Cora quickly if you’ve packed it tight.

    That said, you can easily get around this by bringing a standard issue backpack along with you and carrying your laptop in that, but it is worth noting that there is still room for improvement in this bag.

    The Specs

    Here are the technical specs on Cora

    • Average Weight: 1 lbs 14 oz (857 g)
    • Bag Dims, Nominal: 11.25″ W x 20.5″ H x 8″ D **
    • Bag Dims, Actual: 11.25″ W x 26″ H x 8″ D **
    • Internal Book-Sleeve Dims: 10″ W x 12.5″ H x 5″ D
    • Total Capacity: 36 Liters 

    As well as some of details on the extras included throughout the bag.

    • Padded Shoulder Straps and Padded Airmesh Back
    • Fully Adjustable Hood
    • Large Main Compartment with Draw Sack
    • Zippered Front Stash-Pocket
    • Zippered Hood Stash-Pocket
    • Dual Side Utility Pockets
    • Side Compression Straps
    • Bottom Bag Compression Straps
    • Internal Hanging-Pocket
    • Internal Book-Sleeve
    • Top Exterior Webloop Handle

    Final Thoughts

    The Cora is my go-to travel bag these days and I put it through hell and it’s still holding up. While I tend to pack light, if you’re looking for a bag to hold everything you need, look no further – especially if you can look past the missing laptop sleeve. Not only is this sexy backpack going to look good while you’re traveling, but it’s collapses and stores away when you’re not using it. If you’re a digital nomad looking for you next back, check out Cora at Ignoble Bags.

    Cora is listed at just $164.99 at Ignoble Bags. You won’t regret it.

    Use the code IMPOSSIBLE at checkout and Ignoble will donate 25% of the purchase price of any bag sold between now and the end of the year (Dec 31, 2012) to the Impossible HQ campaign to build an #impossible school in Guatemala.

  • Demon United Review & Contest

    Demon United Review & Contest

    Win two pieces of high-quality protective gear, valued at almost $200.

    Courtesy of Demon United.

    [youtube id=”WkGNrK0Pq_c” width=”600″ height=”350″]

    Follow the instructions at the end of the video to score some complimentary protective gear swag. I’ve tried these items first hand..they’re insanely cool.

    Best video wins.

    Contest ends on November 30th, 2012.

    About Demon United

    demon united logo

    Demon United is a boutique adventure company based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. For the last 10+ years, they have been making protective gear for extreme athletes. So, elbow pads and helmets, spine protective gear and knee pads. Great for mountain bikers, snowboarders, extreme roller derby’ers — you name it.

    Demon United employs D30 technology into their protective gear. D30 is a non-newtonian liquid that looks and feels like a kind of putty. Upon impact, though, the molecules in the putty instantly bind together and form a solid block. This allows for lightweight gear that is incredibly strong. D30 is paving the way in impact-protection technology.

  • JLAB GO 4GB Mp3 Player Review

    JLAB GO 4GB Mp3 Player Review

    In our constant effort to bring you the best gut-wrenching videos and articles on the Internet superhighway, we’re always looking for ways to help you augment your adventures and create the best possible experience. That’s why we’re bringing you N

    erve Rush gear reviews. Products and gear we love that will make your next adventure even more gut-wrenching.

    First up: JLab GO 4GB MP3 Player.

    I don’t usually race with audio, but these look solid, so I plugged ’em in, loaded it up and gave ’em a shot.

    The JLAB GO Overview

    The Go is a 4GB MP3 player (2GB option) and while you’ll have to trade in your iDevice for this one, it’s much simpler and lighter than a traditional mp3 player.

    It has no touch screen, no scrollwheel, no cords, no moving parts and nothing to break.

    How do they manage that feat of wizardry?

    Since it’s designed for adventure sports, there’s no actual MP3 player. The entire system is designed around the headset. I’ll explain.

    JLAB Go Black

    The JLAB GO Experience

    The Go is like one wireless headphone set. Everything is contained within the headset. This removes cords, screens, and a lot of breakable items from the equation.

