Hello and welcome to my channel. Now in this vlog we are going to be talking about trekking poles. Now I hope you all feel in strong and well I'm just taking you for a little walk in the woods today. I've been walking for about half an hour already and I've lost a little wrist strap that I connect my GoPro to my wrist with and I'm retracing my steps now. I covered quite a lot of ground so hopefully I'll find that during this vlog as well. So trekking poles who needs trekking poles I have seen people using trekking poles for years and always thought to myself that they're pretty pointless. So what changed my mind regarding trekking poles? Well I do have a story for you a little bit later on in the vlog but first of all let's have a look at my purchase. I did a little bit of research of course and I found out that Black Diamond was a great brand in walking poles in trekking poles. So we're going to have a quick look at the trekking poles that I purchased. I'm just going to show you one because I am only using one. I feel that I only need to use one. Amazing how much assistance just one gives you. So the purchase was the trail back Black Diamond trekking poles. Now they weren't too expensive they're about 60 quid. Quid that is English money. Yeah about 60 quid and you get what you pay for so I went middle of the road and they're made out of aluminium really lightweight aluminium with a great quick locking system to adjust the height to the user. I still haven't found this little bracelet that I connect my GoPro to my wrist with. It's a little strap a little bit a little bit like this stuff and I dropped it somewhere along the way into the woods so yeah like I said I'm retracing my steps and hoping to find that. Now I think that the general rule of thumb with trekking poles is that you have your elbow at about 90 degrees to measure the correct distance to the floor. The ones that I bought have two collapsible sections so it's really easy because they're calibrated on both sections so I have mindset to about 135 centimeters and that seems to work well for me. Now they do have a special flick lock really easy to use flick locks on them and they're complete tension when you buy them but I do advise you to check them even though they might feel pretty sturdy pretty tight. One of mine wasn't and it did actually push in on a recent walk so do check that your flick locks are actually tension correctly. If you are setting the tension on your trekking poles make sure you have the flick locks in the open position before you use the screw driver. That's all you've got to do then just tweak that screw and test it and then just lean on it and make sure that it's tension correctly. These ones that I chose have a fantastic grip on them. I chose the rubberized grip but it does absorb a lot of the moisture from your hand. It's called a dual grip system because further down the shaft of the trekking poles there is a part where you can hold them lower down a foam section. Now the very bottom part of the pole is called the basket and I've chosen to use the lower profile baskets on the bottom of my poles. It does come with a wider one higher profile and I think that's for skiing. I won't be using that one. Now at the very bottom of the poles there is a carbide tips that's very hard wearing and when it does eventually wear out they are replaceable you just unscrew them, purchase your new carbide tips and you're good to go again. Now these trekking poles as I said earlier are very lightweight. They come in at 600 grams a pair and I'm only using one so it's only adding 300 grams to my backpack. So if you clicked on this vlog just to have a little look at the trekking poles that I purchased that is it but I've got a bit of a story for you as to why, why now, why have I chosen to look at trekking poles now? Yes! I'd almost given up on that, really glad that I found that. A little restripe for my GoPro. I can't find a suitable place to sit down and have a coffee so I'm going to tell you this little story on my way back. So yeah about 10 years ago I was at Cannon Hall Farm. If you visit South Yorkshire definitely visit Cannon Hall Farm, great place. So yeah I was at Cannon Hall Farm, South Yorkshire Banzley and I decided whilst I was there with my daughter and her boyfriend Liam. I decided that I was going to race him from one tree to another. Let's just get under here. Don't you hate? Right. So yes I decided I was going to race him from one tree to another. Now let me just tell you Liam was about 20 years old and I was about 40 years old but I fancied my chances at beating this six foot 20 year old. Now I'm sure some of you can relate to this little story and if you can leave your comments in the comments section below if you've done something similar. So I did have a plan to beat Liam because of course I did know that was too old to beat him. So I decided that we would race from that tree to that tree and back again and my method in my madness was that I would lull him into a false sense of security by just pacing him and I knew that he would get a bit cocky and sort of slow down and take it easy and then at the very last minute the idea is that I would just peep him right at the post and my plan worked an absolute treat. By the time we were on the last 30 meters Liam was so relaxed and I knew that I was in striking distance. So I hit the nitrous oxide and caught up with him the gap was closed immediately and the tendon on the back of my left leg ripped away from the bone. After a split second of excruciating pain I still felt that I could beat him so I hit the nitrous oxide again. The next day my leg was completely black all down the back of my left leg and over the next weeks three or four weeks it changed into some weird and wonderful colours. Now I've got to say that my leg did heal quite quickly within about a month. I was back jogging and running just not racing people half my age. But what has that got to do with trekking Poles Rob? Well the reason I'm telling you that story is because that injury, that tendon tearing off the bone there has come back to Horme and when I get up to about 10 miles, if I do 10 miles walking constant no no break, no stopping. The left leg does get tight and tired it just makes it feel really tired. So I believe that it is what is called a short short ligament now when you get sort of severe damage like that when it repairs unless you get really high end physio you get a bit of a short ligament and that remains tight so it's a sort of a tight ligament. It doesn't affect me anywhere under 10 miles. Hence I am now using a walking stick walking pole and that just helps me out. It just takes the edge off. You can see the walking pole on my backpack there. I haven't used it on this walk at all. I don't need it and my leg is absolutely fine. And I'm going to need that on the West Island way. So I'm practicing using them now and I've got to say that once you've practiced using a walking stick trekking pole, yeah they're really useful. Uneven terrain it just sort of supports you knee you've got something to lean on. When you're going across a stream or boggy land really good for that really good. So not only is it helping me with my short tendon, my tight tendon there. I found them to be really useful. So even if you haven't got an injury or your legs aren't tired or anything like that, they're really really useful. I would recommend using them just because and start out just using one maybe. But yeah that's that's the story anyway and I hope you've enjoyed that. I hope you've enjoyed this vlog really good to be out with you again and if you've got any comments on a similar story, have you done anything similar? Please put them comments in the comments section below. I upload vlogs every month so if I don't see you through the month I will see you in the next one. Bye!