#Camping

Matthew Chebatoris One of my favorite things about paddling is the opportunity it provides to explore new places. Whether my travels take me across the globe or to a new secret spot near home, it’s always refreshing to get outside and explore my favorite playground. While the luxuries of a hotel or vacation rental can be nice, I prefer sleeping under the stars to fully immerse in the experience. Camping may seem like the more rugged option but it doesn’t have to be. I recently put Nemo Equipmen Matthew Chebatoris Head off the grid with these highly versatile solar lights I briefly saw the MPOWERD Inflatable Solar Lights booth at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Denver this past summer. The design concept is simply, yet revolutionary. MPOWERD, short for Micro-Power-Design, married a small circular solar panel with an 4.25” (10.2cm) inflatable bubble. The bubble acts as a lamp shade for the LED lights powered by the solar panel. It’s just that simple. The result is a highly versati Matthew Chebatoris Welcome to your new grit free beach experience Going to the beach is supposed to be fun and relaxing. You pack your gear up and get away for the day…or longer. Too often a bit of the beach comes back with you at the end of your trip. Those days can be comfortably relegated to the past with a functional and stylish sand free mat from CGear. There are a lot of products out there that claim to work wonders but fail to live up to the marketing hype. CGear’s sand free mats are a w Matthew Chebatoris Day 1: Could it be this easy? “You’re crazy,” my wife Kirsten said. And she was probably right. Four days on the river, paddling from Albany to my home of Peekskill, was a nutty idea. Especially four days standing on a paddleboard! My friends Jim, Dan and I came up with the idea to promote our paddling and environmental nonprofit Hudson Valley H2O or simply HVH2O. People tend to avoid the Hudson River because it was polluted for so long, but we wanted to do something to show Matthew Chebatoris Numerous dry bag options were on display and my favorite is a new design from the good folks at Watershed Drybags. Matthew Chebatoris Exploring Utah in a pair of Merrell All-Out Blaze Convertible sandals Waiting for my flight at LAX. Last month I took a trip to Utah with my brother. We planned to take part in the 4th annual Back of Beyond standup paddleboard race down a seven mile stretch of the Colorado River near Moab and spend some time exploring Arches National Park. For me, it was a two-part journey. First, I hopped on a convenient Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Denver. My brother prompt Matthew Chebatoris Cali Paddler: Community – Conservation – Connection The idea was simple. Create an intimate venue where a small group of paddlers from all paddling disciplines could come together for a weekend of fellowship united by the core principles of what it means to be a Cali Paddler: Community, Conservation, and Connection. Smiling people wearing colorful apparel is often times the most visible component of the Cali tribe, but based on my observations and first hand experience at the