Orienteering Equipment
When you begin orienteering, you do not need any special equipment or clothing. Hillwalking or running gear is suitable for wearing. As you progress, you may find some specialised clothing or equipment useful.
The links below give you some ideas as to what equipment may be useful and where you can purchase it.
Pat Healy: healy.pat@gmail.com, Map Masters & Cut Bush Sports, Curragh, Co Kildare sells the following:
- Orienteering and Trail Running Shoes by: M-Shoe Makers Finland www.vjsport.fi (VJ Falcon, Bold and IROC3)
- Orienteering Compasses: Silva Baseplate and Thumb Compass.
- Control Flags, Coded Punches, Control cards.
- Forest, Park and School Survey and Cartography.
- Permanent Orienteering plates and posts.
- OCAD Instruction.
Online Shops
- SPORTident UK for SI cards and other SI equipment
- Compasspoint in the UK for all orienteering equipment
- all4o specialist orienteering site – in Latvia
- Some information on buying GPS Equipment.
Orienteering Clothing
- Vavrys.cz http://www.vavrys.cz
- trimtex http://www.trimtex.no/uk
- Noname http://www.nonamesport.com
- Airxtrem http://www.airxtrem.com/airxtrem.asp
Orienteering Shoes
- Inov8 (UK Shoe maker) http://www.inov-8.com
- VJ’s: http://www.vjsport.fi
- Icebug http://www.icebug.se
- Walshes https://www.sportsshoes.com
Compasses
- Silva (Compasses & other) http://www.silva.se/en/
- Sunto https://www.suunto.com/en-ie/Product-search/See-all-compasses/
- Garmin http://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=349
- Polar https://www.polar.com/ie-en/
- https://www.olspecialisten.com/sv/ Stocks Every type of compass that you might need
MTBO Supplies
- Miry (Map board) http://miry.mtbo.cz
- Home made versions? http://www.mintcakemtb.co.uk/bikingarticles/mapboards.html
- MTBO Compass:Both Silva & Moscow have wrist/back of hand models suitable for MTBO
Night-O Supplies
- Slva head torches, batteries and battery carriers can be purchased from Compasspoint. The classic torch has 10W/20W halogen bulbs and a big reflector. They emit approx. 250 lumens with a reasonably broad spread (which is generally a good thing). They also produce LED torches with approx 600 lumens or more but these are very expensive.
- Mila head torches etc. can be purchased from Ultrasport. These are similar to the Silva design and prices. They also produce a 1500 lumen torch – ouch!
- Magicshine LED head torches are a cheaper alternative. Amongst other places, you can get one that is suitable for Night-O from Dealextreme. Dealextreme and others sell accessories that can make the light suitable for MTB and Night-O. The basic model claims to be 900 lumens but is more likely approx 600. It also has a narrower beam pattern than the specialised Night-O torches which can be a disadvantage.
- There are also many lower-power torches available. For example, the Ultrafire LED head torch is available on ebay (example). At approx €25 it is the cheapest torch that gives adequate light for Night-O. It is well worth while having this head torch for general use. It uses AA batteries and produces approx 200 lumens but they only last approx. 1.5 hours on full power. Its beam pattern is quite narrow which is good for sweep searching but gives bad peripheral vision.
Shops
(Irish shops that have Orienteering Gear, by accident or design)
- Amphibian King (Bray Co. Wicklow, Oranmore Co. Galway & Ballymount Co. Dublin)
- 53 degree North (Blanchardstown & Carrickmines Co. Dublin)
- Snow & Rock (Dundrum)
- Great Outdoors (Chaham St., Dublin)
- Patagonia (Wicklow St., Dublin)
- Base Camp (Middle Abbey St., Dublin)
- Harveys
- Wild Side Sports Bandon, Co. Cork
General Supplies
- http://ol-shop.at – sells a version of the Magicshine headtorch and a good headstrap.
- http://www.letro.se General O gear stockist
- http://www.memory-map.co.uk/acatalog/accessories_waterproof_paper.html Waterproof Paper
- Likeys sell gear for adventure racing, hillrunning, mountain marathons and triathlons.
Orienteering Games
- “Catching Features” from www.catchingfeatures.com
- “WinOrient” from www.mirakron.com
- “WinOL” WinOl
- “Oriantica” from Oriantica
- “Lost in the Forest” from www.efd.lth.se/~e96pd/Losteng.html
- “Orienteering at Home” from Orienteering at Home This also has a version for Macs
- MapMemory http://www.innovad.net/mapmemory/ MapMemory is a flashcard memory game that helps you learn map symbols. This program has upbeat music and a cheering section to encourage the user. Well written and fun to play.