And the winner of the golden globe for best outdoor video is…..

Well it’s not us. But we reckon if there was an award, we would be in with a chance. Check out some of our recent videos which we think would have us blubbing about our mum’s come acceptance speech time. You can also head over to our You Tube channel as well for more outdoor goody reviews

 

 

 

Backcountry Boiler in action

We’ve posted up on Facebook recently about a new Stove that got us rather excited in the Webtogs office. A modern twist on the Chimney Kettle, we’ve been following with interest the progress of Devin who has been tweaking and designing over the last three years or so a more lightweight, portable version. Sometimes known as the Kelly Kettle from our Irish fisherman friends, the design has been around for a while and was even used by NZ troops in world war II. They are traditionally large and heavy, so a lightweight version is more than welcome for us backpackers. They are seriously simple in how they operate, as this image shows;

We received ours from the lovely Phil Turner of Lightweight Outdoors as a pre-production sample to get to grips and play around with. First things first, this is seriously light coming in at around 220  grammes. In our humble opinion he has cracked the problem that lots of people had with this design, namely that previous versions were far too big and heavy.

Timing wise we experienced a boil in a fraction over 5 1/2 minutes. We figure as you get more practiced, you can get that time down to below 5 minutes easily. We love the fact you are using real fire to boil stuff up. There is nothing that beats the smell of woodsmoke in our humble opinion, and the backcountry boiler gives it to you in spades. We also love the fact it is great for the environment as burning wood is carbon neutral.

It wasn’t long before we got neighbours looking over the fence with some quizzical and impressed faces, and it was soon cups of tea all round. We took some photos of the boiler in action and a little video that you can see below.

 

Altogether we are very impressed. We are talking to Devin now and hope to be able to stock it later next year. We think it is our favourite stove of the moment, whats currently occupying your backpack or car as stove of choice?

 

 

 

 

Ohhhh – shiny new product videos

We have been busy out and about in the woods and have added a couple of product videos to the website that you can view below. I’m wearing my shiny new Mica jacket which has made my summer so far awesome. We’ve also posted up a review on our Targhee II’s as well.

The Oscar for best outdoor video goes to…….

This week has been a mental one as we have been out and about shooting video for the website and for a video noobie such as myself, it has been a really interesting experience. I’ve long been a big fan of videos on websites when selling stuff as people get a much better idea how things work and what it looks like in the flesh. Shooting the video has also been a great deal of fun with James and Matt acting as the crew and myself somehow ending up in front of the camera. I’m fairly sure this is down to the beard, but I’ll leave you to make up your own minds if this was a good idea when you see them on the site! James did us all proud with his shooting soup (Beef consomee, Tabasco & vodka) which was totally lush along with some old fashioned scooby snacks.

The product videos were relatively easy but the real toughy so far has been the gear guides we are starting to shoot on helping peole to choose Jackets / Boots etc, they took more than a few takes so every time I see those blooper reels, I have a certain amount of sympathy. Whats going to be interesting is to see what everyone thinks of them, do they help people come to a decision or is there anything we could do better? Stay tuned to Webtogs TV