ApocalypseEquipped

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Events: Tough Mudder #2 Melbourne 2013

I ran the Tough Mudder again this year, January 19th, which was a lovely sunny, breezy day here in Melbourne.

The event was held at the Phillip Island Raceway again, which lays an hour and a three quarters drive from Melbourne, and backs onto the Bass Strait. I had only recently been given the all clear from the ankle troubles of late last year, and had not had a lot of preparation, baring three or four runs, of 2 - 5km, so I wasn't sure about how I would cope, not only with my ankles, or my general lack of CV fitness as a result of my injury, the prednisone treatment (25mg daily, dropping 5mg each week to wean away).

Regardless, I had booked in, and was raring to go. I had tried to drum up interest from the folks I ran with the previous year, but no takers (although it turns out, a couple did the event as it happens).

For those who don't know what the Tough Mudder is, it is a 20+km endurance challenge, with 25+ military inspired obstacles. The events run world-wide, in all conditions, and feature some signature obstacles, namely, lots, and lots of mud, electrical wire filled corridors, and pools swimming under barriers, ice filled pools and all manner of climbing, crawling, and of course, running. I hate running.

The above pics are me before the race, in my running kit, pretty much the same outfit that I wore for the previous endurance event I did, the Stampede with the First Spear OAGRE vest, with my Source 3L bladder in the back, and snap-fixed to the 5.11 Tactical TDU belt, keeping the vest snug to me and my TAD Amphibious Shorts with my trusty Blackhawk! kneepads, which were again, a real bonus, so, "i told you so" to all the scoffing runners out there. You can see me, fresh from the Arctic Enema/Chernobyl Jacuzzi ice bath and dunk, fishing a couple of ice-cubes out from my kneepads. I also wore my iPhone, in its SLXtreme case mounted in the Platatac PRR pouch I got specifically for the event. On my head I wore one of my caps, which I had modified to carry a picatinny rail, in order for me to mount my Contour GPS helmet-cam to, via the Strikemark adapter I have. I also added a chin-strap to the cap, to help deal with the added weight of the camera, which seemed to work pretty well. I wore one of the Under Armour t-shirts from the previous Tough Mudder and my Ironclad gloves.

I also swapped out boots, having put my Altama's into retirement and for this event, I wore my Bates Delta-8's which really held up well, and cleaned up tremendously.

Here's one of me having scaled a 2m "Berlin Wall" and torn my number off in the process. Lesson learned, bring my own safety pins or lashing system. Their little pins were ineffective!

This is me and my running-mate, #7819 :) doing the SHINBASHI salute after coming over the Bale Bonds.

She and I knew each other socially, and upon hearing my interest in a running-mate, signed up, regardless of trepidation and obstacle-shyness. Far better a runner than I, we kept a good pace, she kept me going on the straights, and I helped her along on the climbing, jumping and swimming, crawling and squelching.

She started the race with a black headscarf to match her all-black running slicks. I was referring to us as "day-ops" and "night-ops". My gear was already mud-coloured, and my head higher up, so don't think that I was getting away unscathed ...

We did the course in just under 4 hours, I felt that it was actually a lot easier this year, even without all the extensive running I did prior to the previous events. This may be in no small part to mental preparation, and experience. There were no "I haven't done it before" nerves. I made it over every obstacle on my own steam, climbed every wall, made it across the slippery monkey-bars, made it up the Everest half-pipe on my first run. I was rally pleased with not only my pace, but the speed I overcame the obstacles in my path, but also how I was able to help me fellow Mudders.

Here I am, following the event, having stripped off the OAGRE, sporting my celebratory headband, and working up the guts to pull my boots off. Not a blister, or scratch, but a lot of grit and muddy water. It turned out that the time-lapse application I had hoped to run on my iPhone hadn't begun, but the SLXtreme and PRR combination had worked like a dream. The Picatinny rail I had mounted the Contour cam on needed to be at more of a down-angle, I took a lot of 3/4 sky footage, but see below for my links.

I dinged my shin whilst hurdling a log, and gave myself this exciting bruise on the back of my left thigh. Last year I had two of these, one on the back of each thigh. This year I pegged the moment when I got it ... scaling one of the 4m Berlin Walls, lesson learned? major muscle groups do not make good leavers!

A great event, a good challenge, and certainly a good conditioning and preparation experience.

