I've always hated windy days. I can put up with heat, cold and bugs, but wind is a weather bully. It pushes you around relentlessly, making it hard to comply with mother nature. I would love one of those packable sails for canoeing, I keep meaning to buy one.
We haven't endured the worst of any of these challenges I know, but I find wind to be the most daunting.
Brad, sad to say Spirit Sail appears to be out of business. That was by far my favorite simple downwind sail.
Wind is daunting if it drains me from constant, unprotected exposure, but I dig wind and always have. Even the 30 mph, gusts to 40 that keep me well-hunkered down in camp. Part of that is the pleasure of spending a windbound day getting camp just right, tarp wind blocked and well strung, searching out a wind void to set a spell and ponder the moving branches or settling down by a fire in the insulated wind chair and sip a beer.
Part of it is sometimes accepting the challenge, hunkering down and channeling Lt. Dan shouting “You call this a storm”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZH9ebAZouk
In any of that I need one specialized piece of gear, my wind chair. I’ve sung the praises of that head extension piece (and Ridgerest cushion) before, but I can’t imagine enduring a stiff shoulder-season wind on the back of my neck without it. I feel a rant coming on.
With a portable wind shelter I not restricted to the under-tarp windbreak location, with half my view restricted, but can sit wherever the heck I dang well please, by the fire, off in the woods or down by the lake. As long as I’m smart enough to put my back to the wind I am in a protected lee.
I’m gonna carry a chair in any case and it might as well have a wind block and head rest. The extension is simply the seat fabric from a busted folding chair, which conveniently already has some grommets on the corners. A pair of old Eureka tent poles stuck in the fabric sleeves/grommets supports the wind block headrest.
Those junk parts are ubiquitous and, dang, a windblock
and a headrest, Barcalounger comfort for staring at the breeze in the boughs birdlife and clouds.
12oz with those freebie materials, probably 3 or 4oz with carbon fiber poles and Silnylon. If I used a lightweight chair I’d try.
That headrest also doubles up the fabric on the back of the chair for added wind protection/warmth. The bungee balls on the bottom hold the flap in place around the chair frame, and the whole thing goes on and off in seconds and rolls up to fit nicely between the legs of the folder chair. Simple, free-ish with those materials and a-mazzzing-ly effective as a personal wind shelter.
Once the end of the chair’s backrest poles are exposed they make a handy sleeved receptacle for all manner of things, including summer modes providing breeze exposure plus shade
The seat sized chunk of Ridgerest is as warmth important as the windbreak back. And sees far more uses. I stick it in my day hammock for warmth and under my self-inflating pad in the tent as thorn protection and extra cushion. It has been invaluable as an aux sleeping pad when mine (and other folks) have sprung a slow leak.
As an insulated chair seat it is sometimes surprisingly effective. Just like I have to be smart enough to sit with my back to the wind, I sometimes have to figure out why my arse is all sweaty once the day warms up. TMI.
Wind block/headrest, pad, shade; I can pick and choose.
The stripped down golf umbrella see multiple uses. Handy cover on the thunderbox when it’s raining, rudimentary sail in the bow of a tandem, even just stepping out from under the tarp to fetch something from the tent or tend the fire without donning raingear.
Seriously, which of these chairs would you choose in windblown sand? Hey Willie, get the heck outa my spot!
Sometimes there is silliness.
