After logging more than 200 hours on the water this season testing PFDs across calm bays, choppy coastal launches, and a handful of bracing drills, our team is ready to call it: a USCG-approved Level 70 (formerly Type III) life jacket designed for paddling is the safest and most practical pick for most kayakers. These … Read more
Picture this: it’s a Saturday morning, the sand is white, the water is glassy, and I’m parked 200 feet from the surf with a 25-pound cooler, two chairs, an umbrella, a pile of towels, and three hungry kids. Six trips later, my back is shot and half my ice has melted. The next week I … Read more
The Jetboil MightyMo is our pick for the fastest backpacking stove for boiling water — it reaches a rolling boil in about three minutes, weighs only 3.36 ounces, and uses roughly half the fuel of a traditional setup. If you want auto-ignition plus a 2-minute boil, the Jetboil Flash is the premium all-in-one choice, and … Read more
Finding the best sandproof beach blankets used to mean settling for a soggy cotton towel that swallowed half the beach. After spending 30 days testing ten top-rated options at the Jersey Shore, our team landed on a clear winner and a few surprises worth knowing about before you buy. A sandproof beach blanket is an … Read more
If you’ve ever wrestled a regular folding wagon across soft sand, you already know the truth: most wagons sink. Wheels dig in, plastic hubs fill with grit, and what should be a 5-minute unload turns into a 25-minute sweat. After testing the best wagon carts for beach sand with our team across soft dry dunes, … Read more
After more than 200 nights testing pads in the Rockies, Sierras, and Appalachian forests, I can tell you the best sleeping pads for backpacking comfort come down to three numbers: R-value for warmth, weight in ounces, and thickness in inches. Get those right and you sleep like a log; get them wrong and your back … Read more