Monday, March 21, 2011

Solar Rolls For Outdoors

By Shane Davis


When we were still newlyweds, my husband had an idea about kayaking, he suggested that maybe we could enjoy it as a hobby. I was so excited and took the challenge of venturing into uncharted waters, therefore we decided to take some kayak classes. I feel relaxed when I'm in water, swimming at sea and even scuba diving. However, after our second session on Kayak 101, I realized I can't do it. The session was about what to do if the boat turned over leaving you upside down. The thought of it already frightened me.My husband, however took to it, well, no pun intended, as they say like a duck to water.

Every river where a kayaking group convenes for their adventure trip, we went. He was so engrossed with the rapids that the longer the trip, the more the rapids they can encounter. Since I didn't want to go on the kayak, I agreed to driving him to the drop-off site and fetching him afterwards down the river.This was perfectly fine with me. To pass the time, what I'd do is I would sit in our car and marvel at the wonderful view of nature, at times I would savor the fresh air as I read my book and at other times, I go walking along the pathways and do some discovering of my own - plants and creatures in the wild. Since my husband and I both agreed on that, we brought lunch, change of clothes and equipment. He also loves taking pictures like I do, so we also brought our cameras with us, including chargers, batteries and all the accessories that we could bring!

At the time, my husband talked a friend of his into kayaking. This friend of ours as far as I know didn't like going out much. On the other hand, he wanted to try something different. He became skillful in handling the kayak, did well in the flipping and maneuvering.On the first trip out, however, it was a different story. The kayak he was on turned upside down trapping him beneath the water near some branches and he couldn't free himself.

Fortunately, my husband was there looking out for him. When our friend didn't resurface at once because the kayak was still upside down, he immediately went for his aid. Our friend was very thankful for my husband saving his life. That experience traumatized him that he didn't want anything to do with the kayak anymore, he immediately disposed his kayak the next day. We had quite an adventure back in those days, we even took pictures of our travels.

As we became older and our activities changed, so are the developments in technology. Kayaking is already out of the picture, however photography and hiking is still in.Used to, when we would hike, it was very difficult to carry all the camera equipment, extra batteries and such. Cellular phones, Blackberries, they're the fad or even a necessity nowadays.So instead of carrying extra batteries, we found the most wonderful thing. It's a solar panel that is bendable. You can easily roll it up to carry on the back pack. It can be used while riding on a kayak or trekking up the mountain range or even camping outside because it's water-resistant, resilient and manageable.This flexible solar panel can be used to charge cameras, cell phones, video cameras and even our cars.We can just roll it up and carry it with us on one of our adventures. Since we're not into kayaking anymore, it would have been a big help at that time. In any case, we do have other trips where we bring it along because it's handy.

This is one terrific invention!




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