The Grey Nato - Ep 40 - TGN EDC

Published on Tue, 08 Aug 2017 09:02:06 -0400

Synopsis

The podcast covers a variety of topics related to travel, adventure, diving, gear, and watches. The hosts start by discussing some show business, including the success of their supporter bundles and addressing potential shipping issues. They also mention plans for conducting in-person interviews and upgrading their recording equipment. The main topic of the episode is everyday carry (EDC) items, where they discuss their preferences for wallets, phones, earphones, knives, sunglasses, bags, hats, flashlights, coffee makers, water bottles, and watch cases. Additionally, they share final notes and recommendations, including links to videos and photography collections related to diving, aviation, and travel.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Welcome to episode 40 of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thanks for listening.
James Tonight, we're going to kick off the show with some show business. So first off, all of our supporter bundles sold out and they sold out very quickly. So a huge thank you to everyone from Jason and I for how that went. If you are having any issues with the delivery or think that yours should have arrived by now, just send us an email to thegreatnadoatgmail.com. If there's a problem with the shipping and it looks like you're not going to get yours, we will be more than happy to refund what you paid and it's not like you're going to be hit with any fees or anything. So that's easy enough. We might do a second run in the future. We're dilettante podcasters and and writers, not really businessmen. So a lot of this is kind of like a first swing for us. And we want to make sure we've learned all the lessons we need to learn from round one, especially concerned with like shipping and fulfilling.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I'd like to just kind of throw in an apology in advance if anybody did have any shipping or receiving issues on those supporter bundles. I did the, uh, the packaging and shipping here and out of my office here in Minneapolis. And, you know, no doubt, uh, I've probably made a few, fat fingered mistakes loading up the kits, as well as we encountered some challenges with the US Postal Service getting both international and domestic kind of shipping dialed in. So if, as James said, if you have any issues, please do drop an email to the Grenado at gmail.com.
James Yeah, no stress, we'll be sure to sort that out as quickly as possible.
Jason Heaton But thanks, everyone who supported the show. We really do appreciate it. And, you know, as we as we mentioned on the little thank you note in the packaging, Please do tag your posts with a hashtag TGN supporter so that we can see where all those straps and stickers and patches ended up. We were pleasantly surprised at kind of the international reach of our humble little podcast here. We got orders from Dubai and Australia, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Canada, all over the US. So, you know, big thanks to everybody for your support. It was really gratifying and humbling for us to see what kind of a loyal following we have. So many thanks.
James For sure. And next up, I have a quick note from a listener named Steven who wrote in after having a negative experience with Creation Watches, which is a watch retailer, kind of a gray market retailer, selling a lot of Seikos, a really handful of brands. So I had supported or mentioned this retailer a number of times, especially on our kind of cheaper watch episodes, you know, the $250 episode, things like that. And Steven had bought an SKX and it came with a very stiff bezel. And he inquired as to whether or not it was possible to get an exchange. And it turned out they were going to offer exactly zero support for the purchase. So no exchange, no support. And they actually just asked him to send it to a local Seiko repair facility. But because of course the watch was gray market, it's not going to be fully supported. So you're going to have the repair out of pocket. And, and, you know, This basically goes against the guarantees that they mentioned quite boldly on their site. And while something like a stiff bezel should be really easy for any watchmaker or kind of DIY enthusiasts to sort out, it does kind of not suggest great things for when you have a bigger problem, like a watch that's flat out not working. I'm not exactly sure how they would handle that. And, and it's just, I want something I wanted to bring to light because we had talked about creation watches and I've probably bought the better part of a dozen watches from them over the years. But because none of those watches had any mechanical or any issues at all, I've not had the opportunity to test their after sales support. So this feedback is anecdotal, both from my side and from Steven's side, but it is good information nonetheless, because it's a real case scenario where he wasn't given the support that the site kind of clearly outlines it would offer. So keep that in mind if you're deciding to order a watch from Creation. So thanks very much, Stephen, for letting me know. And I'm glad that we were able to kind of add that to the lineage of the podcast after we had talked about Creation Watches in the past. So obviously your results may vary when you buy from any retailer. So it's good to get that kind of feedback. And Jason, I think that's it for show business. So, you know, what's kind of new with you? What's going on?
Jason Heaton Well, you know, on my end, it's my own fault, but, you know, last episode I put out kind of a call for help for recommendations on wallets. I mentioned in our episode 39 that I was on the hunt for kind of a new, slimmer wallet that could still carry a fair amount of stuff. Boy, you guys all responded. We got so many responses through email. I got responses through Instagram, direct messages. Really appreciate all the choices. It was both a huge help and a bit of a stressful week for me. I had so many links and so many wallets to research, but, uh, I do thank everybody, uh, you know, from the bottom of my, my heart for all of the, uh, the recommendations. And I'm certainly going to pay close attention to kind of all of those links and suggestions that people sent in. And, and when I do finally narrow it down and find a wallet, that's going to work for me, I'll be sure to mention it on a future show. I did want to throw out kind of a special thanks initially here to, to one listener from, um, just down the road here, actually in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Who actually offered to send me a wallet and I'm not I'm not suggesting that everybody do that, please But he he sent over a wallet From a small shop in Kenosha called Andrea's gifts and it's a wallet that was made by a company called winter check And it's called the Kansali wallet Really cool. It actually just arrived today and I'm gonna be kind of test driving that for the next week and kind of just see how it works for me It's like nothing else I've ever seen it. It's a it's two pieces of, uh, I guess it's like powder coated, uh, aluminum, just two sheets of aluminum that are sandwiched together with, you know, two holes drilled through, through each of them. And then it's held together with some shock cording. So you, you basically kind of pry apart those two plates of aluminum and slide your, your cards in credit cards or driver's license. And then, and then under the, you slip your, your bills, your, your money under the, shotcourting on the outside, kind of like a money clip. And you know, it's kind of hard to describe. I've put a photo up on Instagram and we'll, we'll link to that in the show notes so people can see what that looks like. But it's a really ingenious solution. I'm not, I'm not sure how I'm going to like it over the longterm, but initially I just really admire the design. It's really, it's really clever. And these two plates of aluminum, while you'd think that they'd be hard to kind of pry apart, each of them has like a little notch cut out of the corner. So you can just, kind of pull it apart with two thumbs to kind of reach in and grab a card out of it. It's slightly, I guess, heavier than, you know, kind of a traditional slim leather wallet, but it doesn't sit very high. And I've got about four or five cards in the middle of it and, you know, small wad of bills on the outside. And, you know, I'm not sure if it's going to work in a back pocket cause it's certainly very rigid, but it is slim. And so, you know, definitely something for people to kind of check out if you're into sort of this, very modernist sort of avant-garde industrial design. I think it's really clever and I'll see how it goes. But in any case, thanks everybody for the suggestions. And like I said, on a future episode, I'll be sure to post up what I finish up with.
