One of the best parts of our job at Rapid is testing new boats and gear. Courier trucks deliver boxes of the year’s latest and greatest apparel and gadgets. For our Spring 2014 issue, we jumped into the Wave Sport Mobius and game-changing Bellyak Play. We tried out a wack of new products we really liked. We lined up and tested four new breathable drysuits.
It’s one thing to have access to the latest models, fabrics and colors, but it’s another thing entirely for new gear to find a permanent home in my gear bag.
In 20 years on rivers I’m only on my second drysuit. Six years ago I reluctantly upgraded to a new Kokatat Meridian, not because my original Gore-Tex suit was worn or leaked, but because I was logging more river days in my suit than without it and I wanted sewn-in feet and a pee zipper. Underneath, I’m still loving my original threadbare-in-the-elbows-and-knees Stohlqiust fuzzy fleece onesie, originally reviewed in the very first issue of Rapid, 16 years ago.
When the water warms I switch to a retro Patagonia short sleeved rip-stop nylon training shell. It was used when I traded it for my Kenwood car audio cassette deck. Patagonia stopped making their own brand of paddling gear in ’99, cassettes are now defunct, but I’ve yet to replace my favorite shell. Through winter, spring and fall I wear a holey pair of original Five Ten Water Tennies on my feet and come summer I switch to a pair of resoled Teva Alps.
For more than 10 years I’ve been racing open canoe slalom. If it weren’t for longer hair, shorter hair and facial hair there would be no way of sorting photos taken from 2003 to present—I’m even using the same boat and paddle.
The Rapid gear review closet is full of newer and snazzier versions of these items. The technology today is dryer, stickier, warmer, smarter and more protective. But the undeniable truth is, good gear lasts. And because it lasts we wear it a lot. Because we wear it a lot we get attached to it. We develop systems. We know what pieces layer well together at what temperature and in what boats. But we know layered deeper in our brains or maybe our souls, there is more to it than that.
This past Black Friday, Patagonia threw parties at 15 of their retail stories across the country, parties they said to, “Celebrate what you already own.” They screened the new short film, Worn Wear. Billed as the antidote to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy, Worn Wear tells the stories of eight people—people just like you me—and their well-loved, well-used pieces of clothing that have become part of their lives.
As a couple seasons turn to ten and then to twenty, I feel the same way about paddling gear as I do about paddling friends. The more new rivers paddled together, more finish lines crossed together, and more great memories created together, the more good gear and good friends become part of our lives and who we are.
Scott MacGregor is the founder and publisher of Rapid magazine.
This article was first published in the Spring 2014 issue of Rapid Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.
