Equipment

What's in my bag?

Last edited: Sat 25 Nov 2017

If you don't come prepared, prepare to fail, goes the adage. When it comes to preparation, Richard's got it in the bag, almost literally...

From left to right:

Two styles of control description holders. I prefer the black version which is a bit more comfortable as it is cloth-backed.
Compasses. I prefer these quick and comfortable thumb style compasses to the baseplate type that walkers often use. Note that I have attached elastic wrist straps so I don't lose one halfway through a run. Why do I have two? Because I lost the first and after I replaced it I found it again - on a bookshelf at home! The orange one is supposed to be "super-fast" and cost twice as much as the otherwise identical red one. But I can tell you it is no quicker!
Pencil case. To reduce the chance of losing my compass again I now keep all these things in a bag, and a pencil case is the perfect size.
SI and Emit "cards". Note that I have attached a wrist strap to my SI dibber reduce the chance of losing it. These are expensive but having my own dibber should pay for itself in the long run. The Emit "brikke" in particular was a bit pricey, and I still have not used it enough to make it worthwhile yet.
Spare finger strap. I broke a finger strap on my compass once. So now I keep a spare.
Whistle. It is a sensible precaution to carry one, and at some events it is compulsory. The recognised distress signal is six blasts repeated every minute until help arrives.
Insulating tape. My shoelaces would become undone as brambles would snag and untie them, but someone showed me that you can wrap the knot in tape to stop this happening.

Richard Sansbury