LIFESTYLE
LIFESTYLE
E-JETCYCLE
It looks like the French have taken cycling somewhere it really didn't need to go.
The E-JetCycle is a pedal-powered hydrofoil with an electric motor, a bucket seat and enough carbon fibre underneath it to lift the whole contraption clear of the water. Start pedalling, pick up speed and the foils take over, leaving you cruising above lakes, lagoons and calm seas with your bum comfortably planted the entire time.
There’s a trimaran-style setup with two floats to keep things stable at low speeds, while a steering handle points you in the right direction and a separate lever controls how high you fly. The electric assistance can be dialled up or down depending on how much you fancy earning your afternoon on the water.
Battery life stretches to three hours and the motor runs quietly with zero direct emissions, so your peaceful lap of the lake doesn't come with the soundtrack of an obnoxious jet ski. It's also built entirely in France, which may explain why someone looked at the humble pedal boat and decided it wasn't nearly sophisticated enough.
Your move, Peloton.
FROM AU$25,869
LOMOMATIC 110 DISCOMATIC
Your phone takes technically perfect photos. This tiny disco-coloured camera would rather you had some fun.
The Lomomatic 110 Discomatic (great name, btw) looks like something you’d find in the pocket of a particularly cool time traveller from 1983. It’s tiny, super colourful and shoots 110 film; the miniature format that first hit its stride in the 1970s before Lomography brought it back from near extinction in 2012.
And despite looking a bit like a toy, there’s some proper camera hiding underneath all that turquoise and hot pink. You get a 23mm Minitar glass lens, automatic exposure, controllable ISO and zone focusing, plus day and night aperture settings. There’s even unlimited multiple exposure for when one holiday pic isn't enough.
But specs aren't really the reason we'd throw this into our carry-on. The whole joy of shooting 110 is not knowing exactly what you've captured until the film comes back. No deleting the blurry ones. No taking 47 versions of the same sunset. No immediately checking whether your eyes were closed. Just point, shoot and find out later.
A little chaos for your camera roll? We're into it.
FROM AU$189
YOUNG PIONEER TOURS
There are holidays your mum worries about, just ask Young Pioneer Tours. They’ve built an entire business around them.
Born in China in 2008, Young Pioneer Tours started out taking travellers to North Korea (big yikes) before expanding into more than 100 destinations, with a particular fondness for the remote, overlooked and slightly complicated corners of the planet.
And when we say complicated, we mean it. Their itineraries stretch through Afghanistan, Somaliland, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, South Sudan, Transnistria, Western Sahara and a bunch of other places that probably aren't sitting at the top of your family group chat's holiday suggestions.
That's also what makes YPT extremely ‘us’. These are trips designed for travellers who'd rather return home with a ridiculous story than another photo of an infinity pool. Group sizes generally hover around 10–12 people, trips are accompanied by YPT and local guides, and private itineraries are available for those wanting to disappear even further off-piste.
Your mum might not approve, but we definitely will.
PRICES VARY BY TOUR
Tanssu Luggage
Some people collect fridge magnets when they travel. Others come home from Kyoto with an idea for an entirely new luggage brand.
After stumbling across an antique Japanese tansu (a timber chest on wheels used to transport precious belongings), frequent flyer Adir Shiffman decided the modern suitcase was due for a rethink. And thus Tanssu was born, a Melbourne-designed luggage brand making a super convincing case for upgrading your travel gear.
The debut collection pairs a sleek hardshell cabin case with a matching knitted tote, available in three colours inspired by Iceland, Peru and Chile's Atacama Desert. But the clever stuff is hiding beneath all the good looks.
The cabin case opens three ways, including a zip-free front panel for grabbing your laptop without unpacking your entire life at airport security. There's also a top-loading compartment for tight spaces, 360-degree skate-style wheels, an integrated AirTag holder and an expandable design for those inevitable holiday purchases.
The matching tote slides over the suitcase handle, fits a 16-inch laptop and is machine washable. Handy when your in-flight coffee decides to make a break for it.
FROM AU$890
KIKFIN SHARK
Someone’s looked at swimming and thought, ‘needs more jetpack’.
KikFin has built an underwater jetpack. Called the Shark (ofc it is), it straps three electric thrusters to your body and sends you hooning through the water at speeds of up to 2.6m/s (9.4 km/h) which is considerably faster than most humans can swim (ourselves included). There’s a dorsal fin sticking out the back too, partly because it improves stability, directional control and manoeuvrability, but also partly because why the hell wouldn’t you?
The clever bit is that your hands are left completely free. Speed is controlled using a little wearable remote with five settings, while steering happens through movements of your head and body. The whole setup is rated to depths of 40m and the batteries last somewhere between 45 and 70 minutes. They can even be swapped underwater, should 45 minutes of pretending to be a mechanically enhanced shark prove insufficient.
KikFin is taking reservations ahead of the Shark's full launch, with a refundable AU$1,393 deposit securing early access and a discounted launch-day price. The eventual full whack is expected to be AU$5,579.
We just know that James Bond would have killed for one.
FROM AU$5,579
RED THREAD
When Benjamin Antoni Andersen was given a red cotton cap for his 23rd birthday, he probably didn’t expect it to eventually become a Norwegian outdoors brand, a decade-long career and, now, a book.
Red Thread: My Unexpected Journey traces the founder of Red Hat Factory from the mountains of Norway to a fairly grim patch in Stockholm, where money was running low, his health was struggling and the whole grand-plan thing wasn’t exactly going to plan. The way forward ended up leading backwards, towards Norway, his family and the outdoor culture he’d grown up with.
Along the way, Andersen gets into the good stuff: old Norwegian knitting patterns, days spent in the mountains, family stories from the WWII resistance and the unlikely process of turning an idea into Red Hat Factory, whose wool caps are still hand-knitted in Norwegian homes along the country’s south coast.
There’s business in here, but this isn’t some LinkedIn bloke telling you to wake up at 4am and optimise your morning. It’s a story about homesickness, adventure, making things the slow way and chasing an idea for long enough that it eventually starts paying the bills.
And it all started with a f*cking beanie. Outstanding.
FROM TBD
get in the know Those pruney fingers you get after being in the water for too long aren't just waterlogged skin. Research suggests the wrinkling is an active nervous-system response that may improve your grip on wet or submerged objects.
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