Will I do it again? hells yes. As many, and as often as I can manage.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Wish Lust: Geigerrig Tactical Guardian hydration pack

Following on from this years SHOT show, I saw a link from the guys at Soldier Systems, reporting from the OR (I presume that stands for Outdoor Recreation, or something to that effect) on a really cool hydration system.

The Geigerrig comapny have a rather unique offering, with a pressurized hydration system. This system involves having a bladder with a hand pump (like the kind Dr's use to take your blood pressure on a elbow collar) to pump air into the bladder, squirting it out of the bite-valve.

This is the Guardian model, which I fell in wish-lust with ....

It features a 2L (70oz) bladder (although they do offer a 3L bladder as well) which has fittings for drinking tube and pressurization tube which are both quick-release valved, and offers a slide-top for easy filling and cleaning. Skanky hydration bladders are no-ones friend!

Better yet, they have a variety of carriers for these bladders, all designed to contain the pressure, and give you a secure, continuous pressure water-source.

The fabric of the carrier is a light and rugged 500D Cordura, with PALS/MOLLE strips on top and bottom, six D-ring attachment points for lashing it your pack, vest, plate carrier or what-have you, should you decide to forgo the built in (but stowable) pack straps.

Twin compression straps add to the pressure and stability of your water-load, but the real magic here is the hard nylon "guardian plate" which backs the carrier. This was the real magic for me, as it offers something that I've noted was missing, a slick, hard backing to my hydration carrier. I am very happy with my Platatac Bravo but I found that when on Tough Mudder, crawling through pipes and under netting, and barbed wire, that it caught on occasion, as well as getting in and out of vehicles with it, a slick turtle-back would be a great advantage to both toughness, and drag-reduction.

Couple this with the in-line cyrpto and virus filters and you have a very resilient, functional pressurized hydration system. Hydrate, wash wounds, clean goggles all on the bounce, from a secured and armoured platform!

What's NOT to lust after?

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Home Front: Disruptive Thinking

Some recent events have spurred me to thoughts of preparation, self preservation and looking to become a little more self-dependent. The idea of thinking "outside the box" has always been very appealing to me. Doing the same thing, the same way over and over may work, but not having other means is a sure fire path to being caught out when situations change. Alternate strategies, and more than that, alternate thinking is required.

This patch is a great reminder of this, from SnakeDr and Last Ditch Kit and is a visual demonstration of how to overcome adversity, from new angles. Not being boxed in by expectations!

Disruptive thinking is another aspect of preparation that is often overlooked in the light of the shiny toys, kit and gear. In the event of disaster, a lot of common curtsey, and everyday thinking suddenly becomes fairly irrelevant. Getting in and out of places, getting away from threats, and facing them directly, these are all occasions where this is a distinct advantage. In my martial arts, one aspect of training is around the idea of concentration, and focus, and how to disrupt your opponents focus, and concentration. the kiai we shout, both acts to focus ourselves, but also to break and disrupt our opponent. The concept of seme of mentally putting pressure on your opponent is also key. Disrupt your enemies. Disrupt any opposition. And always, as this picture indicates ... know your exit strategy.

There is another aspect to all this. This is probably more in keeping with the rest of my blog thus far. Being prepared, being kitted out, and having a good stash of EDC gear, a cache of Bug-In supplies, a Bug-Out-Bag, or whatever, but without the nonce to actually DO something, when the need arises, it wont count for much.

This patch, from my friends at HORNEST bears their motto, Tempori servire meaning "adapt to the situation". One must always be flexible enough take advantage of the situation, to make best use of your skills, equipment and disposition, whilst at the same time

Disrupt your oppositions thinking.
Stay out of the Box.
Adapt to your Situation.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Apocalypse Equipped Morale Patch

I'm really proud to announce that I have my own patches now available!

I previewed them in draft form a little while ago, and I have a batch of 200 just in from Platatac Custom Orders.

Expect to see a PayPal button some time soon, I'm looking at $5 including local shipping ... let me know what you think!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Review: Chicken nipples

No, there's no great punchline here ... just .... chicken nipples .... or perhaps better to say, "gravity-locking beak-activated water dispenser". Either way, these are some very cool additions to my urban homestead that has dramatically improved the hydration levels, and water quality that my chookens are getting.

These valves are sold by the chicken keepers supply company CC Only as a part of their extensive poultry supply catalog. They have a wide variety of poultry farming supplies, but these little watering devices caught my eye after a post on the American Preppers Network.

The magic of the valve are the twin pins and ball bearing between them.

