Kayak Camping Kit

My watch is an essential navigation tool, it gives me speed and distance.

I've had two Coros watches now, they both broke, no more dials for me.

My Polar Grit is doing the job.

This comes in very handy when setting your paddle up for a 3am start.

The chap who tried to resuscitate by Pixel 7 Pro said he gets lots of waterproof cameras to fix, you can imagine he does with the wild swimming craze.

Dropping them can create unseen cracks, and Apple and Google do not cover water ingress for refunds.

However, freeing my phone from an Aquapac has massively improved my photo quality. I carry on regardless.

Below are my mods to create a bullet proof lanyard loop into my tough armour case. The fishing link thingy, reduces the chances of an accidental unclip.

NB Big buttons are essential for taking quick photos, with cold wet hands.

There is no such thing as the best kayaking cag because requirements vary widely.
If I'm out kayak surfing I'll generally wear a standard dry cag. I can put up with the feeling of strangulation for a couple of hours.
For me multi-day is all about comfort. If I'm comfortable I can think straight. If I'm thinking straight then the frequency of me doing stupid things is greatly diminished. I also know from experience that given a choice between comfort and safety I nearly always go for comfort. I'm like a dieter who cannot refuse cake.
I'm close to optimizing my multilayer cag system as follows.
A. No cag
B. Sleeveless cag
C. Cag with loose fitting neck and wrists
D. Cag with rubber wrist seals

B to D can be worn in any combination, up to B+C+D

Combining this with a Reed and Merino base layers caters for a wide range of conditions.

For this to work well the cag material has to be very thin and pliant so it doesn't impede paddling.

It's also necessary to be able to shed or add layers frequently as conditions change and to be able to fowhen you are a mile or so offshore. Full length zips make this process considerably less 'hairy'.

I don't know anyone who sells type BC cags and so have modified Kolkata splash tops by adding full length zips and rubber cuffs with some neat sewing work by Marianne and lashings of Stormsure.

More exciting footrest pics.

There are not many parts to a sea kayak. But anything adjustable will cause trouble. This seat really should have a big sheet of padding under it instead of silly little strips.

Just before my southern England pad I remodelled my smart track rudder and roof rack doing a U turn in the vicinity of a brick wall. This means I have spare parts. This is great, because after 2000 miles it's pretty shagged