House of Marley Zion Earbuds - Gear Review

I am a bit of a music junkie too.  My tastes are varied and maybe even a little odd to some people.  From Bluegrass to Electronica, my iPod is a veritable buffet of tunes.  A life long love of Led Zeppelin and  Jimi Hendrix demonstrate an affinity for ripping guitar, but a thumping base line is not gonna scare me off either.  As summer time rolls around,  having a quality pair of headphones is a minimum requirement.  Enter the House of Marley, one of the legacies of Bob himself and their recently launched line of performance headphones.

I have had the chance to test out the Zion Earphones over the course of the last few months, and these things are just plain sweet in every respect.  What got me from the start was the looks. The rasta colored fabric covered 52" cord feels top quality and is plenty long for whatever activity you may be into.  The natural maple wood and recycled aluminum body of the bud make for an incredibly slick package.  They come with 5 different sized pairs of rubber tips, so you can find the ones that fit your ear perfectly.  When not in use they stow away neatly in the included canvas snap pouch.  Throw in an inline 3 button volume control and mic and I never need to dig my phone outta my pocket, even to answer calls.

Beyond looking sweet, these things pound.  Traditionally, I thought you needed to go with on-ear or over-the-ear headphones to get quality sound.  I was wrong.  I don't claim to understand what a 9 millimeter moving coil driver is, but it works apparently.  Hooked up to my iPhone, these put out plenty of sound, to the point that max volume is bordering on painful....  Ha ha, sweet.   Mowing the lawn is no longer an issue, the good ole snapper mower has nothing on these.

MSRP: $99.99 and worth every penny...

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"Neoprene is Sexy" Photo Contest

Whether you are living in California trying to squeeze as many surf days as you can from the year, or from the frozen tundra of the MidWest trying to sneak out on the lakes paddling around the icy remnants of winter, a wetsuit is not a complete stranger.  While these neoprene wonders have extended the season for many of us, one thing is true for nearly all of us, they are far from flattering.

Try and avoid wet suit flatulence

Well, in honor of this synthetic wonder, we are hosting a photo contest.  Dig through your pics and send in your favorite, most flattering, least flattering, most embarrassing, or flat out ridiculous shots of you (or your buddies) in a neoprene contraption of one sort or another.  Winners will get a Paddle Junkie Prize Pack including gear from Hydrapak, GU Energy, Harmony Gear, Pearl Izumi, Noll Surfboards and Team Paddle Junkie.

Shon Bollock of the Shasta Boyz pre-paddle

All that neoprene, someone has a good pic lying around.

So send us in your submissions; email them to ryan@thepaddlejunkie.com or post them to our Facebook Page.  Winners will be announced Monday April 30th.


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Summer Music Festival Returns to St. Paul

Recently announced is the River's Edge Music Festival, to be held on June 23rd and 24th at Harriet Island in Downtown St. Paul Minnesota.  Just steps from my front door, by the way. If you are thinking about going, you have until Friday to take advantage of the 2-day wristband offer for just $99.

The line-up looks solid, and they keep adding artists to the list.  They just added Sublime today as a matter of fact.  Plus they have a few local bands rounding out the list, including one of my personal favorites Polica.

So if you are looking for a summer music festival, but driving half way across the country isn't an option.  Well, now there is one I can literally walk to.  How cool is that.

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Vasque Rifts - Gear Review

Ever been on a drive and saw a park or trail that just begged you to pull over and check it out?  We spent a few days in Duluth Minnesota recently and there are more places like that up there than you can imagine.  I had the family with me, none of us had planned to hit the trails.  We were actually out running around town doing a little shopping.  When we pulled over, I realized I was wearing the new Vasque Rifts.  Let's see how these things perform off pavement.

Vasque's Rift Trail Shoes

As we exited the car at the parking area of Enger Tower Park, we headed up one of the numerous trails that led to the historic look-out.  A mix of woods, gravel and giant granite boulders fill the landscape.  It is not a long or strenuous hike, but you can wonder the paths for hours, taking in endless views out over Lake Superior.  This place is one of my favorite urban hikes, perfect for a quick family-friendly adventure.

Enger Tower and its new Night Lighting - Duluth MN

This is exactly what the Rifts were designed for.  Making a seamless transition from street shoe to incredibly capable off-roader, they were all I needed for the afternoon.  The "Vibram Spider" sole was aptly named, grabbing onto and scaling any terrain I threw at it.  Walking out to the edge of a 30 foot tall granite slab and peeking down at the ant-like people several hundred feet below, I had no concerns about my footing.

The leather and suede upper is tough but has an every-day friendliness about it.  I am rocking the green version, go bold or go home, right?  They are incredibly comfortable right out of the box, literally zero break-in time.  They run true to size and are plenty wide for my feet, something that can't be said for a number of major hiking brands out there.  These shoes are right at home here, in the land of canoe packs and great lakes, yet another great multi-purpose shoe from Minnesota's own Vasque Footwear.

MSRP: $120.00


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Grand Trunk Travel Goods - Gear Review

It takes a lot to get me frustrated when I'm on vacation.  That said, looking like the Griswolds, loaded down with a months worth of gear, heading to the beach is one thing that drives me crazy.  The shear amount of crap you think you "need" is ridiculous.  Grand Trunk has a whole line of travel products that fly right in the face of my vacation anxt.