When screwed into place with the threaded end, the ball bearing and top-pin presses down on the top of the bottom pin, forming a seal. When the bottom pin is jiggled, it moves the ball bearing, breaks the seal, and allows a dribble of water to flow. Once the jiggling ceases, so does the flow of water.

The bottom pin has considerable freedom of movement which means that the chookens can poke and peck at it from whatever angle their little chooken heads come at it.

In fact, within minutes of placing these out for ours to drink from, they had worked it out and have not gone thirsty since installing them.

This layout was my first iteration, which featured a simple clear bucket, without even a lid, but it did allow me to judge how much water was in it, to guage any leakage, as well as how much the chookens were drinking.

One of the things CC Only were quite clear on is ensuring that the connection was secure.

Drilling a hole in the bottom of the bucket was simple enough, and with a dab of pipe-sealant to close any gaps, the system was pretty easy to set up. The real trick is to ensure the hole is the right diameter, there is adequate material for the thread to bite into, and sufficient sealant to prevent dripping.

I have just recently replaced the plastic bucket with a repurposed baby-food tin with a lid, to stem evaporation and also to reduce the weight , as this big bucket got quite heavy to haul when full. Working with a metal base added a little more difficulty in the fitting, as it wasn't as forgiving as the plastic, but is a longer lasting solution.

These were a great addition to my urban homesteading venture, my chookens have had un-fowled water (hyuk-hyuk) and I think they are a little more entertained with having something to peck at for their water.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Review: ITS / Zulu Nylon Gear skeletonised bottle carrier

One of my Giftmas presents has gotten a good workout, and as it turns out, this was another of my wish-lust items that was realised. Ive been using a much loved Platatac FUP to carry my poor battered 1L SIGG for the last few years, and its been a great fit, giving shade and some protection to boot.

However, There was something delightful in the lines and modularity in the ITS / ZuluNylonGear collaborative effort of their
modular skeletonized container sling.

Finally getting my paws on one, I wanted to show you just how modular, and hardy this sling is.

Here you can see it strapped to the front of the helmet carrier of my Bullock Echo daypack, where the FUP had previously sat. Plenty of room to attach it again, should I want a double-bottle setup, and still room for the SAR Global Tool Eclipse signal system tag.

The coyote colour was a nice match to the Platatac Khaki that most of my gear is, and it certainly blends smoothly.

Here is where the magic really is. The 1L Nalgene bottle is a pretty wide load, too wide for my Platatac FUP (although they do have the WUP, expressly designed to fit this bottle) The ITS sling is modular, in that it can be adjusted to fit almost any container. You can see here the interface between the two "arm" straps and the base strap, which is sandwiched and locked into place by the hook-and-loop layers.

The elastic shock-cord bottle retainer loop is initially fed through the top of three channels available, which I've indicated here with zip-ties. I like that I can use these to drop down the loop to retain other containers, be they bottles, can or jars, They also offer attachment options for dummy-cording items to the sling, lids, filters, funnels or cups, if needed.

Lastly, the four channel, one row PALLS/MOLLE attachment at the back is more than adequate to attach, fix and carry a fully laden 1L bottle, both on a pack or by manipulating the channels to act as a belt-loop, on the hip.

As with the Zulu Nylon Gear CAOS admin pouch this is a bang-up piece if kit. Rugged, modular and multifunctional, just the way I like, and just what I hoped it would be. Wish-Lust made reality!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Review: Strike Industries - Simple Plate Carrier

This is a really interesting piece of multifunction kit. Strike Industries, in conjunction with J Tech Gear have come up with a multifunction plate carrier, that doubles as a carry case for a laptop. They did my Sling Catch, and Picatinny vertical sling mount
so I've been keeping an eye on their new developments, and was only too pleased to see this cool piece become available, and to receive one!

This might seem like an unusual combination, but considering the kinds of products on the market now in the US to attempt to protect kids from the alarmingly frequent mass-shootings at schools, the idea of having every-day items with the potential for containing armour is not new. In Australia, we are lucky to have pretty low rates of weapon related violence, but, being prepared for disaster, even the personal and human initiated kind, is what this blog is about. This is the Simple Plate Carrier, and it is anything but merely "simple"...

I've talked about what I use as a plate-substitute before, when reviewing my Platatac MAC rig, and whilst not ballistic protection, I have again included Polyethylene cutting boards, shaped to the right size.

