Review: Helinox Tactical Umbrella

My friends at HORNEST in Singapore sent me this Helinox product, and I've really enjoyed the Helinox Tactical chairs, which have accompanied me into snowfields and jungles, beaches and backyard cookoffs. So I was only too pleased to add some more Helinox products to my loadout. They are light, rugged, and portable.

The Helinox Tactical Umbrella is an ultra lightweight, yet highly durable take on the ubiquitous umbrella. Featuring a lightweight DAC aluminium pole at its center, which reminded me of one of my Easton Redline arrows and strutted with carbon fiber rods.

The canopy is teflon-coated polyester for superior water repellency and I put that to the test with some fairly heavy Melbourne summer rain, on several occasions. It worked really well, which was at first surprising given how small the umbrella is when stowed, being only 63.5 cm (25") long. The canopy boasts an UPF 25 rating (it blocks 96% of UV radiation)

It only weighs 210g (7.5 oz) but when opened up, it spreads to a broad full 100 cm (39.4") canopy.
At that size, and weight the Tactical Umbrella is light enough to bring anywhere, and keep ready to deploy when the skies open. Never go without protection from the elements again, with the Helinox Tactical Umbrella.

What makes it 'Tactical"? I suppose that's mostly advertising wank by the marketing team at Helinox, but then again, with its coyote brown finish, metal free design, and lightweight, compact design, you can forgive them their stretch. It also goes by "Trekking" and that name is more than fitting. I strapped this to the side of my backpack and whip it out when the skies open, it's out of the way until needed.

Being one piece and not folding like other "trekking" umbrellas, the design is both metal and mechanism free. There is no latch to break, no springs to jam or break, the tension of the canopy and the carbon fibre struts is perfectly designed and opens which a gentle slide of the strut-ring. It's held in place by a hook-and-loop closing strap, which even features a small loop field on the back side, to affix a 1" sized patch, perfect for a ranger-eye!

The closed cell foam grip and strap give you pretty good retention, especially important given the very breeze catching canopy, which is one of the things I've never liked about umbrellas. This handle however, along with its cord retention strap, is solid enough and robust enough that even Tactical baby can manage it in a breeze. The balance is really good, and whilst it's not long enough for me to use as walking pole, a shorter person could easily. It has a tip of the same closed cell foam as the handle, which makes it unsuitable for use as a walking stick over the long term, but does avoid the eye-poking risk that regular umbrellas may offer. This is a two edged sword however.

Having a soft tip makes it less able to be used as a damaging tool, in he way a hard spike ended umbrella might be able to, such as with the Unbreakable Umbrella. I found that by gripping the handle and choking up to the bottom of the canopy spars, it was possible to hold the closed umbrella like a baton.

A soft tipped baton, perhaps, but a baton. With the carbon fibre struts and the aluminium shaft at its centre, it's pretty rigid, and could be quite effective as a last-ditch defensive tool. I think it would stand up against a knife for long enough to make a break for it, or for a skilled user to use some hanbo or singlestick techniques as a defensive or even offensive tool.

Another aspect of the umbrella that I really likes comes from it's short handle, but broad canopy. It was possible for me at 193cm (6'4") on a tall day to scootch down and be almost entirely covered by the umbrella as I squatted. Consider this for both conceilability, by obscuring yourself under it directly, which could be supplemented by local foliage to form a hide of sorts. This also equates for use in its primary capacity as a shelter from the rain, it is entirely big enough to shelter under in a serious downpour you could drop down and almost entirely cover yourself.

For raingear, I usually opt for a boonie hat, poncho and maybe waterproof pants . However, I've been wearing the Helinox Umbrella slotted into my Mystery Ranch 1Day Assault Pack and have found it was easy to store and then deploy when needed. It worked really well, and I've had no regrets looking that extra bit like a Kingsman ... from a certain point of view, anyway.

Review: Gerber - GDC hook knife

I love keychain tools, I have quite a bundle in my pocket, so much so that I don't even keep my KEYS on my keychain. One thing I like is to carry a blade to add to my utility, so having a safe, secure and stealthy cutter like the Gerber Daily Carry Hook Knife really adds to my lifesaving potential, in the form of a reliable, easily stowed in my pocket. I added this to my keychain of mini tools, and it's been a very useful addition.

Gerber's idea behind the stainless steel hook blade is simple; it's an ultra-stealthy cutting tool that lives stealthily on a keychain and can be quickly deployed to quickly cut yourself out of a piece of clothing, seatbelt or other safety strap, or do the same for a loved one, or a battle buddy, if you should you ever find yourself in a rough spot. I've also found a number of day to day uses for the little knife. There are plenty of other ways to use a safety knife on a ring.

Using the ring at home, I put it to use opening boxes of goodies and dreaded utility bills. I cut ribbon, opened snack-packs and trimmed tags out of clothes. Out bush I've used it for cutting costs and fishing line, and opened up vacuum sealed food. I even used it to cut long grass for some little weaving craft jobs I was showing off to Tactical Baby and Triceratops Girl with.

