New Hikers start here.
So it’s your first hike with us and you’re wondering what to prepare. What follows is a helpful guideline to help you form your own decisions on how to best prepare for your hike with us. We always recommend starting conservatively and safely rather than going all out and risking injury.
Some of our hikes have special requirements, which will be detailed on their hike page, but generally these guidelines apply to all our regular hikes.
Boots
If there’s anything we’re sticky about, it’s wearing your SAF-issued boots. We recommend this for safety reasons and it gives you the opportunity to break them in (especially useful if you’re due for deployment and haven’t used them recently). Continuous use will keep your feet and boots happy.
Recommended: SAF-Issue Boots
Alternatives: Hiking Boots, trainers
Load
The load you carry is up to you and what you are comfortable with. Start with something comfortable and progressively build up to a higher load on a later hikes. We encourage you to carry some load, even if it is a water bottle or two. Remember, liquid weight can be shed during the hike if you felt your were too ambitious.
Recommended: Start with 20% of your body weight
Pack
The pack you use doesn’t matter so much for our hikes. What matters more is packing it correctly and getting comfortable with the pack with progressively heavier loads. Neither your field pack or assault pack are as comfortable as a commercially available packs. But getting used to them through training helps a great deal.
Recommended: SAF Assault Bag
Alternatives: SAF Field Pack (with rain cover), Own Pack
Attire
We recommend long pants and t-shirt. Sometimes we do cross over into overgrown terrain and the long pants protects you from sharp objects and branches. Please make sure that your attire avoids any offensive material or resembles any No.4 pattern.
Recommended: Long pants and t-shirt
Alternatively: Shorts and t-shirt
First Aid Kit
We make sure our hike leaders carry first aid kits so there is no need for you to bring your own. However, if you want to be a responsible hiker, please feel free to bring your own first aid kit.
Water
The general rule of thumb for us is about a liter of water for every hour of hiking. For most of our hikes, this means about 3 liters of water. However, everybody’s requirements are different but do reach out to us for our recommendation if needed.
Recommended: 0.5l per 30 minutes
Understanding the Challenge Levels
Please understand that our hikes are training hikes and designed to help you be a fitter SV. We set a brisk pace as a standard but rest assured, this is monitored and adapted to both the hiking route and the hikers participating. We do offer the option to SVs who want more from their hike and want a challenge - which is entirely optional. When you sign up for the hike, please let us know what sort of challenge level you’d like from our hike.
Option 1: Challenge me, I’m an SV!
If you opt for a challenge, we will throw in challenges designed to test you on a physical, mental or knowledge level.
Option 2: Just hike fast, can?
This is our default challenge level and you will only be expected to hike at a decent pace. This is usually between 12-14 mins/km.
A note on boots…
Part of the reason this ragtag bunch of misfits got together in the first place was to help get boots ready for upcoming training.
Now we all know that SAF issued boots might not be the most comfortable boots in the world, but they're what we're given so they're what we have to wear when we're called up.
We've all been issued boots and if any of us are still finding them uncomfortable, they won't improve if you leave them sitting in the back of the wardrobe.
To those that are opting to wear trainers may I offer the following:
SAFETY - SAF boots are designed to support your ankles, not least when carrying load. Trainers are not. To protect your ankles, wear your boots… and that includes tightening your laces.
FIGHTING SPIRIT - I do know boots can be uncomfortable and we therefore have a choice, we can either break-in our boots or wait for the next deployment so that out boots can break us... train hard, fight easy!
CARE FOR SOLDIERS - Despite what some might think 😏 neither I nor the TB OG are out to make you suffer. If you think that your boots might be too painful for the whole route then please also pack your trainers and change into them when needed en route. At least this way you’ll get a few more klicks under your boots to break them in that little bit more and you’ll have provided your ankles with support some/most of the way.
…and 😉 we ‘break-in’ our boots, we don’t ‘season’ them unless we’re intending to add some herbs and spices to the leather to cook up an oh-so-yummy Wellco Stew!
- SV3 Alex V.