Get your astral t-shirt on sale now at the ASTRAL Factory Store.

Here’s a photo of Phil Curry (Philip’s dad),  proudly modeling the Sydney Design for our readers.

ASTRAL T’s are made with plastisol-free REHANCE dyeing methods on Organic Cotton shirts, printed right here in our home state of North Carolina.

Sydney T: Be recognized as the most stylish boater in your crew with this sophisticated fractal design. Inspired by the renowned architecture of Sydney Australia, this T featured the organic fractal logo on mutts blue.

$22.95 ON SALE:$ 14.95

XL ONLY

Check out the Strangefish, our first long sleeve Organic Cotton T-shirt made using a plastisol free REHANCE dyeing methods. The design was created by our friend and local Asheville artist Ryan Lane.

With freezing cold weather in much of North America we though this would be a great opportunity to offer the strangefish direct on the Factory Store.

We are running a special 35% off on all t-shirts during the winter, including the Strangefish.

Strangefish Short Sleeve on Anvil Organic T - $14.95

Strangefish Long Sleeve on American Apparel Organic T - $19.95

This has been a fun and busy week for the ASTRAL crew. The factory has been finishing up the first of the new Greenjacket LE1’s as well making some dog beds from our scrap raw materials.  Meanwhile, the office team has been working on the design of LE#2. Here’s a sneak peek at what we have been up to this week:

The embroidery machine is one of the most interesting tools here at the factory, it gets a lot of use especially when we make Limited Edition Greenjackets.

Here’s Theresa constructing the front panel on the LE1 with a smile.

Below Tirza works on some LE1 shoulder straps. She is one of our veteran sewing staff and a highly skilled seamstress.

Jesus is filling some dog bed inserts with recycled lifejacket foam.  These dog beds are an alternative to the landfill and give your hound a comfy pad after a long day on the water.

Check out the finished dog beds. We also use scrap fabric for the shell material so no two are exactly the same (kinda like snowflakes… and dogs).

…and last but not least, here is a preview of the Greenjacket LE2 which is due out sometime in January.

Astral LE is “Limited Edition” products made in our mothership factory in Asheville, NC. The purpose of this program is two-fold. One reason is to offer our customers the choice to purchase a domestically made , highest end PFD. The other reason is to allow us to have more fun with design, to express ourselves according to seasonal creative influences.

The LEs are built with the same meticulous details and supreme materials as our regular GreenJackets , but they are made in small batches, each having a unique artistic style. When you purchase one, not only are you going to look damn smart, but your money is helping to keep fellow Americans at work.

THE GREENJACKET LE1

It took us a long time to filter through the wide range of artistic concepts we could use on the 1st batch of LEs. When the familiar red, gold, and green color scheme finally showed up, we knew we had the 1st batch of limited edition Safety vests.

…and of course we had to add a little USA-ness to it. Browse the pictures below and if you feel the vibe, reserve yours here.

MSRP $240

available December 2009

Astral is proud to be an official  sponsor of the US Freestyle Kayak Team, and to show our support we wanted to bring the team something unique from the factory here in Asheville, NC.   Check out these photos of the custom Willis jackets that the team will be wearing.  The artwork on these jackets is simply beautiful and is exclusive to the 2009 US Freestyle Kayak Team.  The back of each jacket has 28 stars representing the 28 spots on the team roster.

We have had a few folks ask, “Where can I get one of those USA jackets?”…well, the answer is that you can check out the Willis at your local dealer and you will be blown away by its unsurpassed fit and comfort.  However, to get one of the USA team jackets you need to grab your playboat and head to the hole immediately. You have a lot of practice to do if you’re going to make the team in 2011.

photos courtesy of Jeremy Laucks: Salida Colorado

Here at the Astral Buoyancy Company one of our primary goals is to reduce our factory’s waste to nil.  We are proud to create handcrafted PFD’s from the most environmentally considerate closed cell buoyant foams available such as Gaia and PE foams, developed as an alternative to toxic PVC found in the lifejackets of yesteryear. The die cutting process, which stamps out the flotation panels from the sheets of these various foams, creates about 80% yield, leaving about 20% of the raw material as excess.   We have been saving this excess scrap material since we started about six years ago in hopes of one day creating byproducts as a usable alternative to the landfill. The first of these by-products is the AstroPad dog bed…

The Astro Pad, our first By-Product

With that said its time to meet Sampson, our shop dog and tester for the AstroPad prototypes.  Sampson has been in the whitewater scene for about six years now, sniffing around venues like Salida, Squamish, Fayetteville, and Banks… pretty much being a full time river dog along the way and now he’s a big time operator in the home office in Asheville, NC.  Ole boy even surfed Skookumchuck in a zodiac raft back in ‘06 so you know he’s legit, if you don’t believe me check out his Blog. Anyways, here’s a shot of Sampson at his first week on the job at Astral when he was using a scrap sheet of foam as his pad.

Sampson before the AstroPad (with toy squirrel in background…no, its not a brown)

As time passed and more scrap foam was accumulated it was time to bring the AstroPad concept to fruition.  We developed a process to essentially chip the leftover foam into small bits that when stuffed into the liner create a memory foam like feel.

