The Goat

A British guy named David Cornthwaite will finish his 3600 mile skateboard trip across Australia this week.

The 27-year-old graphic designer, who started skateboarding less than two years ago, decided on his epic journey after waking up one morning and realizing he hated his job.
[via Anaova]

At least he didn’t go to work and shoot everyone in the office. Cornthwaite said he’s worn through 13 pairs of shoes and has an overdeveloped calf muscle—just switch legs, dude.

via Adventure Blog

The first in what will likely be a long string of ski/snowboard movies without much snow just came out in Europe. Isenseven released Welcome, a snowboard video about the first part of this season, and the cover of two riders walking over brown grass should give you a good idea of what to expect.

via [Snow]broader

ACR will slim down their Personal Locator Beacon beginning this spring. The new MicrOfix is the same emergency-evacuation distress beacon, which broadcasts your location through GPS satellites to the Coast Guard or anyone else listening. It’ll be nice when the PLBs start looking like cell phones and you can just grab for one anytime you don’t feel like hiking back to your car out or your cooler gets low on ice when the store’s closed.

If you live for esoteric historical rambles about bike parts, then head over to the Speedplay website for a walk through the past lives of clipless pedals. If you make it through the timeline without getting your fix, you can check out Speedplay’s Bicycle Pedal History Museum. Pretty exciting stuff, it almost makes up for never talking to girls, sigh.

via Go Clipless

The Freedom Hawk Kayak offers so much more than just an ultra-sick patriotic name. This thing paddles like a fairly normal kayak, and then two cranks spread the back of the kayak like outriggers when you want to stand up and fly fish. They sell for $1925.

So take these broken wings/And learn to fly again, learn to live so free
-Mister Mr.

Wear a fanny pack? Sure, but look like a geek? Not an option. The SportLine Trail Tracker is a fanny pack hydration system with a pedometer discreetly tucked into the belt’s latch. You fold it down to take a look at how much farther it is from your house to the arts and crafts store. At this pace, you’ll make it back in time for The Golden Girls.

Better than SteepandCheap? Maybe. I posted something about GearTrade.com a long time ago, but they recently changed their pricing structure. GearTrade is basically a gear dump for everything that’s returned to Backcountry.com (usually in new condition, just missing tags), and someone at Backcountry.com decided they don’t want to hang onto that inventory for more than a year. Each piece of gear will have its price reduced by 1/365^th each day it’s on GearTrade, so after a year it’ll cost $1 whether it’s a kayak or a beanie. The thing to do is start watching some big ticket items and pick a day to buy when it hits your price. Now you’ll have two sites to keep an eye on at midnight.

You’d think the marriage of one burnt-out fad (Uggs) with another that’s going down faster than a plane on fire (Crocs) would produce some not-lame-at-all products, weird. If Aussie Soles is bold enough to name this boot Uggocs or Cruggs, it’ll be sweet to see Crocs and Uggs join together like some kind of Voltron hybrid and crush the small company. Aussie Soles will be back on the beach selling rope sandals if they can’t come up with something better than this.

Capitalizing on the massive ninja market in the United States, Snow Peak is releasing their Seppou to Knife this spring. The $270 handmade knife is produced with a soft metal folded around a hard one, which is the same method Hattori Hanzo and other katana makers use for their blades. The Snow Peak knife doesn’t have a spring or lock to keep the blade in place, so you need to hold it open with your thumb. According to legend, the Seppou to Knife needs to taste blood every time you open it, maybe carry around some Band-Aids.  

The company that was making thermoses back when Republicans advocated small government is going through a bigger change than neo-conservatism. Stanley’s still making some of their old vacuum mugs, but they’ll also have these 2-in-1 feed bowls. The rig snaps together so it won’t take up much room in your bag, and it’s just the right size for a canister stove.