It was about seven miles straight across from where we were sitting our kayaks at Clerke Point at the tip of the Brooks Peninsula, munching Clif Bars. The O’Leary Islets barely scratched the surface in the distance, but would give us plenty of lee once we arrived. Sea conditions were good, as was the forecast of 10 to 15 knot winds out of the northwest.

I had noticed one small dark cloud on the horizon. Moving very slowly in our general direction, I had tracked it for the last couple of hours. It was anomalous to my own experience paddling the west coast, which was considerable, and did not register as threatening. It wasn’t a big black stratocumulus unit, but a rain cell perhaps. We checked the barometers we’d brought along again and they were steady and high.

We were a couple of miles from the O’Learys when it hit us.

For the last hour I’d noticed the barometer falling on my wrist. Suddenly a squall with winds of twenty to twenty-five knots stirred up following seas and Colin and I had our hands full dealing with it. I was amazed at the vigor in such a slow moving system. I have never sailed as fast in my life as I did that day. It was Toad’s Wild Ride to be sure, surfing down following eight foot waves and holding on to the paddle with the little Primex spinnaker pulling proudly in the blow.

I kept an eye on Colin over my shoulder about seventy five yards to the south and could see he was zipping right along even without a sail. We rendezvoused in the lee of a massive rock sea mount with one huge sultan of a bull sea lion perched all alone. The squall had blown itself out.

We took both a wrist model (Summit) and a clip model (AT2) units on a three week kayak expedition last fall and I’m happy to report that the units found a niche. I used the Summit and will speak to that but the core instruments appear identical and the information applies pretty much to both. I’ve had my eye on weather instruments for expeditions for a decade now and have never been satisfied with what I’ve found. For me, it boils down to something I can put on my wrist. If it’s at the end of my arm I use it and don’t lose it.

The Summit is a big sucker. As sure as if you’re walking a five legged dog, someone is going to remark on it. Seven out of ten people you meet will point out the big watch on your wrist. The conversation value is high.

The Summit is the largest faced of HighGear’s models, but I like the way it feels on my wrist (and I have a small wrist). In fact it’s the most comfortable watch I’ve ever worn. An ergonomic curve molded into a flange of the chassis makes for a perfect fit to my wrist, and elevates the chassis enough to let in some air. I love that I can read it at a glance even with my glasses off. And I was never much at small talk, so it’s a good icebreaker.

While there is no arguing the value of a watch, an alarm, and a wrist compass, the primary feature for kayakers, at least, will likely be the barometer. Atmospheric pressure is the name of the game on the coast; the more informed about how it works and how to interpret the mercurial pressure, the better off you’ll be. We use our VHF weather radios to access current data and predicted conditions. The Summit is an at-a-glance confirmation of how that data is playing out. Sometimes the predictions are off course, and by reading the pressure at ground zero...more importantly the speed and direction of the change, the more warning you will have of important weather changes.

You can access the barometric data as a digital readout or via a bar graph, which is very cool. It updates every couple of hours and reads across the top of the watch face in several modes (time and baro). A quick glance at the bar will tell give you a relative interpretation of pressure change.

Another feature tied in with the barometer is the weather predictor. In both the time and barometric modes it shows a little icon of sun, cloud or rain, suggesting what you might expect in the half dozen hours ahead. I hardly bothered with it, reading the barometer or graph instead. Most of the time the predictor was right on, but a couple of times a week on average we had to override it to synch the predictor symbol with actual weather.

The compass I found useful. While it doesn’t take the place of a quality deck mount unit, or even a quality handheld, it’s handy to get a simple fix on your paddling direction and to confirm your orientation in limited visibility. I confess to being the simplest of navigators and try and keep the west coast of North America on my left side, within sight if at all possible. One complaint about the compass is the chance of it becoming magnetized. Which mine apparently is. This is not a problem specific to HighGear but something that can happen to a compass when it comes in close contact with things like magnets and metal detectors, for example. The remedy is to return unit to the manufacturer and they will perform a ‘demagnetization’. Or, customer service told me, "take it to one of the scanners they use in a big department store and run it through the machine." Any brand of digital compass is subject to the same scenario, I believe. It’s what we get for carrying it around on our wrists, I guess.

The thermometer was used little, but worked fine when you took it off. Or left it on and subtracted ten degrees.

Altimeter isn’t a big factor when kayaking, but it is the altimeter/barometer connection that caused us the most grief. I can’t talk informed tech here but they are related, and like a pair of irascible twins, one is continually goosing the other, causing a misreading. Case in point, we would zero our instrument at sea level while sitting in the boat, only to take a reading later that day and find that we were ten feet under water! It is apparently difficult to get the two functions separated and reliable in a watch of this size. The problem I don’t believe is proprietary, but rather just over the horizon of technical know-how.

The chronometer is fine and I use it when training. The alarm is handy, of course. I would have liked a count down alarm as well.

What else...time, of course, Time is a handy mode because you can read the time in BIG bold letter while the barometric graph is still showing near the top. For everyday wear though, I leave it on barometer, particularly if I’m outside a lot, especially if I’m on the water. The baro mode gives you the reading in big bold letters, also gives you the time, albeit in small numerals.

The units are quite durable and we’ve had no problems at all with materials or construction. The band is a winner. Supple and rugged, I was pleased to see it has stayed that way after plenty of sun and salt water. The batteries are still ticking and the cases appear to be well sealed to water. With four big button along the side, that’s saying something. Lastly, the crystal. Scratched crystals have always been a pet peeve mine. I wore a Breitling Aerospace with a synthetic sapphire crystal, not in the least, for it’s scratch resistance. Curiously, the crystal on my Summit does scratch but it doesn’t bother me. I think because the face is so big and readout so prominent, a scratch seems inconsequential.

There are a number of similar units on the market. I chose HighGear the same way I chose my wife. I liked the way it looked. Then, of course, I was happy to discover it went deeper than that.