At just over 2" long, it's innocuous and barely stands out on my keychain, the cutting edge is secured neatly in the hook, which in turn is stowed away in a small hard nylon friction lock scabbard, with a keychain loop to secure it. I gave one to each of my partners for Giftmas, and they went directly into handbags. One reported that they often found the blade loose in the bag, having come unstuck from its scabbard. A little alarming, but more from a loss perspective rather than risk of accidentally cutting things.

The ring is copper lined, which is a nice accent, and go feels good around the finger, and there are rounded crenellations on the back to give a good thumb lock on it when you are getting ready to do the cutting. The angles all work nicely to allow you to put some real power into the cut. My favourite test materials of paracord and cable-ties, neither of which offered much trouble, singly but due to the small size of the ring and its hook, you wouldn't want to load it up as heavily as you might with a full size rescue hook like the Gerber Crisis Hook. It's easily comparable in cutting power with the Benchmade Figure 5 Cutter

Since it's a pocket sized tool, I don't expect it to be for heavy use, rather for "I just need to cut this little thing, but right now" moments, especially if they are in delicate situations.

Review: First Tactical - Diamondback Tanto Knife

I had a package arrive from First Tactical with two items, their very fancy and vicious looking Medium Duty Light, and this very substantial folding blade, the Diamondback Knife in tanto tip.


I have a few folders in my collection, though I must say I prefer fixed blades, I keep a CRKT Folding K.I.S.S. in my EDC, and the very snappy Boker folding scalpel which lives secreted away in my every-day pack. I also have a bunch of the hefty and brutally built Boker Plus AK assisted folders, for the bug-out-jars I've been putting together for Tactical Coyote. So I was quite impressed when I got the Diamondback in hand.

Read the full review on Breach Bang & Clear ....

Home Front: Modscape house

I came across this interesting house design, by Modscape.com.au which piqued my interest, as I always look out for good fall-back positions, or even first-front positions. I've covered walled security for homes in the past, and walled storage facilities I've also covered my own home and why it's not all that well suited to sticking out a disaster, so it's interesting to see a purpose built place, and not all that far from myself.

The design brief of this home was to "create an airy pavilion that takes advantage of the views while providing a private haven from the busy road below". Rendered brick walls frame the home to create a protective compound which not only the provides the homeowner privacy, but ensures the home is secure. The home’s long, linear form takes advantage of the northern sun and visually connects to the bush and mountain landscape beyond.

Here is the link to the house design brief.

This modular home, in Berry, NSW,  creates a private home behind security walls for the clients who were based in my own home town of Melbourne.

All of the services are concealed from view behind the high walls, with visitors entering via a large pivoting door that penetrates the wall. They then move through a timber battened walkway where dappled light from the surrounding bushland filters through before entering into the double height entrance space. The main living zone opens out to the north-facing courtyard.

Meeting all the functional requirements of modern, sustainable design, the home has a total floor area of 465 sqm and consists of 11 modular sections with a large, open plan kitchen/living/dining area at its heart. A timber joinery core conceals services such as butler’s pantry, laundry and bathroom and houses a staircase leading to an upstairs area. It should be noted that that upstairs area is exposed and visible from the outside of the walls.

The finished palette is minimal and modest with timber, concrete and zinc used in an uncomplicated manner create a design that is humble and nondescript. All landscaping, including the pool, was also coordinated by Modscape.

FEATURES
Open plan kitchen/living/dining
2 bedrooms with joint ensuite
Guest bedroom
Upstairs "music" room
Butler’s pantry + laundry
2 car garage + workshop
Ribbon strip timber cladding
Landscaping including pool
Hydronic heating
Grid connect solar
Built to Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) 29

Looking at the plans, and the layout, including both the property selected, but also the way it sets in to the surrounding areas, offering security through obscurity, I can see the real value in having a property such as this. Putting in extra rain collection reservoirs, solar and/or wind power generation and a fuel reservoir, vegetable beds and perhaps chicken runs to set up a more self-sustainable setup, you have quite a secure (from mundane risks) and off-grid home to fall back on.

Review: Camoflague in an Aussie setting

A while ago I had the thought to take a bunch of my camo gear out into the bush and do a compare and contrast of several different colour and pattern schemes. I also wanted to do so to show off the kinds of terrain I can expect to encounter in my local region and showcase that for you all.

In my collection I have the following,
3-Colour Desert Cam
Arid AUSCAM DCPU
AUSCAM DCPU hearts and bunnies
British Woodland DPM
US Woodland
ATACS-AU
MultiCam

All laid out, they make a pretty discordant pile ...