Foam shavings used as fill for the AstroPad

For the outer shell we used our leftover fabric scraps (also saved since the company’s inception) to create a unique and stylish patchwork design.  We topped it off with adding a Velcro closure for easy washing of the outer shell and added some convenient carrying handles for transport.  The first batch of AstroPads left the warehouse a few weeks ago and since then we have made Sampson and his fellow river dogs quite happy after a long day on the water.  Here’s a few of these happy hounds:

Roscoe, photo courtesy of Chan Jones

Chomski, photo courtesy of Astral’s Tracey Haswell

Philip Curry and Sampson

For complete info on the AstroPad check out our Products Pages and email us at info@astralbuoyancy.com to place an order. Keep in mind that the colors are assorted as they are made from our leftover fabrics (but we try to make them all look sweet cause we know your dog wants to look good too!)

Stay tuned for more Astral By-Products…

If you are a whitewater paddler and own an Ipod or computer then you should really check out the In Between Swims podcast. This installment dubbed “Back to the Core” features an Interview with Astral’s founder and president Philip Curry, where Philip talks about what it was like to sell Lotus to Patagonia, Coast Guard PFD certification, and the future of PFD’s.  Also on this issue Immersion Research’s John Weld swims The Potomac’s Horseshoe and Shane Benedict joins from Zwick’s on the Green River to talk boofing.

Listen to the BACK TO THE CORE MP3

learn more about this podcast at the In Between Swims Homepage

or get the In Between Swims Itunes Download

truck surfin, Slate River (photo: Atom Crawford)

So I know that the blog-o-sphere is loaded with posts from Colorado this year with the record snowpack and all. However, I couldn’t leave for this year’s OR show without sharing some images and memories from a recent trip back to my old stomping grounds. This trip back was particularly awesome because I was able to travel with my good pal Paul Bartholic. Paul and I have enjoyed many years of Colorado kayaking together since 01 and it was time for a little revival. We hit some kick ass venues for both kayak and leisure including OBJ, Red Rocks, Daisy Creek, The Almont Lounge, and of course the Arkansas River while visiting some good friends along the way.

Mex at OBJ (photo Atom Crawford)

We started off by stopping by CKS and the Arkansas River. The level was around 3,000 cfs and we hit no rocks in Chaffee County. This was a big change from the bone zone drought conditions that we have become accustomed to this summer in the South. We ran about 17 miles from the Numbers to BV in like 2 hours, that’s pretty fast with the high water. Also, we were able to enjoy some QT with our peeps from Salider and Buena Vista, what a sick crew out there!

Paul at the biggun (photo Chris Larsen)

Next up we blasted over to Crested Butte to meet with our boy Chris Larsen and enjoyed a few days of classic CB creeking. Also up in the mix was Mexico, our boy from back in Ashevegas. Mex is spending his summer running about the CO wilderness like a wild marmot. I think he’s gonna head back to fire up the Green Race this fall. We camped at the OBJ campground and drank many PBR (standard kayak elixer) to keep our spines in line after the abuse that OBJ dished out. After a few days of running about the alpine realms we loaded up the Rav4 (a pretty sweet shuttle rig actually) and went over to Red Rocks to witness the shitness. Of course I am referring to the Widespread Panic’s immensely sick show that they laid down on Sunday. We were glad to meet more of our crew from AVL like James, Sunny, Jon, and Allison. Check out this stream of the whole show if you think you can handle it: http://panicstream.com/streams/wsp/2008_06_29/player.html

PBR at Red Rocks (photo Bryan Owen)

The morning after the Panic we found ourselves waking in the back yard of Bob who lives somewhere near Red Rocks. Paul and I loaded up the Rav again in search of some boating. We hit the classic Rio Taylor near Almont Colorado, joined by CKS hommie Joe Carroll. Joe was my roommate for a while in Colorado and he is a great mellow dude and a solid paddler. If you ever need to ask about the rocker profile of a Prijon Gambler or maybe you’re inquiring about the recreational opportunities of the Ark Valley, give him a call at CKS.

OBJ almost bottom slide (photo Bryan Owen)

To finish it off we blasted back to the CB zone to enjoy even more OBJ action. This time we were joined by Kyle and Mike Hagadorn for a sweet day of creek boating. Also, check out some pics from professional photographer Michael Clark who happened to capture some other great shots of our crew: http://www.michaelclarkphoto.com/ohbejoyful_071208.html

salud-

Bryan

Bryan above OBJ waterfall, photo Atom Crawford

March has turned out to be a wet month here in the Southeast. Last week we were fortunate to enjoy some heavy rains that brought up many of the local rivers near Asheville. Luckily, I was able to sneak out of the office for a little creek time with some of West Asheville’s resident creekers. The Ramsay Prong is a fun and continuous low volume run over in the Smokies. Nik Haase, a good friend of ours and former Astral employee, has been running this section since his earlier days of creek boating. His beta proved to be key as this run has a very fast and continuous nature and scouting every rapid would have made the day much slower. We put on above a footbridge at a nice 6 foot boof, followed by a long runout. Other rapids of mention include “the Ditch” which is certainly the single track section of Ramsey as well as nasty little boulder/tree Zone 3 rapids or so below the bridge (we recommend scouting this one and setting safety). It was an awesome day out there with a great crew of local paddlers. Our crew had 3 runs that day with plenty of action. Check out the RAMSAY GALLERY for some photos of this run.

cheers!

Bryan

Joey gets his boof on, Ramsey Cascades.

As well all know, the holidays bring a lot of gadgets to the consumer market and this is a good time to take a look at the Electronics Industry to see what they are doing to control “e-waste” which include known toxins like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs). Also, do you ever think about taking a look at a given company’s producer responsibility or take back programs to see what they are doing with discarded products like used cell phones. Do these companies provide any type of consumer information about the products they offer? Check out the Greener Electronics Guide from Greenpeace for the beta. Happy Holidays!