Journeys With My Jacket
02.25.21
4 min read
Written by Zak Rayment
Images by James Bowden
My nimbus has gone everywhere with me. Every single local camping trip, every expedition – everywhere I go, it comes with me. It keeps me warm in any climate. I’ve been in Norway, in under 5°C with my Merino base layer, my Nimbus and a fisherman’s beanie, and I’m happy as larry next to a campfire!
Circling the Cornish Peninsula
Early in the days of WeSUP I decided to paddle the entire length of the Cornish coastline. It was an epic trip, completely unsupported. I slept on some crazy footpaths with my Nimbus as my pillow. There was nowhere else to camp and we were on the edge of this really steep cliff, but I remember being cushioned up to it all night.
Crossing Scotland by Water
In just 4 days we travelled from Inverness to Kinlochleven by Scotland’s waterways. For that trip I had my Nimbus Jacket and my old Finisterre Anabatic rain shell, and those two things were the most important bits of kit we had on the trip. They kept us warm, they kept us dry – and that’s all you really need on an adventure. You need to keep warm and you need to keep dry! Everything else you can get from the wild if you really need to.
Navigating Norway
To seek out those bigger adventures, we started running expeditions and tours, and the Norwegian fjords are amazing to explore by paddleboard. As well as being great on the expedition, my nimbus is always good in airports. In Oslo I missed my flight and had to sleep in the airport. My nimbus was my pillow again, on the airport floor. I actually got up really tired, rushing for my flight and just left it there - but when I got back the Finisterre guys were so good, they gave me another jacket to replace it!
Scoping Out Sweden
We were planning to run an expedition out of the archipelagos off Copenhagen. We went out to do a reccy of a hub where we could stay when we arrived. Unfortunately we never actually made it up to the archipelago because it was a lot further than we thought. We were going to go back this year but unfortunately Covid hit so we had to call that off. But Sweden is another trip I’ve done with my faithful Nimbus.
All Around New Zealand
I took an inflatable paddleboard and my Nimbus all around New Zealand with me for 6 weeks. Again, it was my pillow on the plane and actually, my pillow for the whole trip! We bought a camper van and did the whole North Island and the whole South Island – and we didn’t actually have pillows. My girlfriend at the time had a Nimbus as well, so we just used them as pillows everywhere. Jackets by day, pillows by night!