James Nice. Well, on my side, I was able to preempt some of the cash coming in from the supporter bundles, and we've now invested in a field interview kit. That's great. So I'm using that microphone now, but Basically, we have two mics and a proper digital recorder. And the goal being that in situations where we could do an interesting face-to-face interview, we're going to make it high enough quality that it could be a normal episode of the show. So I have two or three that I will be conducting and then putting together throughout the summer with some very interesting people in Vancouver. We're excited about interviews, and we think that's kind of the missing piece for the Grenado. is, you know, more input from people in the lifestyle that aren't, say, Jason and I, basically.
Jason Heaton That'll be really fun. It would really come in handy for, you know, in the past that we did that recording in the Bremont townhouse, the two of us, that would be a nice way to do that. And certainly looking ahead, you know, things like SIHH or Basel or, you know, places that you and I end up together or individually to interview people. That's great.
James Yeah. And conceivably we could go, it's a Zoom H5 is what we're using for the recorder. So conceivably we could go to four microphones. So in an SIHH scenario or a Basel scenario, we might be able to start producing larger discussions.
Unknown Yeah.
James Which I think could be really interesting and fun and kind of the next evolution of what we're working on. So new recording gear, really not that exciting maybe for everyone who's listening, but I'm really excited about it. And I have a couple of, uh, interviews in the works right now. And once those come together, I'm, I'm already excited to, uh, to share those because there are a couple of, uh, a couple of really deep watch nerds in the Vancouver space. And I think it could be, uh, just really interesting kind of eyeopening discussions from people who are on entirely different sides of the business than, uh, Jason and I. Yeah, I think it's great too.
Jason Heaton And I think what's really encouraging about that is that, you know, the, um, we can't really overlook the fact that this was a direct kind of use of, of those supporter bundle, um, funds that we, that we got from, from listeners. So, you know, big thanks, big thanks again for that. And we've already put it to good use. So that's awesome.
Unknown For sure.
Jason Heaton You know, just to kind of a completely different, different level. I, I managed to get up to, uh, to Lake Superior this, uh, just a couple of days ago. Um, kind of try to make an annual pilgrimage up there. There's a, uh, shipwreck off the, uh, off the North shore there. Just, uh, just beyond Lake, uh, Split Rock lighthouse for anyone that's familiar with that part of, uh, Minnesota. And I think about, I've probably talked about this on a show last summer, but, uh, it's a, it's a wreck that sank in 1905. It's actually swimmable. You can, you can swim to it offshore. It's called the Madeira. And, uh, my wife and I went up there and, um, you know, did, did the swim out. Uh, it was, it was pretty hot. It was unseasonably warm for, for that far North. Usually you get some nice, uh, cool air temps, which makes it nice to suit up in the fluffy underwear that goes under the dry suit. But it was, it was pretty beastly warm though. The water temps were. a little more moderate than we're used to up there, which was nice underwater, but yeah, it was a good time. So, you know, always good to kind of sneak in a wreck dive, especially when you don't have to travel too far for it, nice and close to home.
James Some great photos too, and it looks like your wife wore the Seaforth.
Jason Heaton She did, yeah, yeah. To kind of piggyback off of last week's show, you know, she's absconded with the fixed bezel Seaforth and, you know, I don't begrudge her. I, you know, certainly have plenty of watches to kind of wear around and she It's a great size for her and, um, she loves it. So, you know, we, we were really excited to get that underwater and, and she just kind of threw it on a really long, the longest NATO strap we could find, which was, uh, one of those Maritac, um, sort of bond striped that fit nicely over a dry suit cuff. And, uh, it, it looked the business, you know, didn't, it didn't have a dive bezel, but, uh, it was really clear underwater and that blue still popped, uh, even in kind of the murky green. So. Yeah. Good, good job on that one, uh, uh, Helios. And, um, yeah, that was fun. So, uh, what about you? Uh, what else is new on your end?
James Oh, well, uh, my next, uh, or kind of my other two new things are both, uh, kind of titanium related. I'm not exactly sure which one I want to go first. So I'll just go with the watch. Uh, today I picked up and I would normally wait longer to talk about a watch, but I actually have to return this watch the day after this episode goes live. I don't have it for very long. Oh, wow. So today I picked up the Omega X33 Regatta limited edition. Very cool. And so I'm producing a write up about how the Regatta functionality actually works. And it turns out that the watch is very complicated, but the layout makes some sense. And then it's more clear with the user guide, as I'm sure you would assume. But yeah, this is a You know, they're anti-digi sort of quartz titanium. It's 45 millimeters. It actually wears, I would say way more like 42 or 43. Yeah. It does not weigh much at all being quartz and titanium. And, uh, and it has a really great display, super clear backlit. You can use one of the buttons to hit the backlight and the backlight makes a difference in almost any light. And then it has like a dedicated functionality, like a custom functionality that's not on the other Skywalkers. Oh yeah. for setting up an initial countdown sequence. Huh. And then one repeatedly clicking the same button as you pass the five boys. Oh, yeah. To finish a race. And then it puts that race in a logbook. Unbelievable. Wow. So it's basically like a regatta computer. Yeah. You know, I'm still trying to work out exactly how the most recent rules in America's Cup, the start works. Yeah. It's a little bit complicated because not only is the location set by the defender. Yeah. So are some of the rules. Yeah. And then because of the speed of these boats in America's Cup, they have custom rules to maintain a higher level of safety than you would find in most regattas. Sure. Where you don't have approach speeds in excess of say 70 miles an hour, where the boats could be coming right at each other. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a ton of rules about how you can operate the boat, but the basic idea is the regatta timer allows you to synchronize with a signal that's sent to mark kind of an initial starting phase where you try and plan the exact second you can cross the starting line at speed. And then from there, the watch knows the various phases and allows you to actually time your passage of each buoy. So I believe you pass five buoys and there's a sprint to the end. Yeah. And then at the end, you press and hold the regatta button and it saves it into a log and you can save 12 logs. Wow.
Jason Heaton This is like a proper TGN watch. I mean, this is exactly the kind of stuff we've talked about in the past, whether it's the Aerospace or the Aqualand, and yet it's... Yeah, it's very tool-ish. And it's so... And again, purpose-built. you know, incredibly to the max. I mean, that sounds like an incredible watch. Wow.
James Yeah, it's really cool. I mean, I really like these sorts of watches. I love the aerospace. I love the functionality of a dive computer. It's very wearable. I wore it on a run today, which is typically a situation where I'm the most picky about how a watch sits on my wrist. I put it on one of the Rubbernadoes and went for a run with it and it was great. It doesn't weigh that much. It's thick. you know, even, and then with like, like a lot of these X anti-digi watches, the case back is designed to allow the signal, the audible signal to be quite loud. Oh yeah. And this one's really loud. Like you'll turn, I was turning heads on the street, trying to figure out how to set the functions because when I, when I picked it up from the Omega boutique in Vancouver, it was locked in race mode. And it took me a while just to get it like to time. Like it took me 15 minutes. Yeah. to get it in like I've owned Rangeman and all sorts of watches that like are, you know, fairly complicated. Yeah. But this was this is on kind of a different level. But as soon as you have it in the normal modes and you take a look at the user guide, it makes sense. Yeah. And then I joked on Instagram that like you think by next Speedy Tuesday I can figure out how to use this thing. It's Tuesday today for we're recording this. And and someone's like, oh, there's actually an iPad guide, like a simulator for the iPad. Oh, wow. Wow. Where you can kind of learn how to use it. And then it's cool because like in the user guide, they actually show like what an America's Cup race looks like. Yeah. And how that works with each button. Wow. Oh, man, that's so cool. So, yeah, I need to kind of collect that and condense it and then try and explain it in a way that even like me, I don't know that much about AC. I know a little bit about how regattas are started and how they're completed, but AC is an even different thing beyond that. So I'm excited. I have it for about a week and I think it should be a really fun watch to kind of wear around for that time.
