A field guide to endurance gear, written for people who finish what they start.
Long-form reviews of swim, bike, run, and multisport equipment — published on the URL that hosted the Nautica Malibu Triathlon for thirty-seven years.
We test gear the way the original race tested athletes — slowly, in real conditions, and against the next thirty-seven miles.
This URL is a quiet rebuild. For most of four decades it pointed at the official site of one of the most iconic triathlons in the United States — a race that began on Zuma Beach in 1987 and raised more than fourteen million dollars for pediatric cancer research before its final running.
The race is gone. The address remains. We took the name because the audience that stayed loyal to it for thirty-seven years still deserves the kind of careful, unhurried gear writing that most modern publications no longer have time to produce. We will not test fast. We will not chase ten reviews a week. We will publish when a piece of equipment has actually been put through what it claims to be built for.
The Course
Four disciplines. Every review on the journal lives inside one of them.
Swim
Open-water wetsuits, racing goggles, swim watches, and the gear that handles cold Pacific mornings without a fight.
Enter the lane → 02Bike
Tri bikes, road helmets, GPS computers, power meters, and the small components that decide whether a long ride feels long.
Enter the lane → 03Run
Running shoes, hydration vests, GPS watches, and the equipment that keeps a four-mile finish from feeling like a fourteen-mile one.
Enter the lane → 04Multi
Tri-suits, transition bags, race nutrition, and the multisport gear that has to work across all three legs without a swap.
Enter the lane →We tested seventeen hydration vests across a year of long runs. Only four made it past mile twenty without rubbing. This is what the marketing copy will not tell you.
What seventeen hydration vests taught us about a four-mile finish
Read the full pieceLatest Dispatches
New writing from the journal. Arrives when finished. Never on a schedule.
- Best Backpack Vacuums for Cleaning Crews (August 2026)
Cleaning crews can boost productivity by over 200% when switching from traditional uprights to backpack vacuums. These lightweight, wearable units allow operators to cover more … Read more - 5 Best Tow Behind Sprayers for Pastures (August 2026) Guide
Managing a pasture means dealing with stubborn weeds, invasive brush, and the constant push to keep your fields productive. If you are spraying by hand … Read more - 8 Best Earth Augers for Landscapers (August 2026)
Digging fence posts and tree holes by hand eats up hours that professional landscapers can’t afford to lose. After 15 years in the landscaping business, … Read more - 8 Best Fence Post Drivers for Ranchers (August 2026) Tested & Ranked
Building a fence on a working ranch is not a weekend hobby. It is a back-breaking, multi-day job that decides whether your cattle stay home … Read more - 10 Best Grain Mills for Homesteaders (August 2026) Complete Buying Guide
I still remember the first time I pulled a warm loaf of bread out of the oven using flour I had milled myself an hour … Read more - 12 Best Beekeeping Supplies for Beginners (August 2026) Complete Guide
Starting your first hive can feel overwhelming. I remember staring at dozens of options and wondering which supplies actually matter before the bees arrive. After … Read more - 10 Best Bee Hives for Hobbyist Beekeepers (August 2026) Tested Picks
Choosing the best bee hives for hobbyist beekeepers can feel overwhelming when you start comparing Langstroth, Top Bar, Warre, and Flow designs. I have spent … Read more - 8 Best Honey Extractors for Backyard Beekeepers (August 2026)
After a long summer of watching your bees turn nectar into golden comb, harvest day finally arrives. You pry off the supers, balance a frame … Read more - 10 Best Milking Machines for Small Dairy Farms (August 2026)
Waking up at 5 a.m. to hand-milk a stubborn cow while your wrists ache and the milk pail kicks over for the third time this … Read more - 10 Best Chicken Plucker Machines for Homesteaders (August 2026)
I remember my first chicken processing day on our homestead. Three hours of hand-plucking later, my hands were blistered, my back ached, and I still … Read more - 4 Best Olympic Barbell Sets for Powerlifting Gyms (August 2026)
I have spent the last three months setting up two different powerlifting gyms from scratch, and the barbell set decision was always the most expensive … Read more - 8 Best Industrial Workbenches for Machine Shops (August 2026)
If you have ever tried to mount a vise on a flimsy garage workbench, you already know why machine shops demand industrial workbenches built for … Read more - 8 Best Pipe Inspection Cameras for Drain Cleaning (August 2026)
Last , I spent six weeks running eight different pipe inspection cameras through residential laterals, commercial mainlines, and a few stubborn cast iron stacks. I … Read more - 8 Best Commercial Air Purifiers for Medical Offices (August 2026) Reviewed
If you manage a medical practice, you already know that air quality is not optional. A single cough releases roughly 90,000 particles into the air, … Read more - 6 Best HVAC Vacuum Pumps for Air Conditioning Technicians (August 2026)
When I first started pulling vacuums on AC systems, I borrowed an old single-stage pump from my cousin’s garage. It took 45 minutes to reach … Read more
Pace Notes
A wetsuit that does not fit you is slower than no wetsuit at all.
The drag from a poor seal at the neck and shoulders is measurable. Most athletes underestimate how much stroke economy they lose to a half-size error.
The cheapest performance upgrade on a road bike is a proper saddle fitting.
Before deep-section wheels, before a power meter, before any electronics — get the contact point right. Everything else is downstream of that one fix.
Running cadence matters more than running shoes, and almost no review will say so.
A shoe will not save a runner from a 158-step-per-minute habit. Cadence is free. The shoe industry quietly prefers we keep talking about foam stacks.
Course History
A short record of what happened at this address before the journal began.
The race begins at Zuma Beach.
Founded by Michael Epstein and inspired by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Robert Amiel Triathlon, the first Malibu Triathlon brings a few hundred athletes to the sands of Zuma Beach for a half-mile ocean swim, a seventeen-mile bike, and a four-mile run.
Robin Williams becomes the first A-list celebrity to enter.
The race quietly establishes itself as the place Hollywood comes to test its endurance. The celebrity division becomes a cultural fixture. Nautica signs on as title sponsor and stays for the next twenty-three years.
Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey both finish.
Lopez raises more than one hundred thousand dollars for charity and lands a podium spot in her division. The race becomes one of the most televised triathlons in the country and one of the largest single-event fundraisers for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Over fourteen million dollars raised, lifetime.
More than five thousand athletes compete each year. Registration sells out in three hours. The triathlon becomes a permanent fixture of the Southern California endurance calendar and a model for charity-anchored multisport events worldwide.
The City of Malibu permits expire.
After thirty-seven years and several ownership changes, the race is unable to secure its operating permits. The event is suspended. The original domain eventually lapses, and the URL becomes available to register again for the first time since 2003.
A new kind of writing, on the same address.
We took the name because the audience that trusted it for thirty-seven years deserves something more careful than the current state of gear publishing. The race is over. The reading continues.
Cross the line, then start reading.
Written by people who train, race, and read datasheets. New work arrives when it has been earned. The archive grows the way a long ride grows — one mile at a time.