Pack Review - a nice cheap waterproof one!

[Chads93GT]

Jeff, I have the problem with the straps sliding off the side sometimes on my LC pack. The solution is to criss cross them and snap them on the opposite side. This makes it impossible for them to slip off.

[Scott McCrea]

One of my favorite quotes may shed some light on the plight of gear designers...

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." Douglas Adams

[Cody JW]

I have also had it happen with LC. Especially when you do not have much in it. The OR1 pack I have it happens easier because the straps are almost at the side of the pack. This can be easily corrected by re sewing it, but I wonder why they placed the straps there? I wish LC would put a grommet hole in all of their packs.

[NZcaver]

It's funny how personal preferences can differ. Jeff likes reflective bands on his packs, and I dislike anything reflective in caves (except fixed trail markers where needed). Reflective material and flash photography do not go well together. I'm also not a fan of grommets in the bottom of packs (except dedicated rope bags), but I understand why some people like them. At least it's easy to add one yourself if you want to. As for an outside pocket for a long rack, I have no use for that either.

[Cody JW]

On wetsuit trips with LC or similar a grommet hole is nice to drian water. It was a royal pain in the a#@ when it fills up with water and you would have to turn it upside down to dump water. I was surprised on how they were able to hold water. I also wondered why the euro cavers wore those long rubber boots and what they did when those filled with water. I know they are durable but I bet they hold water very well.

[Chads93GT]

I put 2 grommit holes in the bottom of my lost creek pack as it was my river cave pack till I got a swaygo. I couldnt stand having to dump the water out upside down every time, ugh!

[NZcaver]

On wetsuit trips with LC or similar a grommet hole is nice to drian water. It was a royal pain in the a#@ when it fills up with water and you would have to turn it upside down to dump water. I was surprised on how they were able to hold water. I also wondered why the euro cavers wore those long rubber boots and what they did when those filled with water. I know they are durable but I bet they hold water very well.

Yeah, I know why people want the grommet hole. But for wet caves I use a waterproof Swaygo instead.

I grew up caving "Euro style" (though not in Europe), so I also wore those rubber boots for over a decade. They do hold water well, but there's a simple routine to drain them. After you climb out of the water, do a couple of quadricep stretches like this.

[self-deleted_user]

In case anyone is curious...my original bag I started this thread with...it has been shoe-gooed up a lot because the yellow side isn't thick enough to stand up to caves and it gets holes poked in it dragging it through crawls.

Otherwise it works well and I like it but I def. want a swaygo if only it didn't make my headgo! Probably later this year I'll cave (haha) and get the smallest one and see about somehow moving those straps over or doing something so it doesn't pinch/make my neck sore. Because they are the best I've seen by far.

[MUD]

Hello Amy! I believe we'll make you a pack and send it to ya to try out. FREE! You just give us a good review of it here on Caveshat. Whatcha say?

[self-deleted_user]

:waving: Hello Amy! I believe we'll make you a pack and send it to ya to try out. FREE! You just give us a good review of it here on Caveshat. Whatcha say?

Oooh really? For serious?! OMG I <3 YOU!

[MUD]

PM sent!

[self-deleted_user]

<3 <3 <3!!!!!!

[hunter]

For something with a nice innocuous title this thread certainly wandered all over the place! Just wanted to pipe up briefly and say that I think the original hands on gear review premise of this thread is great Sungura. Thanks for the pointer to an "off the beaten track for cavers" gear website. Not sure I'll buy anything but the pack you pointed out and several other things they had were new brands to me.

And just to join the off topic crowd I own a Swaygo and like it but I do find it a bit rough on the shoulders if I have it fully packed with heavy stuff. I also made my own strap for my Swaygo out of hypalon which is a bit wider, dries as fast as the pack and I find it a bit more comfortable if I'm careful not to twist it. Probably my only real issue is that for a number of caves I do I don't need truly waterproof but like the drag-ability of the swaygo so I kind of wish there was a "Swaygo light" made out of either ballistic Nylon or hypalon.

James

[self-deleted_user]

No problem! And it did work for a while. I got it before the TAG fall cave-in.
Did two trips there, Anderson Springs and Pettijohn. In Pettijohn doing the pancake crawl it got two small holes in it (on the yellow thinner side) and I shoe-gooed em up.

Next it was with me in the UK - long wet trips with climbing and crawling and traverses and crazystuffthatrivelseverythingiveseeninthestatessofar!!!!!!!! Over the course of the 2 weeks there it developed a couple more holes on the yellow thinner side, little puncture types mostly. It was still watertight enough even with the small holes nothing got damaged in it and no major waterleakage but it did get moist and a bit of water settled in the bottom (maybe 5 mL worth or so). Shoegooed it up again.

Then was TAG in January...and basically I destroyed it there with crawls. Mostly because I wasn't being careful with it at all anymore. If you make sure to drag it on the thicker side it doesn't get holes in it but I was letting it flip around to the yellow side in too many tight crawls that it was harder to keep it on the "backside". I got quite a few more holes and small (0.5-1 cm) tears in it. Shoe-gooed that all up again. I mean, it does the job, but it doesn't stand up to the drags or when I decide to drop it down in front of me 10 feet before climbing down type thing, basically. The dry caves seem to damage it more. Perhaps because like in the UK where it was all super wet, the rocks are more "smooth" edged with the water running all over 'em constantly whereas dry caves seem more "jagged".