Jason Heaton Cool. So what's the other titanium gadget that's a non-watch? The other?
James Yeah, the other is a brand new, technically it's not out yet. So this is a prototype, a prototype flashlight from Michant. Oh, yeah. Our favorite flashlight manufacturer, ultra kind of high end, super detailed, crazy, cool flashlight designs. And we spoke about Machon a series of times in the past. You know, I've had their Aeon, Amau and the Flieger for some time. Yeah. And we're actually going to give one of those away. So just pay attention for a few minutes. But the brand new one is called a Beagle Mark I, named after the ship that carried Darwin. I guess one of the ships. He was on more than one voyage. And, uh, and basically the idea with this one is it's a little, it's, it's not as long as the Flieger. So it's, uh, 84 millimeters long. I would say it's roughly the width of my fist. So it's, it's a pretty nice size. It has a pocket clip on like the Flieger. So not only does it not roll on a desk, but you can very easily clip it to a strap or into a pocket. Oh, great. And, uh, this one's titanium. This prototype is in a frosted titanium, which I don't think is a final functionality. But like the Flieger, it has a tail switch. And then this one has a two phase light engine. So you have like a flood, like a wide flood LED phase for the first three presses, which is really amazing in the dark. Cause it's very even light.
Unknown Yeah.
James And then you have a throw functionality that fills in the center with a much brighter sort of pattern. Yeah. And so it goes from one lumen for like reading a map or something in your tent to 435 lumens. Oh, wow. Which is quite bright, super bright, especially at night or, you know, in the back of a closet or in the trunk or under the car or whatever. It's a ton of light. Yeah. As with all the Michant stuff, it's really hard to describe them if you haven't seen them in person. They are just so stunningly well made. And so Sapphire lens on this one, it's a monocoque titanium case. So there's only one, you know, everything goes in from one side of the tube. Yeah. of the actual case of the flashlight. So that manages heat, which manages power for the battery better. The, even like the pocket clip, the belt clip is made from a single block of titanium. So it's not like a stamped piece of metal. It's this like rather hugely over-engineered perfectionist sort of mounted chunk of titanium with two, two little screws. And as, as with all of these, these are, these are your very much the enthusiast option in the flashlight space. So just like you can buy a watch for $100 and you can buy watches for several thousand dollars, this is your more premium, more rare expression of one man's attempt to make a perfect flashlight. Yeah. So you're looking at, I think retail on these is going to be $595. And then if you go to Michant's website before the actual sale starts, there's pre-order pricing, but I'm not exactly sure what that price is. So you can check that on their website. Really, really cool. I do like it over the Flieger simply for the shorter size, and I really like the pocket clip. So I'm only kind of just in the middle of this. I'm going to do some traveling with it in the next little while, which is a time when I usually use a flashlight even more often than I do at home. And I'll report back in, you know, kind of as as I get a chance to use it more. But big fan of Michant's flashlights. And what do you think? You think we should give one away? You want to give away a really awesome flashlight?
Jason Heaton I think I think we should. I think it's great. You know, you and I have both tried the Flieger and like it a lot. I think that that makes sense to give that one away.
James Yeah. So I have a Flieger here, box and everything, lightly used. It's in perfectly good working condition and it was a, you know, a loaner from, from Michant. And then, you know, it turns out Enrique who runs Michant Flashlights has just said, Oh, why don't you just give it away if you think somebody listening would, would kind of get a kick out of that. For that reason, I'm really rather excited to give one away and we're going to keep it really easy. Like always, just follow TheGrenado on Instagram and MashantEnt. So that's M-U-Y-S-H-O-N-D-T-E-N-T on Instagram. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Certainly if you go to the website Mashant.net, you can put that together. But follow both the accounts. Comment on a post that I'm going to put on the TGN account with a photo of the flashlight. They'll just be one. It won't be hard to find. If you go to the Grenado account, it'll be later in the week. From when this comes out, I want everyone to have a good chance. And yeah, so just comment on that post with a friend who you think might dig what Mashant is up to and the flashlight kind of designs and that sort of thing. We'll cover the shipping, but you're on the hook for whatever duties might apply to delivery in your area. And hey, it's, you know, it's literally that easy. So let's get on that. We'll leave it open until the next episode comes out, and then we'll pick somebody and we'll let them know. So you'll hear about it. It'll be some time from now, but the winner we'll hear about a little earlier.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's great. Well, good luck, everybody. It's a really cool giveaway, and it's fun to be able to give something away that's maybe outside the watch space a little bit for us, but still, you know, really premium, really awesome product that we both heartily endorse.
James Yeah, premium and fairly rare. I mean, these aren't the kind of thing that most people would even have a chance to see in person. And yeah, these are rad. And I'm just kind of excited to be able to give away something of this caliber from, you know, that, yeah, like you said, that isn't a watch. So it's, it's cool. So enter that giveaway and one of you will get a really dope flashlight sometime in August. Nice.
Jason Heaton Well, I think this is, it's a great segue because today's kind of main topic is EDC, everyday carry, kind of a look at our favorite gear and You know, certainly I think, especially on your end, I know a flashlight figures pretty heavily into that. So you want to jump in and maybe piggyback off of the Michant talk.
James Yeah, for sure. First, I would note that, you know, I follow a handful of guys on Instagram that are fairly deep into EDC. I would say that Jason and I are kind of middle range EDC guys. I like to kind of evolve and be thoughtful about the stuff that I carry with me every day, but I'm not in as deep as some, I'm somewhere in the middle. But we do get a lot of emails asking what it is we carry or about some of the stuff that ends up in our Instagram. So I figured this would be the easiest way to kind of head it off at the pass. If you were like an EDC pro, feel free to drop me a note. If you think you could see an improvement or, or a recommendation or something like that. And obviously that's thegranadoatgmail.com. But yeah, let's, uh, we kind of broke this into a list of various items. I guess we could bounce back and forth. Um, I think wallet, we've been over this. We don't need more recommendations for wallets necessarily, and I'm pretty much locked on wallets. I'm pretty happy with my setup. And I talked about that on the previous episode, so you can check that out. Jason, for phone, this is an easy one to get out of the way. I use a Samsung Note 5. I adore having the pen and the big screen, and we're, you know, probably less than a month from seeing the new Note, which I'm quite excited about. Yeah. And you?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I kind of started my smartphone tenure, I guess, you know, years ago with the iPhone 6. attest to the same with, with your phone. It's, it's just become so central to everything I do. I mean, we can, you can work from it. You can, it's your email, it's your music, it's your navigation. It's, uh, it's how you pay for stuff. It's, uh, so yeah, uh, on my end, you know, short answer, um, iPhone six, I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon.