    So what is it actually like to use the GO in the field? Well I tried it during some of my recent triathlon and ultramarathon training. Here’s some of the pros and cons of the JLAB GO.

    Pros

    Hands-free. You’re not going to have to worry about u’re not going to have to worry about a screen or changing songs, holding a device or messing with cords. It’s simple. You just put it on and go. No messing with cords/cases/covers. Just go.

    Durable. There are no screens to break or devices to drop. It’s submersible in water and stays put pretty well once you have it in.

    Cordless. Messing with cords can be a pain when you’re carving up the snow, jumping on a bike or even having them bounce with you while you run. The Go’s compact form has zero cords.

    Cons

    The charging mechanism is hidden. It took me a bit to find it actually and this is somthing where you’ll have to consult the manual for. It’s a little counter-intuitive, but with the limited space, they had to work with what they had.

    There’s no specialized software. This is a pro and con as software like iTunes has gotten bloated. But there’s no special way to organize music on this device. You simply drag and drop the songs you want into the folder. Not difficult, but not necessarily an elegant method of implementation.

    While it does have controls to skip and change songs, I found the mechanism to do so a little awkward and wouldn’t do it in practice. It’s really meant to take a favorite playlist or two, throw them on, and then rock out your workout adventure. It’s comprable to the iPod shuffle in this regard.

    2 or 4 GB seems like an awfully small storage capacity with some devices hodling 16gb- or 32gb easily these days, but it’s not meant to hold librarys of songs as it is to hold enough to hold you through the adventure.

    The JLAB GO Specs

    For all you techno-files out there, here is the full list of specs.

    • 100% Fully Submersible, Waterproof and Sweatproof 4GB MP3 Player Headphones
    • Ideal for swimmers, cyclists, runners, triathletes, walkers, hikers, water and snow sports, and any kind of workout
    • Noise-isolating in-ear style cushions with ergonomic cord free design
    • Rechargeable lithium ion battery provides up to 10 hours of play time
    • Includes 7 pairs of soft silicone tips for water and land use, USB 2.0 mini cable, user manual and 1 year limited warranty

    It also comes in four different colors: Black/Grey, Black/Yellow, Blue/Silver, and white. We used the black/grey.

    The Verdict

    JLab Go is not your average MP3 player – but it’s not meant to be either.

    It’s lightweight, different form factor

    and focus on the elements makes it a completely different animal than your average MP3 player you’d take with you on your morning jog.

    There’s a lot of tradeoffs the device makes in search of portability and durability. The GO strips out a lot of the features most people are used to, but those are also the exact same features that make most mp3 players so prone to being damaged – not a fun situation when you’re out adventuring.

    If you’re looking for something that will let you take a playlist while leaving your hands free to focus on running, swimming through water or screaming down a mountain on your next adventure, and durable enough to last throughout it without breaking a screen or dropping it, the GO gets the green light. Quite simply, it just lets you go. And, checking in at just $59,99, you can give it a test drive without too much commitment.

    Pick up the JLAB GO on Amazon for your next adventure.

  • GoPro Launches the New HD HERO2 Action Camera

    GoPro Launches the New HD HERO2 Action Camera

    Available for just $299.99, GoPro’s newest HD HERO2 camera is a rugged beast of machinery. The Half Moon Bay-based company is known for its extreme and affordable video cameras and accessories, and this newest addition to their product line is no exception to their rock star status as one of the world’s best video cameras.

    While the HD HERO2 looks similar to the original HD HERO, its features are much more robust. A new video sensor has twice the processing power as the original, allowing for better low light capture and burst photography modes. A redesigned wide-angle lens generates visual output that’s twice as sharp as the previous model. Also, coming this winter, the HD HERO2 will enable video remote control via a Wi-Fi remote.

    Keep up the good work. Nerve Rush HQ salutes you.

    Order GoPro HD Hero 960 Camera @ GoPro.com