Air Mattresses

Hello everyone!  Are you all excited about today's post after seeing the title?  AIR MATTRESSES!!!

Okay, I know, not the world's most interesting subject, but I wanted to do a gear-review post after our recent camping trip since I've had an epiphany in regards to what I sleep on.  For years now whenever we go camping we make use of one of Dad's self-inflating air mattresses.  I've been a big fan of these products for awhile now; they provide a soft, comfortable sleeping area and require zero effort to inflate.  It wasn't until I'd talked to Dad a bit about the concept of saving space in regards to my proposed motorcycling tours that the concept of a manually inflated mattress came up.  He'd been reading about some particularly small mattresses and I thought it might be worthwhile to check in to the matter.

Just before our recent trip to Killarney I stopped by MEC to pick up a few things and decided to have a look at the camp mats.  As usual there were a number of options for self-inflating mats, going right down to something that folded down quite small, but only inflated to about a centimetre thick of padding.  Not very useful.  Then I saw another batch of pads that needed to be inflated manually and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Huge, luxurious looking pads that my eyes had likely glossed over in the assumption that they would fold down to something the size of a Volkswagen, but on closer inspection were in the tiniest of packages when deflated.  The greatest problem that we've encountered with the self-inflating mats is that a single mat will take up something to the tune of half of a hatch in a kayak.  That's a significant portion of your total storage space.  I ended up buying two mats: one for myself and one for Dad as a birthday present.  Here's the links if you'd like to examine the specs:

Mine:  http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442592739&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302701679

Dad's:  http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442629244&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302701679

We both took our new camp mats out for a test-drive on this recent trip.  The first thing we noticed?  All of our gear fit in the boats!  It's not uncommon for us (especially when we're packing lots of food, which we did) to have loads of stuff mounted on to the decks of our kayaks, which makes them a bit unpleasant to paddle.  Not this time.  I just measured my pad, deflated and in it's carrying bag, and it's a cylinder about 28cm long and about 14cm in diameter, and that's after I've re-rolled it, so it's not the usual situation of something being much smaller when it comes from the factory.  For the first time ever my camp pad wasn't in it's own drybag; I just tossed it in with my clothes.

Now for the fun part - getting set up.  My little guy just unrolls and has a valve that you can blow in to.  Old-school.  Honestly it was about 5 minutes of huffing and puffing and I was done.  Couldn't be simpler.  Actually, wait, it could.  I could have got what Dad had.  If you've followed the link to MEC's website for the Exped mat that I got for Dad you'll see that there's a white strip (not very clearly visible in the picture) along one side.  That section of the tube is self-inflating through a one-way valve, and when you push down on it the air in that chamber is forced into the rest of the mat, and then that small chamber re-inflates.  Essentially it's a built-in pump.  A few minutes of giving your mattress CPR and it's inflated.

What really amazed me about my mat though was the comfort.  The MEC page lists it as being 6.3cm thick, and when it's 6.3cm of pure air underneath you, you aren't noticing any little bumps or rocks on the ground.  By comparison the ultra-light Therm-a-Rest self-inflating pad that MEC lists as being a similar size to mine when rolled is 3.8cm thick.  Looking at some of the self-inflating pads that we've taken in to camp previously, I'd say that my new one easily rolls down to a quarter of their size and is twice as comfortable.  For a little bit of effort to inflate them?  Yeah, I think that it's a worthy trade-off.

I think this lovely new piece of equipment is going to make a huge difference to me when I'm trying to get some over-night gear packed on to a motorcycle.  Sadly, no new news on that front, but I'll keep you all posted and let you know as soon as I've got a bike that's capable of some light touring.  At that point I hope to regale you all with tales of my motorcycle-based camping voyages.

Okay, to all my readers who aren't camping enthusiasts, I apologize for what must have been an incredibly dry read.  I wish you all a lovely week, and I'll talk to you again next Sunday.