James And I guess next up. So along with that, do you have a preference of earphone? This is one of my most crucial. EDCs as earphones, because I have a real sensitivity to noise, like background noise. And I walk a lot in Vancouver, usually at least 10 kilometers a day through downtown. And having a pair of earphones that allows me to listen to a podcast and mitigate the honking and the people having conversations around me really lowers my stress level. Yeah. Do you have any, like, I'm pretty sure you have the ones, I'm pretty sure you're tied into the ones that I really like, but haven't made the jump because of the cost.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I, right now, in fact, I'm wearing them. And I got these as a gift. It's the Bose QuietComfort 35. Yeah. I actually bought my wife a pair for, I don't know, birthday or something last year. And then I was so covetous of her pair that she ended up gifting me a pair like Christmas or something. And they're expensive, but It's one of those just great purchases that I'll never regret because, you know, just for starters, you know, I used to have kind of a nice pair of Beats headphones that were corded and they required a lot of batteries that you'd have to replace. The battery life is just incredibly epic. I mean, it goes for days and days, you know, with constant use. It has a cord with different adapters that you can use for, you know, list watching movies on the airplane. Sound quality, noise canceling is excellent. Even if the battery's dead it still it still works kind of I guess in passive mode Yeah Really great. I mean if you're kind of on the fence about you know Spending a fair amount on headphones or you've seen these around I would encourage you to get them my one sort of caveat about them is they're certainly not you know, you described your Walking and I know you walk to and from work and things and these would not be I don't think suitable for that You know, they're gonna leather and padded and quite warm. So they're definitely not earphones for exercise.
James What do you use? I use, so for walking around, I really love Bluetooth because I find that when you put the phone in your pocket, it always puts quite a bit of stress right on the side of the headphone jack. Oh yeah. So over time, I was buying, I don't know, I was buying a pair of Ed-O-Modics, these rather nice noise isolating earphones. I was probably buying a pair every six months because they would just die. One ear would fail because there'd been like constant pressure on the side of the jack. Oh yeah. Where, you know, the seam of my back pocket was pushing against it. So finally I gave up and, uh, I bought four or five pairs of Bluetooth earphones and tried all of them. And the ones I ended up keeping were the Plantronic BackBeat2Go. So they were very lightweight and, uh, they're kind of water resistant and they get about a four hour battery life, but they're only like 60 bucks in Canada. Huh. So if you break them or you lose them, as all these things kind of happen with this gear that is wires and gets wrapped up in your hand and put in your pocket, it's not like, you know, the Jaybird ones are really nice, but they're like $250. Yeah. So I'm, I'm on maybe my third pair of these backbeat. They have a two year over the counter warranty. So if, if they just fail on you, you just take them into the store and they give you another pair. Yeah. And I absolutely adore them. They are not high end. They don't have noise canceling. Um, they have kind of very light isolating, but I really, really like them. And, uh, in situations where they are dead, as they, like I said, they have a four hour battery life. I use, uh, an SE215 Shure, uh, in-ear monitor, which I really like, but they have kind of a thick wire and they're heavy and they're corded. And, uh, and so those are great if you're sitting at a desk, um, or amazed, they're amazing on airplanes, the, the, the Shure, uh, IEMs. but less so for say walking around town.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. I think the other kind of primary piece of EDC gear that you see a lot is of course a pocket knife. And I know it's something you've sort of taken a liking to and you've got some things to say. What do you carry for a knife?
James So I typically, you know, I've grown really tired of the kind of tactical thing that was big for a few years. I think I'm growing tired of it as it dies down in a trend. Yeah, but like, you know, watches that look like something John Wick would use to kill somebody like, like, don't get me wrong, like, I'm not saying they're not cool. But as soon as I hold them in my hand, I'm like, but this isn't I just want to open a box or like, yeah, you know, cut through a zip tie that I left on my desk to hold a wire I'm not using anymore or something like that, like very light use. Yeah. So I have, I was given as a gift many years ago, a Columbia River knife and tool fulcrum, which is not a fancy knife in any way, but I think it's a rather beautiful knife. And I carry that when I want something a little bit more classy in my pocket. And then otherwise I've been using and absolutely adore the versatility of the Benchmade 556, which could loosely fall into that tactical look. It's serrated, which is one thing, but the serration is so functional. Yeah. I mean, it just, the serration, it just destroys zip ties. It really is a handy design. The blade is under three inches, which I really like. So it's actually a small folder. It doesn't weigh that much. It has a deep pocket clip. So when you put it in your pocket, it doesn't ride up very high. It's not that visible. Yeah. I don't necessarily know, you know, I've been, I've spent some time in various states and like carrying a big knife in your pocket in Mississippi, which I fairly well. versed in hanging out in Mississippi, not a, not a big deal, but doing the same thing in Vancouver will get you looks. Doing the same thing in Toronto will get you looks, even doing the same things in the relatively small town where I grew up will get you looks. You know, you just like, there's a knife stigma, you know, a Swiss army knife flies under everyone's radar. That's a great choice. Yeah. And, uh, and I think if I had to give up most of them, I think I'd just end up with one of the Swiss army classics. Yeah. But I do like the, uh, the five, five, six, um, I do wish I had bought the better one. I bought the one with, I think it's a 440. I don't know the basic steel, but they make a slightly better one or a slightly more expensive one with a much better steel, the S30V. So if you're going to buy a benchmade knife that you plan to keep and use kind of as an everyday sort of thing, spring for the better steel because it'll hold an edge longer than the cheaper stuff, which you just sharpen more often. And you, do you find that you like to carry a knife or, you know, not so much?
