50 YEARS of wild nights
Therm-a-rest have been the leaders in outdoor sleep comfort since their founders created the world’s first self-inflating sleeping pad in 1972. Their mats changed the way people approach overnight adventure and, for many of us, have been constant companions on every camping trip. Take our photographer TOM BAILEY, for example, who’s convinced they were separated at birth…
“WHEN I TURNED 40, ten years ago, I Googled what else was the same age as me. And guess what? As well as Liam Gallagher and Kinder Surprise Eggs, Therm-a-rest is my long lost sibling! I’ve been using Therm-arest pads for the past 25 years – that’s half of both our lifetimes.
“Then about 5 years ago, I got my grubby mitts on a Therm-a-rest NeoAir pad and my life changed. Compact and lightweight (essential for me as I’m always carrying loads of camera gear), I use it all yearround and have slept well on the many wild camps we’ve shared in that time. Stupidly, I’ve used it once or twice in caves, direct onto the ground, and it now has about seven
microscopic holes in it. Luckily, I know a good thing when I use it, so I repaired it by first filling up the bath and placing the inflated mat into it to find the tiny streams of bubbles that indicated a puncture point. It was a simple case of gluing on patches, then I was away again.
“Extending the life of a loved piece of kit is so rewarding, especially when the fault was your own in the first place. Battle scarred, a little bit mucky and frayed at the edges (that’s both of us), I love my NeoAir. It’s got a few good years left in it yet, then it’ll be Therm-a-rest’s latest incarnation that takes its place in my pack.”