Editor’s Blog – Rip Curl Ultimate & The OUTERWEAR Question

Me (far left) sporting last year’s Rip Curl ULTIMATE gear in Utah with Anna Segal, Boen Ferguson and Charlie Timmins

Editor’s Blog | Tessa Cook

The new ski jacket and pants arrived by courier this morning… happy Monday for me! The Rip Curl ULTIMATE Range Mistique Jacket and Ultimate wear pants – in cream and raspberry respectively, in case you’re wondering – are my third lot of Rip Curl ULTIMATE gear, which means I’ve been a devotee of the range since it’s beginning in Australia and I’m pleased to say this year’s offering has taken everything I loved about last year’s and supercharged it – Ultimate fabric, ultimate fit and… ultimate pockets!

I’ve worn more than my fair share of ski outerwear in my time and I’ve developed a very specific list of what I expect from the jacket and pants I don – born from a combination of need and necessity and personal preference. It’s a list I check off when trying on any new outerwear, to make sure I’m going to be as happy with my gear on the hill as I am in the shop.

The Outerwear Checklist

Good fit: Outerwear is like every other kind of clothing, some brands will fit you, some won’t. Example, many brands design women’s ski pants for midgets who like to wear their waistbands dangerously high and their cuffs at a Capri length – flapping around their mid calf. Which is totally fine, if that’s how you like your ski pants – if it’s not, don’t buy them – there will be a brand out there to suit you. I’ve made the mistake of forgiving a jacket’s shortcomings in the sleeve department – because I really liked it. Three days of exposing my wrists every time I moved my arms and it was on eBay. When you’re trying on outerwear, check these details – and make sure the gear will fit once you pile on your under layers. Personally, I’m loving the bum-warming long-line fit of my Mistique jacket, which will come into its own on snowy chairlifts, along with its super-deep hood, which will even fit over my helmet. Would I pass over a jacket that looked amazing because the hood was small or reject pants in my favourite colour if they didn’t come well past my ankles? certainly.

Pockets, pockets, pockets: Nothing will escape your notice in the shop then drive you mad on the hill so much as lack of pockets. You want a quick-access packet for your phone – and music device if you ride with one, a secure pocket for your cash and cards, a pass pouch and several handy places to stash chairlift-snacks. The first thing I did when I put on my new gear this morning is search out every pocket – discovering as I did so a kind of pocket I had been unfamiliar with – the large internal mesh pouch to stuff face warmers, glove liners and the like into – brilliant. You want these pockets to be easily openable, even in gloves – double zips are best, and press studs where there’s no danger of snow entering.

Easy access – the kids ski school test: Snow parents the world over send their small children off to ski school in all kinds of impenetrable outerwear. The bib-n-brace and the one piece have many toilet-related accidents to answer for; the poor kids just can’t get the things off. Despite what I’m sure is your superior ability to manage your bathroom breaks, you should make sure you’re ok with the way your outerwear goes on and comes off. I have a jacket with double breasted buttons – cute, but freaking annoying to undo, especially in gloves. Buttons, belt ties, bib-and-brace, pull overs – these are all potentially awesome looking features with the very real potential to drive you mad. Personally, I’m not happy to compromise. I want my pants to pull on, I want my jacket to fasten with a double zip and press-stud snap-over. That is all.

The right fabric: The best outerwear fabrics can be all things to all weathers. Waterproof against extreme levels of moisture, breathable in warmer temperatures and wind impervious without needing to be the thickness of a mattress – that’s the kind of fabric I want. The ULTIMATE gear I’m sitting in right now (yup, at my desk, in Avalon – the Northern Beaches Sydney one, not the Melbourne Airport one) is 20 000 waterproof and 20 000 breathable, will resist the kind of winds you find at the top of Thredbo Kosciuszko Express chair and is four-way stretch – note, until you try it you won’t realise what a difference a four way stretch fabric makes to general comfort – amazing – trust me. This kind of versatility means I can wear it during an Arctic front in Interior British Columbia and springtime in NSW. Fortunately I’m super pleased with the look of my outfit – snaps to Rip Curl who are making the ULTIMATE styles better and better each year – but if it came down to it, I’d choose fabric over style, because i’ve endured Arctic fronts in BC, and wind at Thredbo there’s nothing a pretty jacket can offer me that’d make up for poor performance in bad weather.

This list is less about what you must have and more about making sure – before you take it out of the shop – what you’re buying is going to make you happy for the duration of your ownership. It’s about checking all the details that are important to you and considering whether or not you can live with any shortcomings.

The 2012 Rip Curl range is yet to hit shops but I can attest to the brilliance of the 2011 range, which you can check out here.