Jason Heaton You know, I don't really carry a knife outside the house, but I, you know, I work from home and might, like you mentioned earlier, the main use for a knife that I have is pretty mundane, but it's, you know, I get a lot of packages. We get a lot of FedEx, UPS, you know, postal service boxes. And, you know, I just like to kind of keep a few around the house that are just easy to grab and use. And, you know, certainly if I am carrying one around outside the house. Um, the one that, that I kind of reached for is, it's also a Columbia river, um, knife and tool. Um, it was called the Mount Shasta and I don't think it's made anymore. I kind of did a search and I'm not seeing it on their website, but, um, it, I got it years ago and it's still, it's still sharp. It's, it's really small. It's easy to kind of open and close with one hand. Uh, kind of, you know, the drilled out handle, um, uh, locking blade, um, And it's pretty unobtrusive. It's got a little, you know, pocket clip. Um, so that's, that's been my go-to. Um, I, I do have kind of a fun, uh, Victorinox Swiss Army. It's, it was called the Hunter XS or actually it's sort of a variant of that. I've actually never seen this one on their website because it was a branded piece of swag that I got from Jean Richard, the watch brand, which is now defunct. I went to this ski mountaineering race over in Switzerland a few years ago, and they gave us all these really cool knives. And it's, you know, it kind of borders on tactical, but because it's sort of bright orange and it sort of has this rubberized black and orange grip on the outside, it almost feels a little more like outdoor gear than kind of... It's like rescue cool. Rescue cool, yeah. And it's like a short little lanyard. And it only has two tools. kind of a big fold up blade and then on the other side kind of a fold out serrated like a mini saw. Oh, nice. And I don't use the saw. I've never used the saw, but the, what I like about the blade is, is it's so easy to grip. It has like this big bump, you know, with a, with a hole that you can, you know, you can just flip it out with your thumb really easily. So, um, it's, it's pretty bulky, so it doesn't work as well in a pocket, but you know, it's great around the house. So, um, those are kind of my two go to, um, go-to pocket knives, I guess.
James Nice. I know that, um, I've been, I shouldn't do this, but I get on Instagram and I see some really beautiful, like kind of gentlemanly folders. Oh yeah. You know, uh, I'm going to get the names wrong, but Jared Oser comes to mind and there's a couple other guys that make these really gorgeous, like a grandpa's knife. Like I have some of my grandfather's knives and they're, it's not that dissimilar. It's just better made. Yeah. And I'm always like, Oh, see, that's what I need in my pocket. And then I go look. And of course, like there's the guys make these things literally by hand. Yeah. And they'll be like, Oh, $900 for a little folding knife. And like, I'm not saying they're not worth $900. That's 100% not my position. Yeah. It's just, I have to get myself to, you know, it, you know, it took me however many years it takes somebody to warm up to spending more and more on a watch or as people do with their cars or their computers or their whatever, their clothes. Right. I think it's the same thing with like, functionally speaking, I get all the functionality I need out of an $80 knife. Yeah. It could probably be a $40 knife. I just might have broken it by now. Yeah. It's hard to say. But it's one of those things, not unlike the flashlight thing, where there's such a wide variance. And thankfully, there's enthusiasts kind of at all the ranges. So I can find people on Instagram who are building these gorgeous collection of like, you go on these guys knife websites and it's like, Oh, everything's sold out. I have nothing. Yeah. And now they're just working off pre-orders or orders they received last year and they make some really beautiful stuff. I will try and put together a better list in the show notes. If you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about, there's a couple of guys on Instagram and I'll put their, uh, Instagrams in the, uh, in the show notes for that. Uh, Switching to something that you're more well-versed in than I am, how about sunglasses?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sunglasses. You know, when we were putting these lists together, I thought, you know, I'm not an EDC geek or a sunglass guy, but it turns out I kind of am. I kind of have a soft spot for, you know, we always sort of geek out on historical aviation and space stuff. For sure. And I got turned on, you know, years ago to Randolph Engineering and American Optical, who both make identical glasses. American Optical's been around since the 1950s. They had, you know, government contracts for a new style of aviator glasses for pilots that were starting to wear the hard helmets because the old sort of traditional teardrop shape Ray-Ban style didn't have the temples that worked as well with a hard helmet like you'd see in like an F4 Sabre or something like that. As well as that teardrop coverage of the lenses interfered with the use of like an oxygen mask. So they're kind of more of a rectangular shape than kind of the bigger teardrop Ray-Ban style. And I really like them a lot, and what I like about them is, you know, they happen to look okay on my face, but they're really, really, really durable glasses. I've had these Randolph Aviators for, gosh, I don't know, seven, eight years, and, you know, I don't lose glasses regularly, and I certainly haven't lost these, obviously, Um, you know, I've dropped them on the ground. I've, I haven't sat on them, but they've been, they've just been everywhere, you know, boats and planes and, um, et cetera, et cetera. So I can really vouch for their quality. They always come with like a little toolkit, um, which I've never really had to use because the screws never come loose. I, uh, wanted kind of a second pair. So I, I went out and bought a pair of American optical and, um, I think the story goes that the guys that founded Randolph used to work for, for AO. They're both kind of based out on the East Coast and Randolph has kind of spun off and become a bit more trendy, I guess. They've kind of done a better job of marketing themselves, though the glasses are built to the exact same specifications. So you can pick up a pair of AOs for, you know, 50 to 60 bucks on Amazon or at like a military surplus store. The Randolphs run a little bit more than 100 bucks. So those are kind of my go-tos. I also have, you know, I've gotten a pair of, you know, several pairs of like polarized sailing kind of style sunglasses from various press trips, you know, sailing press trips and things. And those I just tend to take along on dive trips and stuff for just use on a boat. They're lighter weight and plastic and have a nice polarized lens, you know, for use on the water. Right. And then I've got two pairs of, boy, I really am a sunglass geek. I've got two pairs of Julbo, which is, it's a French brand. They've kind of specialized over the years in like snow sports glasses. And I had bought a pair of, they've got a, uh a style called the Explorer XL which are kind of some pretty hardcore modern glacier glasses that I bought for my Mount Rainier climb a few years ago and um they've got real flexi temples so that you can kind of conform to your your head shape and they came with um you know a lanyard for for wearing around your neck and the side shields and um they're just way too dark you can't you can't drive in them or anything like that so I you know I use them skiing or you know stuff in the winter but they They don't get a lot of use. And then, and then more finally, kind of more recently, I got some retro style Vermont's, which are, are also made by Jilbo. And they're, they're kind of the classic, when you think of glacier glasses, that's, that's what you think of. They're, you know, the round, um, round frames, mirrored lenses, um, leather side shields and a nose shield. Um, kind of the, the curved, uh, temples that kind of go around the back of your ears. I don't wear them that often. There's, again, they're, they're just too dark for kind of day-to-day wear, but they're, they're, they're just super cool to look at. I actually wish I had more, more opportunity to wear them. Maybe, maybe in the winter, you know, ironically, even though it's dark here in the winter, uh, on a sunny day that the snow is really bright. So it's, it's kind of nice to have some darker glasses. So for sure. Um, what about you? We've, we've kind of talked about sunglasses. I know it's not your, your kind of thing.