Read the rest of my findings on Breach Bang & Clear



Brown in the Scrub

3-Colour Desert Cam in the Scrub

Arid AUSCAM DCPU in Scrub

AUSCAM DCPU in the Scrub

Woodland DPM in the Scrub

Woodland in the Bush

Multicam in the Scrub

ATACS-AU in the Scrub

Brown in the bush

3-Colour Desert Cam in the Bush

Arid AUSCAM DCPU in the Bush

AUSCAM DCPU in the Bush

Woodland DPM in the Bush

Woodland in the Bush

ATACS-AU in the Bush

Multicam in the Bush

 

Wish Lust: Disgruntled Deck

Just surviving the Apocalypse isn't necessarily enough, sometimes morale is needed, and keeping spirits up can be key to that. Games make an excellent tool for doing that, and something as simple as a deck of cards have been included in packs and duffels for a long, long time for that very reason. A deck of 52 though, lacks a certain humorous element, which is where something like Cards Against Humanity comes in. However, they themselves lack a certain saltyness, which is where the Kickstarter for Disgruntled Decks excels.  

 

Disgruntled Decks is a card game for military service members and grizzled Veterans who enjoy getting together and laughing about their time in the service. Disgruntled Decks can be played by itself or integrated with a Cards Against Humanity deck.

The creators titled this first deck "The Army Edition" because it features some topics that would be familiar to U.S. Army Soldiers and Veterans. However, there are more than enough general military cards to make the game enjoyable for service members and Veterans from any branch of the armed forces.

The game works just like the now very popular Cards Against Humanity game.

The "Card Commander" will read aloud an OD green Mission Card and "Subordinate" players will submit their grey Course of Action (COA) cards with possible answers.

The Card Commander chooses the best COA regardless of the Subordinates' opinions, just like in the military! You win by having the most COAs chosen. It's that simple!

The deck is composed of 90 OD green Mission Cards and 310 grey Course of Action cards. For those with poor ASVAB scores, that equals 400 cards!

Here's a fun fact about the card design:

- The font is a typewriter font found on portable typewriters used during WWII. In other words, your grandpa killed Nazis and then typed out his AAR or a love letter in this font. Nice.

Another really nice thing about this project is in the backer levels, you can opt to get a set for yourself, and have another gifted to a wounded veteran, bringing some much needed dark joy to someone who could probably do with some.

Disgruntled Decks is shipping to selected non US locations, so I jumped on it, but if you don't need outside of US shipping, and are keen on adding another similar project, you could also look into War Games LLC's FUBAR, another salty and dark, military themed game, which is also cross compatible with Cards Against humanity.

Or get both, get extra fun-times for your stretch in the bunker!

Review: BackCountryCuisine Instant meals - Roast Chicken

As my second part in the four dehydrated meals reviews I have been doing,  I will cover the Backcountry Cuisine "Roast Chicken" meal.

The first of these reviews, on the Outdoor Gourmet Butter Chicken meal was published on Breach Bang Clear, and I had some interesting feedback on it. Go check it out here... The principle is the same, the plasticised foil retort is both the cook-pot, the serving dish and eating bowl.

The Roast Chicken meal weighs in at 175g (6.2oz) tender chicken in little squares, vegetables and stuffing smothered in gravy and then served with the mashed potato. You simply add 220mL of hot water to the mashed potato sachet and 250mL hot water to the chicken meal sachet, stir and let stand for 10 minutes. The result is a delicious hot meal wherever you may be.

About half way down the retort a second tear tab on all pouches allows you to tear the lower perforation and use the pouch as a bowl once the food has reconstituted. It's a great idea and saves getting messy hands when using your spoon or fork, but be sure to tear carefully or you can make a hot mess of the meal. It might even be an idea to cut it into a bowl, to be sure. You have a knife with you, right?

The mashed potato comes in a separate retort, stored inside the main retort, which is good in that it allows you to serve it separately and keeps it from becoming a thick sludgy mess. I found the texture of the main meal to be really appealing, with the mashed potato being fairly standard for instant mash. The flavour balance was good, and it wasn't too salty.

The waiting time wasn't too bad, especially from water brought to a fast simmer, through to eating it only took 15 minutes.

One thing that I found was important, but not required was to have a flat surface to plop them down on as they are reconstituting, but the retorts fan-out from the bottom as part of their design, but I think they did better from standing up than laying down. One good thing however, was that the zip-lock top seal allows you to squeeze-mix the contents to reconstitute your food. This made me feel like an astronaut, given food served on the ISS.

Nutritionally, the whole meal makes up 1549 kJ (370 Cal) which Back Country Cuisine state is 18% daily intake requirement, so it's not a hefty food source, but being light, you could pack a bunch of them, and if you had three a day, that's 54%, so don't leave out the snacks when you're packing.

One thing I found was that the mashed potato didn't quite reconstitute properly, and when I spooned it out, I found some dry patches, but by mixing it up when in a separate bowl, it all came good. All in all, this was a really good meal and I enjoyed it, it was tasty.



Well worth adding to your pack if you are wanting to travel light, but also want a home-cooked style meal.

Be sure to pack enough potable water, or have access to enough wherever you are going, and enough to balance out your hydration as you go.