Camelbak is releasing a new line of hydration packs with integrated back protection for 2015. Called the Kudu, and coming in 12L and 18L sizes, the packs have a built-in soft spine protector. The insert is a soft, flexible viscoelastic foam that’ll take multiple impacts and is rated even for motocycle use. To keep the pack tight to the body, there are two sternum straps and a wide hip belt.
There’s helmet storage on the outside, a fleecy goggle pocket and two pockets on the waistband – one zipped and one an unzipped pouch. There’s a tool roll included that sits in its own inside pocket. There are armour straps on the base too.
A change for 2015 is going to be the inclusion of these nifty hose clamps. The magnetic clamp will clip together in any direction, but can only be removed by sliding it out, making it secure, yet pretty easy to get your hose clipped back in.
There are also a lot of new colours coming out (we’ll have to wait and see which of them Zyro will be bringing in) like this blue HAWG NV as well as a great stealth black one.
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The magnetic hose clip looks nice but more faffy than the one that Nalgene builds into the bite valve of their hoses. It’d be nice to see that feature on a Camelbak as it seems to be the only thing that Nalgene do better than Camelbak. I’ve ended up using Camelbak bladders and hoses but with a Nalgene bite valve but Nalgene spares are less easy to find than their Camelbak equivalents.
On first go, the Camelbak clip seems to work well as long as there’s a vertical strap for it. On the new Kudu, ironically there are only horizontal straps, so it’s a bit less intuitive to use (and the Kudu won’t come with the new clips anyway…)