James Yeah. I'm kind of warming my way up. You know, I've, I've done the Ray-Ban thing a couple of times and I was never like, I've never been all that impressed between the their Wayfair and a Wayfair from somebody else. Oh yeah. Yeah. They're better, but they aren't like four times the price better. And I know with the Clipperton episode, I spoke about the knockarounds that I bought and I'm still wearing those like when I run or if I go hiking, I think that's like, they're very comfortable and the lenses are really nice. Yeah. But I don't specifically like the way they look as far as everyday wear, like walking around town. I like something a little bit more stylish. And I have a pair of kind of rounded Clubmaster frames from H&M. They were like $12. Yeah. And they look perfect, but the lenses are garbage. Like they just suck. They're just cheap, cheap plastic lenses. So I'm kind of pursuing either going the Ray-Ban club round route, which is a very similar, almost the exact same thing, but you can buy, you know, with a polarized lens. Or I've become quite enamored with Persols. Oh yeah. And I've seen a few in person. They're very expensive in Canada. Uh, you know, some of these ones I've been looking at, like the, uh, the reflex with the kind of bright tan acetate and the blue lenses, they're like $600 Canadian. So, and it's also the kind of thing where like I've worked enough retail to know that that's going to be a lot of margin. Yeah. In something like sunglasses. So I'm just going to wait for a sale. Yeah. But, uh, I do really love the look of those Persols. And, uh, I have a couple of friends who are really into kind of quality products in general that say the Persol ones are actually like a pretty good example of something that's worth a premium over a normal pair of sunglasses. They are nicely made and still made in the same way that they had been for some time, even with their ownership by, I guess it's Luxottica now, like Ray-Ban. Sure, yeah. So yeah, I don't have that much going on. I like sunglasses, I do, but I have more $10 and $15 pairs lying around. Um, I tend to drop them a lot. I've got two kids that pull them off my face. I've lost two pairs of Ray-Bans on the mountains around Vancouver. I hope somebody found them. They were cool. Uh, but, uh, some, somewhere on a steep slope on a crown mountain there in the North shore range. Yeah. And beyond, I don't think we probably have to talk about bags. I feel like we've been there a bunch. We can probably skip that. If you don't know what bags we're carrying right now, I, I'm, I, A small backpack is pretty much my go-to for day-to-day if I have to carry a little bit more. The Tenba that I've spoken out about a ton in the Baselworld episode. And I'm sure that, Jason, with you it'd be a small bag or the Toppo.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Between the two, you know, that I carry most often, it's the Toppo mountain briefcase, Toppo Designs mountain briefcase. Or if it's more of a backpack scenario, it's the Patagonia Black Hole. Ah, right. Okay. Which I love. So, yeah. And we did that whole episode. Yeah. Um, on bags. So certainly, uh, go back and check that out if you want, if you want to learn everything there is to know about our views on backpacks and bags.
James Okay. And then you've got, uh, on the list, you have hats. Uh, I can make this really quick. I absolutely will only wear a hat if it's a matter of health. I have a terrible head for hats and even worse face for hats. I have a giant head. And with the exception of like when I landed on Clipperton, I put a hat on and when I climbed Baker, I wore a hat. Yeah. And even then I did it begrudgingly. I don't like hats.
Jason Heaton How about you? I wear a lot of hats, actually. I've got quite the stash of sort of baseball cap or trucker hat style here that I've just sort of collected over the years. My kind of go-to adventure hat, I guess you'd call it, is I got it years ago. It was from the guys over at Howler Brothers, which who, you know, if you're not familiar with them, we haven't talked about them on the show, but They've done some really cool stuff in the area of clothing. They're kind of a surf style, fishing style. They make some kind of neat stuff. But they make a hat called the Silver King, which is kind of a reference to a tarpon. Okay. So it's got kind of a neat logo on a patch and it's just a trucker style hat. Nothing particularly special about it, but it, I can't kill it. You know, a lot of times, you know, I put it through the wash many times and sweated in it a lot and I just like it. It's just kind of my go-to. So. You know, I guess I don't want to go down a rabbit hole like we did with wallets, and so I'm kind of scared to ask, but if anybody knows of the perfect boonie hat, it's something that James and I were looking for last year when we had our TGN Summit in Vancouver. We went to that military surplus shop, and I think we looked for boonie hats, and I still haven't found one that I'm quite keen on, but I'd love to find like a full-brimmed hat that you can kind of wear out in the sun. I have one from outdoor research that that I wear quite a bit, but, uh, it's not quite the look that I want. So, um, so yeah, it usually just defaults to that, that Howler Brothers trucker hat.
James It's not very good. Next on the list, we have flashlights, which, uh, you know, for me, I've pretty much already talked about, it's a handful of my shots and we've, we've spoken about flashlights before on the show. So I know both Jason and I carry, you know, either on a key chain ring or at the bottom of the bag, like a Phoenix UC02. It's this tiny, um, rechargeable. flashlight, which is great in a pinch, but it's really nothing special. It's almost disposable. Um, Jason, you don't have any, like, I assume like me, you probably use the light on your phone occasionally.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I do kind of on a day-to-day basis. And then I've got the, the Machant Flieger, which I keep at my desk. And, and, you know, if I'm actually doing something that requires a flashlight, that's the one I take, but otherwise I'm, I'm a big, you know, headlamp guy. So.
James Oh yeah. I like a good headlamp too. I like the, um, let's see, it's a black diamond spot is what I use most commonly. Okay. I've broken a few Princeton's.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I've got one of each. I, um, I don't know which models they are, but, uh, they're, they're just so handy. I mean, I, you watch old movies where guys are like working on cars or doing something and they're holding like a flashlight in their mouth or something, or you need a second person and you really, that's, that's one area of sort of gear evolution that I can really get behind is, uh, you know, our headlamps.
James Yeah, no, I fully agree. So, uh, with that out of the way, the one that's really crucial to me I think I know where you land on this, but it's not EDC, but my day, I'm not going to carry anything if I don't get coffee. Oh yeah. Yeah, for sure. So one of like the most important things that I've added to my life since I moved to Vancouver, I used to use a Keurig machine. Oh yeah. And I got out of the Keurig simply because when I moved to Vancouver, I was in temporary housing for a little while before I got my condo. Yeah. So I couldn't get coffee shipped to this place. because it wasn't like a real address where I could get packages and such. Huh. So I basically just stopped using the Keurig. It was in storage and I went to using a French press. Yeah. Really don't like the French press. And then, of course, it would turn out that the Keurig, at least in its original generation, I've not looked back into it, but in its original generation was really bad for the environment. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. A lot of a lot of garbage.
James Yeah. An unbelievable amount of waste and very limited recyclable. matter content in those couriers. It made a fine cup of coffee because it took a minute and you didn't have to think about it. Yeah. And then shortly after I got my condo and I started to get set up, a friend of mine who I've mentioned on the show before, Paul Hubbard, he said, Oh no, forget the French press if you're not liking it. I always found the coffee tastes burned and quite acidic. He said, just go order this $20 AeroPress. Yeah. And I'm still using that exact same AeroPress. The only thing I changed is I bought when I ran out of the little paper filters, I bought the metal one. Oh, yeah. So you get a nice oily cup of coffee versus one that's closer to like a pour over or a drip. Yeah. And if you've not done the AeroPress, I mean, I've had better cups of coffee, but they come from fifteen hundred dollar espresso machines.
Unknown Yeah.
