We are going to teach you our top 5, top secret hacks that we have learned about our rafting gear. After years of testing we really found out a lot about how products function and can be used in different ways. Some are handy for hiking, some for boating and others for lounging around the house. Okay, let's get into this! 

Rapid Pack in Upside Down Mode. 

DId you know you can use yourr River Station Rapid Pack in upside down mode. For a long time we contemplated which way the Rapid Pack waist throw bag would release. When worn normally it needs to be lifted up off of the belt to be released. But by turning the waist belt upside down, when you release the throw bag it will need to be pulled down. The down motion makes the bag even easier to release. Ultimately we decide against down for 2 reasons; It is harder to put back on and because if you didn’t have your hand on it correctly, it will literally just fall off once you unclip the buckle. Which works great if you're ready and aware, but we didn't want people losing rope into the river. Releasing the RP down can also make it easier to release the bag for women who tend to wear their waist throw bags higher up on their waist, which puts it right under your PFD. Which can result in difficulties when trying to pull it up. So if you are a lady out there struggling with the release, try it in upside down mode. 

Button Hack with Your Changing Robe. 

This one is cool. I’ll do my best to make this make sense. You can unbutton all the buttons on your changing robe, and button the top left male side to the top right female side, and top right male side to the top left female size. It is the equivalent of tying a bathrobe tight behind your back! Makes it tighter around your body which is nice for cruising around camp. It also turns it into a dude dress if you are into that sort of thing! 

Changing Robe as a Blanket

Here is another changing robe hack! This one is pretty obvious, but worth mentioning. The changing robe works for more than just changing. You can wear it around the house, garden or even grocery shopping if you wanted to. It is basically a wearable blanket with a super sweet hood! I literally never take mine off in the winter when I'm cruising around the house. It has sweet arm holes so you can eat food, change the channel or even write sweet blog posts without having to give up a blanket. (I may or may not be wearing my changing robe right now lol) If any or all of that sounds fun click here to check out these super sweet changing robes! 

Using your ZHP as a fanny pack.

This is less of a hack, and more just us designing a product that is multifunctional. But hey, everyone may not know about this so it's worth a mention. If you take the throw bag out of our ZHP waist throw bag, it totally works as a fanny/day pack for something like a side canyon hike during a multi day. Which can be super useful if you have limited room or are a minimalist when it comes to bringing unnecessary gear onto boating trips. As mentioned above we designed it to have this feature intentionally. We have learned from experience that bringing multifunction items on a raft trip makes life much easier in several ways. It allows you to keep more organized and find things quickly. Nobody like a cluttered boat. It also keeps your rig lighter, which is awesome when you're rowing long flat water days into the “W” word. (We didn’t say it!) So by using the ZHP you have a sweet waist throw bag by day, fanny pack by night. You can check those bad boys out right here!

Using your dry thwart bag as a backpack.

This is an obvious copy of the same thing as above but it’s still super cool! Here us out, imagine you are out on the river and you need to keep things dry when on the boat but need a serious backpack after you get to camp. Combine that with the ZHP we mentioned above doubled as a throw bag/side hiker. Now you have all sorts of very useful gear in a small package. We did that intentionally to make life easier for you. The dry thwart bag is super useful for hiking. It features padded shoulder straps, multiple pockets including an inside stash pocket to keep things like keys and snacks. Did we mention it is dry?!?! If you are going on a side canyon adventure you will be ready for any weather that mother nature has in store. Other features include multiple stainless steal D-Rings for clip-ability and adjustable shoulder straps so it fits just about anyone! How’s that for multi purpose gear! If you are interested in something like that, you can use the link right here to check out River Station Gear dry thwart bags. 

Conclusion

If you made it this far we are going to give you a bonus hack! Buying gear from hard working small companies is a really cool thing to do. You are not only supporting your fellow boating friends, but getting sweet gear that was designed by boaters and made with love right here in Colorado. We offer good customer service and want to make you the best river gear we can. We work super hard day in and day out to keep that dream alive. Okay, maybe that wasn’t a gear hack  but it kinda was! Maybe it was a shameless plug, but either way, we just want to make rad gear for people who want to stand out and look colorful and unique on the river. Thanks so much for checking us out and reading this post. Stay safe out there and SYOTR friends! 

By: Jason Caligaris Jr.