The Goat

It’s all about compromise: I’ll go on this stupid rafting trip, but you have to let me bring my TV so I don’t miss a single Sponge Bob episode. The Chinavasion Waterproof 1GB Digital Video Player will let you catch all the laughs of Bikini Bottom while water sprays over the side of your raft and guides scream in your ears to “Paddle!” It’s waterproof down to 3 meters, so if you get pinned underwater you can count on the comfort of TV to make your last moments on earth enjoyable.

via Gizmodo

This guy made a Bamboo Mountain Bike Frame back in June of 2004 in his house. His last update in 2006 said he was still riding the bike without any problems, but since then no one’s heard from him. Build your own from the little bamboo plant you have growing in the kitchen and ride it when you’re feeling risky.

via GetOutdoors

Instead of eating pancakes while trying to cook the second course of dehydrated eggs on your Pocket Rocket Stove, fire up the Coleman Gemini Dual Burner Stove and put out a real meal. The Gemini Dual Fuel Stove lets you independently adjust the two burners, and it runs on white gas or unleaded fuel that you siphoned from an SUV at the trailhead. It won’t fold up, so it’ll be a bit awkward in your backpack, not to mention that its sharp angles look like they were designed to punch holes in dry bags. The Gemini Stove weighs 33 ounces and costs $140.

I thought that all the doping made the Tour de France a little more exciting this year—you had no idea who was going to win. It would have been great for Leipheimer if he’d known that Vinokourov was going to get kicked out so he could have concentrated on getting the lead instead of dogging Vino, but like I said, pretty exciting. Of course, not everyone agrees with me, as evidenced by the sales of these $79 Dopers Suck Jerseys. If you don’t want to spend that kind of cash, but still want everyone at work to know your stance on doping in cycling, check out this $14 Dopers Suck Coffee Mug.

via Bike Hugger

Leave the Swiss Army corkscrew at home and fill your backpack with Katadyn’s dehydrated red wine. This powdered red has an alcohol content for 9.27% and it goes wonderfully with any kind of dehydrated astronaut food. Katadyn also makes a mulled wine that can be heated up for arctic expeditions. The packs of red wine cost about $7, but they’re only available in Europe.

Some new research from Rutgers University shows that mice that ingested caffeine and exercised showed an increase in destruction of skin cells damaged by the sun’s UV rays. Drinking coffee might actually reduce your chances of getting skin cancer.

Compared with the control animals, those drinking caffeine had a 95 percent increase in apoptosis in damaged cells. The exercisers showed a 120 percent increase, and the mice that were both drinking and running showed a nearly 400 percent increase.

It’s good news for coffee drinkers and coffee drinkers who volunteer to be human guinea pigs for a meager allowance. This makes the Marmot Mountaineering Coffee Press seem like a great deal at $25.

via MSNBC

If you’ve been squeezing your triple-E wide feet into skinny Nike running shoes just to get your Nike+ gadget fix, you’ll be glad to see the Shoe Pouch. This $8 waterproof bag is sized to fit a Nike+ RFID chip so you can wear any shoes you want and still put running info on your iPod Nano.

via Gizmodo

How could it take this long for the outdoor industry to produce a webbing belt that’s wide enough to actually use? Those Bison Belts that were so popular five years ago were the same size as climbing webbing, which may have been the point but they only work with those yoga, gusseted crotch, billowy sweat pants. It took someone like Patagonia to make an oversized, seatbelt-sized climbing webbing that’ll actually fit through your belt loops. The Patagonia Tech Web Belt is pretty Plain Jane, but they make one in black that’ll go with your tux—and it’s buckle looks a lot stronger than the one of on that Black Diamond harness in the movie Cliffhanger.

Rafters Footwear will begin making their sandal outsoles from 25% recycled rubber and their polyester webbing straps from recycled drink bottles. Rafters gear is strictly low end, with their 82 styles of sandals ranging from $20 to $55. Rafters says they won’t raise the prices on the Chinese-made sandals—they hope they’ll do a greater volume of sales to offset the cost of using recycled material.

The company wanted to leave a lighter environmental footprint in China, co-owner Bill Combs said. “We’d always heard what a polluter China was - and I think they are. So we said, `What can we do to reduce that impact?’ “

It’s great to see companies that produce low-end gear getting on the recycled bandwagon. Now I just have to return the 25 sandals I bought at Wal Mart for $2.46 and get a pair of these.

via Treehugger

Avoid resort crowds by buying your own tropical island on eBay. This 225 acre island near Fiji is selling for only about $341,000, which is a small price to pay for an uncrowded break these days. You can make your own laws and issue your own money—maybe even host dog fighting tournaments.