James And I'm just I don't have the counter space or the care to make to take eight minutes to make a cup of coffee. Yeah. And the AeroPress is literally perfect. It's designed by the guy that made the Frisbee. It looks like a chemistry set. Yeah. It has this big plastic plunger and a plastic tube and a filter base at the bottom. And you basically just scoop grinds into it, pour hot water into it and pump the hot water out. And the water that comes out is your coffee. There's like a hundred different ways to make coffee with an AeroPress and they do competitions. all over the world to see who has the best like recipe and the recipe is really how long you allow the various phases of whether it's the bean soaking or the bean you know wait uh after it's been stirred and it's waiting or being pushed or when you're pushing the water out yeah i highly recommend these they're easily accessible on uh on amazon and i'm sure tons of people listening are like this is dumb i've been using an arrow press since you were born And, uh, and like it just, uh, it makes an absolutely great cup of coffee and it's not expensive. It's, uh, it's, uh, my, one of my most favorite things.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's, it's truly ingenious product design. And I was first introduced to it, um, by you actually in Vancouver, you know, I'd heard about it and, and I guess I'd never really looked into it, but then when I was visiting you, you know, you made a few cups with it and then I ended up getting one and, uh, uh, it's been kind of half of my go-to. It's funny because. I always have two cups of coffee in the morning. My first cup's kind of a big cup, and I always make that with a Melitta cone with a, you know, just paper filter. Oh, sure, like a pour-over? Yeah, pour-over. And then a couple, couple hours later, I have kind of a smaller cup that I make with the AeroPress. And I don't know why I do it that way. I guess, you know, it's just two different methods. But what I really like about the AeroPress is, you know, it takes up, well, it doesn't take up that much space, but like it would be, the ultimate sort of camp coffee maker, especially with the metal mesh filter that you use, which I haven't gotten around to getting because there's, there's zero waste. I mean, there's no, there's not even, you know, with the Melita, with the pour over, you get, um, you know, you have to deal with the grounds and the, and the old soggy filter, which isn't a big deal. Um, but with the AeroPress it's just grounds, you know, you just toss them in the woods or whatever and, uh, and go about your business. Um, I, I just think it's, I love that, that sort of cleanliness of design and, um, It's great. I mean, and I use a, um, you know, just to kind of further geek out on coffee. I mean, I, for me, the kind of the key thing with, with any coffee is not so much the, I mean, the, the roaster where you get it from is great and there's all sorts of great roasters around, uh, anywhere you are, you are. But, uh, for me, the key is the freshness, the date that it's roasted. And that's the one thing I always look at when I go to the store. It's like I get the freshest beans, grind it with a burr grinder, like the second before I'm, the water's, you know, hot enough and, and And it's just, it truly is one of the great rituals of every morning for me.
James And do you have a, I guess on that topic, do you have a grinder you would recommend? I use a Baratza Encore. It's fine.
Jason Heaton I have, the brand is Capresso and it's kind of a big heavy burr grinder with the hopper on top. Right. Yeah. So is the Baratza. And it's been flawless. It's a little noisy. So if we have guests or people are sleeping in, I kind of huddle over it with my shirt kind of wrapped around it and try to muffle the noise. But it does the job. It's great.
James Yeah, super. I guess we only got a couple left on the list. We can buzz through them. You've got a water bottle that you like. I don't really carry water that often. I have a Sig bottle that we got as like a Sin swag at Basel this past year. I threw a TGN sticker on it and that sits on my desk, but I don't tend to carry water.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm kind of a big water guy. I mean, I usually have one with me at my desk and then pretty much anytime I'm leaving the house, uh, pretty much anywhere I go, I'm always taking a water bottle. I don't know. It's just sort of ingrained in me, I guess. And I've got, um, two brands that I, I've liked lately that I've, I also have that Sig bottle from Zinn and, and that's been great. But, um, two brands that I like also are Hydro Flask. They make kind of an insulated, uh, metal, uh, water bottle in various sizes that keeps stuff, you know, really hot or really cold, however you want it. Right. And then, uh, And then recently when I was at the GoPro games, uh, GoPro mountain games, uh, one of the pieces of swag was, um, a Yeti insulated bottle. Yeti's become, you know, super popular with their, with their, uh, coolers and whatnot. And, uh, they also make these, these great water bottles and, um, it's kind of a smaller size, so it works well for, for travel and just moving around. So yeah, that's, that's my water, cool water carry.
James Well, I guess to finish it off, we'll try and loop back towards watches a little bit. We talked about watch rolls and cases quite a long time ago. Yeah. I want to say around the first Baselworld episode, we spoke about rolls and cases. Any new developments there?
Jason Heaton Well, I don't want to steal your thunder because we both have the same one that I'll let you talk about. Yeah. No, go ahead, please. Yeah. The worn and wound case, it arrived last week. It was a gift from a friend and It's great. I mean, you've got it too. I think it's, you know, it's sort of woven nylon with like some neoprene and kind of a cord closure. It's just such a simple design. You really like that too, right?
James I do. Yeah. So it's the worn and wound EDC watch fold, and it's relatively new to their store. It's a little smaller than a phone in terms of its footprint. And yeah, it just has a simple cinch on paracord. And then with that out of the way, it kind of gives you two long pockets. It'll hold two watches really easily. I used it today because I picked up that Omega from the boutique and had to put my watch somewhere. I really like it because the shape is very much the shape of a watch. It's kind of long and rectangular and the inner pockets are neoprene. So when they're not in use, they don't hold the shape of whatever you left in them last time. They just kind of go flat again. So I, you know, sometimes I'll put a couple of straps in one side and the watch in the other. I think it'd be a really handy travel case, because you could very easily fit this in just about any pocket, including a jacket pocket if you were going to take the watches out at security or whatever your process is.
Unknown Yeah.
James And I'm really impressed with it. I have, mine's kind of like a nice green color with an orange accent. And I think you have the dark one. It's like a blue-black combo. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's become my new go-to. I mean, I think it's going to be the one that I use now.
James Yeah. Nicely done, Worn and Wound. I've seen some of your stuff before and it was always very high quality, but I think this one matches a nice sort of non-flashy quality with a nice look as well. Yeah, I agree. So yeah, with watch carry kind of cinched off with that nice little case from Worn and Wound, I guess it's probably time for final notes, right? Let's put a button on it. It's been a bit of a long show so far. Yeah, you can only carry so much. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You only got so many pockets. Yeah, right. So continuing my titanium thread for tonight's show, listener Ed sent in the TPC titanium pocket clip from Big Design. And I haven't bought one of these yet, it's just on my list of things to get to, but I had spoken about how I really like this little piece of folded metal that I use to hold my keys. Just maybe in the last two episodes I mentioned it. And Ed sent me this because this is kind of like the Burley Pro version of that. It's like a titanium pocket clip. They actually make one that has a little flashlight in it, like a little LED embedded kind of at the top, which is a clever way to go about that. Like I said, I haven't gotten one of these. I really like the way they look. It looks like it's a little bit more Burley than what I'm using now, which is really tiny. It's much smaller than a key. But this is something that I plan to check out in the future. And I thought I'd just kind of point your way to it. Ed, thank you so much for the suggestion and I'll report back once I take delivery of one and get a chance to see if it's, if I don't mind, kind of the added bulk because I love the functionality of the clip. I'm not sure how that changes if you have like kind of a bigger clip.
