I knew Kata made bags for video gear, and off and on I've seen their camera bags. They're an Israeli company, although like everyone else their stuff's made in China. Their bags are kind of tough, like some Israelis I've done business with. Kata make body armour as well as camera bags, and it looks like the same designers may work on both. They don't make what I specifically use - chest mount bags - but their holster bags are quite close to what I need. I discussed a little with their support people online and eventually picked up their largest "holster" bag, the H-16. This is sized for 1-series cameras, so it's big enough for anything I'm going to carry in it.

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Charlie Don't Surf

I've no idea what the name of this one is all about, or why it's so long. On the other hand it has a lot going for it just from the look of the thing in the shop:

• elegant design
• no crincle cut edges
• 4x4 inserts

But you actually have to ride a board to know if it's any good...

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Almost everything I buy has to be ordered online as in the uk there are really no high-street shops which sell anything worthwhile. Mostly the process is easy: I order things, and then they arrive the next day or the day after that. The catch is that you don't find out how good an online retailer is until something goes wrong. At that point you find out very quickly which retailers are good and which aren't, but it's too late.

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Revelstoke is BC's newest big-noise investment. A few years ago it was just a small town on the Trans-Canadian highway with a local hill plus cat and heli-based riding. I knew it as a place the Greyhound stopped on the way from Calgary to Kamloops, and a CMH helicopter base. Two years ago that all changed, with the cat operator selling out to what is now "Revelstoke Mountain Resort" (RMR), who also picked up the local heli operator (Selkirk Tangiers). They inherited a large steep hill, which with the lift extensions built for the 2008/9 season currently has the largest vertical in North America.

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