These not only give me the rigidity and bulk of plates, but I figure that they would also afford me some stabbing, cutting and blunt force trauma protection. Perhaps not as cool looking as a set of Mad Max tire armour, but far more modular, lighter and functional. I have a 34cm x 24cm (13 1/2" x 9 1/2") board in the front internal pocket here, which closely mirrors the SI Plate that Strike industries offers

The back compartment houses both my 15" MacBook Pro, a spare battery, and my iPad.

The rugged cordura-type nylon material of the case is very well stitched, with reinforced seams and bartacking on all the attachment and stress points, without being heavy, stiff or bulky. The wide webbing of the strapping is fixed at the upper edge with vertical fastex type buckles, and at the bottom edge with horizontal buckles of the same type and more importantly, size. Lastly, and this was a big point of interest for me, the back of the carrier features a sewn in handle, laying flush with the back, to turn the whole thing into a modern buckler if needed ....

I found that the laptop charger didn't fit very neatly in the case (it formed a bulge where the plug sat) but because the front of the carrier has three rows of PALS/MOLLE, including two side-by-side and covered in loop-pile, for patches, ID tabs and the like, I was able to affix one of the black Platatac FUP pouches I have, and give myself some extra storage capacity, with out bulking the carrier up too much, or making it too obviously a piece of MIL-SPEC type kit. There is a second panel on the lid flap for a flag-size patch. Depending on how big and full your carrier gets, there may be a third loop-filed exposed, for even more patch-goodness, here's my AFT's Jungle Recon extolling the love of his job...

And here is how the shield handle works, from behind. The main strap is wide enough to give a good bunched grip, knuckles flat against the back of the pad. Because of my very long forearms, by elbow poked out a little of the back when I stand "en guard", so I gave an alternative hold a shot, with my hanad gripping one shoulder strap, arm looped through the hand-hold and the other strap over my elbow.

Both seemed to feel pretty good, and with advantages and disadvantages according to the style of defense used.

When carrying the unit around, I tended to sling the the shoulder strap such that the entire carrier sat under my arm, rather than behind me.

This meant that I could bring the other strap up and over my opposing shoulder, to drop the carrier into the classic "front pack" configuration.

"Nice Target" you might say, about the patch, well, as Batman and the Punisher have said in their respective comics, "I cant armor my face" (although, these days this isn't as true. )

So here I am striking a pose, Simple Plate Carrier as a shield, with my trusty S&W Tactical Pen as my on-hand "please don't make my use this" incentive.

You can see that my elbow hangs out, but when taking a better "buckler and dagger stance" this would be less of an issue. with a combination of the polyethylene cutting board, the laptop and the material of the carrier itself, this was a substantial and solid barrier to put between my vitals and someone without my best interests at heart. All in a package I can happily carry about day to day.

One of the great things about this carrier's design is that the shoulder straps, being all of the same design, can be swapped from position to position. Instead of a "backpacks/frontpack" style carry, simply by changing the straps from top-to-bottom, to top-to-top and bottom-to-bottom, giving you an "around the neck, around the waist" configuration.

All the straps feature a slide adjustment and an elasticised loop to secure loose ends.

This is the classical "Plate Carrier look" and it's a little more conspicuous, but certainly more secure. Wearing the carrier in "frontpack" style, when leaning forwards, it was occasionally tricky keeping the carrier in place, unless I had another pack on my back pinning the straps in place. Good for backpacking and travel in unusual and possibly insecure places, but not full-time.

For the best performance and security, over-the-neck is the way to go.

I've been looking for a means to carry a laptop about. My CSI folder is awesome, and it carries my iPad about in safety, either inside, or slipped beside it in my Bullock Echo daypack, but the Simple Plate Carrier offers the modularity of a inconspicuous armor carrier for a little urban insurance, as well as a means to carry a laptop, and an iPad around safely and securely.

I felt there wasn't much padding for the bottom edge and sides of the laptop compartment, but that was easily solved after-market with a sheet of closed cell-foam. I really liked the lines, and as always, the multifunctionality of the carrier really appealed to me.

Just be sure to remember that neither the iPad or MacBook's are bulletproof .... not to mention cutting boards .... be safe, be equipped and know the limitations of your gear...

ApocalypseEquipped

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Events: Tough Mudder #2 Melbourne 2013

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Wish Lust: Geigerrig Tactical Guardian hydration pack

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Home Front: Disruptive Thinking

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Apocalypse Equipped Morale Patch

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Review: Chicken nipples

Friday, February 1, 2013

Review: ITS / Zulu Nylon Gear skeletonised bottle carrier

Friday, January 25, 2013

Review: Strike Industries - Simple Plate Carrier

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