Jason Heaton Cool. Yeah, I've got a couple tonight. I stumbled upon, I think it came through a like a Blunk Pond PR email that I received And it's related to, you know, Blancpain does a lot with sort of ocean conservation and research. And for a number of years, they've sponsored this series of expeditions called the Gombessa expeditions that are run by a very well-known sort of marine. I don't know if he's a biologist, but he does a lot of underwater photography and exploration. His name is Laurent Ballesta. And they just completed their fourth Gombeza expedition. They do it at an atoll, a series of islands in the South Pacific, which some people might've heard of. There's an atoll called Fakarava that's kind of well known for sort of grouper mating, sort of mass mating, as well as just a huge gathering of reef sharks that are in the pass that lead into the lagoon inside of this atoll. And So these guys, they're, they're pretty hardcore. Uh, Ballesta puts together a team of, of cameramen and biologists and doctors, boat captains and what have you. And, and they go off with all this, this just really great dive gear, you know, rebreathers and, and great Blancpain watches and, uh, camera gear. And, um, you know, they set off and they go there for, for two, three weeks and they do a lot of filming and research on this, uh, mass sort of, uh, breeding phase that these giant groupers do in this pass. And it's really amazing. And they were, as they were doing this, they were producing a series of video logs or vlogs for short, I guess, of each day's dives. And they've put them up on this website. We'll put the URL in the show notes, but it's the Blancpain Ocean Commitment website where they have sort of a collection of all of Blancpain's sponsored expeditions all over the world, but this one in particular is really neat because it goes through about, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 different days of diving and kind of all the challenges they have and some just really wild footage of, you know, sharks, you know, filming sharks at night, these sort of feeding frenzies and this incredible gathering of groupers when they do this mating. They only do it Like when there's a full moon, like one night a year or something. So they, you know, they had to dive every night and search for this and fight really strong currents. And I think it's just, you know, it's totally up our alley. It's, it's all just the kind of stuff we like. It's, uh, it's watches and cameras and diving and in a very remote, remote location. So, um, just, just really neat stuff. So, so check that out.
James Yeah, I watched that and the video is bonkers.
Unknown Yeah.
James Like really crazy scenario to get in and go diving. And some of them are on rebreathers. And you see quite a few shots where they're wearing the X-Fathoms. Yes. The 50 Fathoms X-Fathoms, which is this huge, super complicated, ultra high-end mechanical dive watch. Yeah. And you know, it came out mid 2013. Yeah. Would feel about right for that watch. And I think it was not ignored, but like It was covered and then forgotten about. Yeah. And it's cool to see that not only they made some that are actually being used in diving. Yeah. Yeah. Not just to sit in a really nice, you know, Bonk Bonk store in Paris or something like that. And it's cool to see, you know, they're assembling camera gear and it's very kind of prominently placed. It's a big watch. So, I mean, it's not that hard to see on the footage, but a really good kind of dive adventure. And it's cool to see some of the equipment they have and how they deal with the sharks, because there's so many and they're in a feeding mode. Yeah.
Jason Heaton One guy gets bitten and gear gets broken and yeah, it's crazy, crazy stuff.
James Yeah. Full contact sort of wildlife filming. Yeah. And these guys are, you know, cool, cool as cucumbers. I mean, just consummate divers. I really loved the video. It was great. Yeah. Speaking of some really great videos, this one's right up my alley, and I've spent a considerable amount of time watching these videos. So basically the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center published a ton of videos to YouTube, including a selection, or maybe all they had, I don't know, of test flight videos for YF-12s and the SR-71 Blackbird. Yeah. So it's these awesome videos. of the Blackbird doing various flight testing. And they're not all Blackbirds, to be fair. Like I said, it's some YF-12s and YA-12s and SR-71s, versions of this plane. And, uh, you know, wearing various, you know, Air Force and, uh, and NASA logos and just some, some like really awesome footage. And like, I adore this plane and to see some footage I hadn't seen before of aerial refueling. and takeoffs and landings and, you know, all over California and various trainer aircrafts and different things like that. This was really exciting for me. And if you're kind of not only into maybe just the SR-71, but stealth planes in general, to catch some of this footage that's out now is really fun. And so the post is just called check out all these Blackbird videos NASA just released. Perfectly descriptive SEO title. And yeah, so hit the link for that one. Do it when you've got a cup of coffee or something you really don't want to do at work. Put your headphones on and just watch these videos without kind of being interrupted because they're test flight videos. There's not like a lot of story per se, but I feel like there's a lot of just you're seeing something that's really, really special. And it's the development of what I think is one of the most fantastic things that humans have ever pieced together. from all the various bits and bobs and stuff that we've been able to do when it comes to aircraft. So I loved it and I'll definitely be watching them again. So check those out. And if you come across anything really awesome about spy planes, please send it to thegrenadoatgmail.com. I've become kind of progressively more and more obsessed with the reconnaissance era, you know, pre-satellite planes and things like that. Enjoy that, and Jason, I think I only just put this in the notes today, so I'm not sure if you got a chance to see any of these, but I figure it's loosely up your alley if you've got a couple hours some morning.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think my Wednesday's pretty well sorted now, so thanks for that.
James There's enough there to fill, you know, a couple cups of coffee. Yeah. Get you through both cups.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, the last note I've got was courtesy of you, actually. You sent it over earlier today. It's National Geographic's Travel Photographer of the Year. Kind of their contest that they that they do every year. You know, you see a lot of these kind of photography contests come and go, and this one was put up by theatlantic.com. Just a slideshow of, I don't know, you know, a dozen just really crazy good travel photos. There's just, it's mind-blowing what people are doing these days with, you know, aerial photography and underwater photography and surf photography.
James That surf photos, like the lead photo for the post. It's just only one third place. Yeah. Yeah. That's an unbelievable photo.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's inspiring. So, you know, not much to say about it. Um, picture's worth a thousand words and I'm certainly not going to, not going to go on for a thousand words here. I think, you know, just hit the link, check it out, be inspired, um, take pictures. It's uh, it's really cool.
James When you can't take your camera out, this is the second, the next best thing. Yeah. So if you're at the office on a Monday or I guess a Tuesday, if you're listening to this and you can't go for a walk and take some cool pictures or get into the surf and take some underwater pictures or whatever, I think this is kind of the next level. I think it's great. I love that the Atlantic does stuff like this because they do it with some frequency. There always seems to be plenty of these kind of collections. They do animals in the news. Have you seen those? Oh, yeah. It's like just animal photography. It's fantastic. Yeah. Really, really great. So you should definitely RSS or subscribe to the Atlantic if you're not already. And, uh, and check out these, uh, travel photographer of the year shots. Some, uh, just some really, really cool stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton That was good. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J E Stacy and follow the show at the gray NATO. If you have any questions for us, please write the gray NATO at gmail.com. And subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts, or you can grab the feed from thegraynado.com. Music throughout the show is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James And until next time, we leave you with this quote from the great Seneca. If a person does not know to which port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.