The Parasheet was our favorite and most used item of all the Grand Trunk Gear we tested.  Forget sitting on your towel and getting that all loaded full of sand.  This nylon sheet weighs practically nothing, is about 6' x6' and had pockets sewn into the corners.  Once you scooped a little sand into each of those, it would takes hurricane force winds to blow this thing away.  Even though it was a darker color, it never felt hot to the touch and when it did get wet, it dried in minutes.  When not in use, it packs away nearly in an integrated pouch no bigger than a paperback book.  MSRP: $39.99

Towels are always an issue.  Traveling with 6 people this time around, we needed a bunch.  The Pack Towels from Grand Trunk were all I used the entire trip.  These dark blue rectangles were like a gift from above.  When stowed away they were inconsequential in your pack.  Once open however, they can keep up with the largest , fluffiest cotton beach towels around.  Amazingly absorbent, they reminded my of the chamois I've used for years on my vehicles, but the synthetic material is far more durable.  Even when these things got completely soaked, all you needed to do was wring it out and they were nearly completely dry.  A few minutes in the Hawaii sun and they were bone dry.  MSRP: $29.99

Not sure how to lug all that stuff around? Running to the grocery store?  Having an extra bag along is never a bad play, but with the limitations and cost of extra luggage these days, who brings extra bags?  Well, when they pack down to the size of a lime and weigh just 2 ounces, why not.  The Eco Travel Bag was a great little addition to my pack, for those "Just in Case" situations.  MSRP:$ 14.99

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Grassroots Hats - Gear Review

There are times when you get more than you expect from a piece of gear. Usually you don't think of a hat as having more than one trick up its sleeve. I ran into a group of guys in Hawaii that proved to me that isn't necessarily true.

Grassroots Polar Bear 2011

Grassroots makes a line of hats unlike anything I had seen before.  It was refreshing to see hats that weren't billboards for a sports team or a clothing brand for a change.  These hats had designs with their own unique style.  I picked up a solid black hat with a white polar bear embroidered on the front, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.  The inside of the hat, as well as the underside of the bill, were lined in a printed silk that added a grip of cool.

Printed bill and silky lining 

To the untrained eye (like mine, someone had to show me) the sweetest feature of this hat would go completely unnoticed, and that is precisely the point.  Hidden behind the band is access to a secret stash pocket created by the silk lining.  Plenty big to hold your ID and some cash, it is a perfect spot to tuck away your valuables when headed to the beach or concert.  

This hat quickly jumped to the top of the rotation.  Comfortable, fitted and obviously well made, plus the added bonus of storage space. How could I not love this thing???


MSRP: $30.00


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Chaco Ponsul Shoes - Gear Review

You can officially add another category to my footwear addiction list.  Watershoes now hold "Ultimate Junkie" status.  The latest generation have it figured out and the Ponsul Shoes from Chaco are masters of all terrain versatility.  

The Ponsuls are another piece of gear that made the 12 hour plane ride to Maui for a tropical gear test unlike anything we have done before.  I was more than comfortable trekking to the beach or running around the shopping district in Lahaina wearing these, but what really made these things happy was getting off the pavement and hitting the trails.

The trip to Hana had a little bit of everything, which made a perfect footwear test scenario.  The roughly 70 mile drive took nearly 3 hours each way, not including stops.  With over 600 curves (dozens of which were one lane wide and felt like you were about to fly off a 200 foot tall cliff and careen into the Pacific) and peppered with waterfalls, vistas and trails at pretty much any place you could find to pull the car over.  From the black sand beach and "Alice in Wonderland" Trail at Wai'anapanapa State Park to the O'heo Gulch (or 7 Sacred) Pools, every step was on different ground.

We went from gravel trails to course black lava rock sand.  Just 50 feet later we were holding onto branches of banyan trees as we climbed down a slick trail covered in tree roots to caves filled with freshwater.  The trails around the 7 sacred pools were covered in mulch, but once you left the manicured paths you were shimmying like a billy goat along jagged lava rocks right at the edge of a pool with a cascading waterfall spraying you in the face.  I was in Heaven, and so were these Chacos.

I got more crap from the rest of my group than you could possibly imagine, all thanks to these shoes.  For many of them, the footwear they chose for the day was, um... under-performing.  The point at which I knew the Ponsuls were like ATV's for my feet was when I had my 3-year-old daughter on my back, and I was waiting for the rest of my group to catch up as we scaled a rock ledge on our way out to the lower falls at the 7 sacred pools.  "Hey, Wait up" or "Slow Down" was all I heard for most of that hike.  I was walking along like I was on a concrete sidewalk while the rest were slipping all over and had no faith in their footing.

They fit much like the Chaco sandals, but with a full toe cap and a neoprene booty keeping the your foot protected from everything from a rocky trail to sugar sand invading your toes.  You have no fear of slipping out of these like you may with other booty style shoes, the Z strap system has proven secure for several generations of Chacos.  Water is shed fairly quickly, but the neoprene and foot bed feel wet longer than some of the other watershoes out there. Nothing 10 minutes baking in the Hawaii sun couldn't fix though.  Traction was great on both wet and dry surfaces.  All in all these shoes can go anywhere you want to, and will make your buddies in their flip-flops flat out mad at you.

MSRP: $120.00

On a side note:  Chaco has just launched a new site MyChacos.com, which allows you to customize your own unique pair of Chaco sandals.  Pick from 4 different styles (Z/1, Z/2, ZX/1 or ZX/2) and countless strap and webbing options, all for a flat $125...

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