This discussion reminded me of a brilliant failed scheme of my own from a year or two ago. It seemed to me the designers of relief bottles had not considered the particular needs of cold weather sea kayakers. (I can only address the male side of this issue. I'm sure there are many brilliant women on the list who can offer their solutions.) Anyway, much as we men would like to pretend that accessing ourselves for relief is like deploying a fire hose, the reality is, in the semi-hunched seated position, and in cold enough weather, finding ourselves through multiple layers of fleece and a dry suit zip can be like fumbling for a thimble in a laundry hamper. So, it seemed to me what was wanted was the familiar long-necked bottle, with three important modifications: 1. Fleece lining in the neck to reduce unpleasant cold contact. 2. A pocket on the outside of the neck which would hold one of the chemical hand warmer sachets like skiers use in their boots. This would allow extreme cold-weather use without becoming permanently "docked" to the unit by freezing. 3. A small version of a latex wrist seal at the top to prevent "backwash". Sadly, when I circulated a prototype complete with flashy packaging and the prominent logo "For the Relief of Pent-Up Sea Men", the only wholesalers who expressed an interest were not in the kayak trade at all. Tragic, really. Philip Torrens "The opinions expressed in this message are not necessarily those of my employer, or indeed, of any sentient being." **************************************** Mountain Equipment Co-op 1655 West 3rd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6J 1K1 Tel: 640-732-1989 Fax: 604-731-6483 email: pid_at_mec.ca Visit our website at: http://www.mec.ca ***************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jul 15 1998 - 13:26:38 PDT
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