I love duct tape

Duct tape is absolutely one of the most useful products on the planet. Especially for anyone living overseas. After several trips, I have learned never to leave home without it. If you are planning a trip, put it on your must bring list. Here are a few of the ways duct tape has changed my life.

● Duct tape makes a decent waterproof seal for temporary surfboard repair. Its typically advised that if you ding your board, you should get it repaired before getting your board wet, but if the surf is good, it can be a useful temporary fix to keep the water out.

● I tore my sleeping bag while leading a hike in Guatemala and knew that down feathers would leak out for the duration of the hike, thus rendering my bag useless. But a little duct tape over the hole, and the bag still works perfectly.

● The last time I was in South Africa, my nice Nikon camera broke. The film compartment wouldn’t close. I was terribly disheartened, wondering how I would possibly get it fixed. But a 4 inch piece of duct tape brought the camera back to life for a few more years of good picture taking.

● We recently used duct tape to try and catch a cockroach in our kitchen. We hoped that the little bugger would crawl over the tape and get stuck on the sticky side. We even put a cracker in the middle to entice him onto the trap. This didn’t work out as well as the aforementioned examples. In fact, it didn’t catch much except my big toe.

● We recently used duct tape to repair the handle that rolls our window up and down (aka the window-roller-upper-and-downer). Amidst a furious roll, it snapped in two and I thought I was going to have to roll the window with my fingers. But duct tape to the rescue, and the window still rolls up quickly in the rain.

After thinking about it, I realized one major problem with using duct tape. It works so well, that you think you have solved the problem. Almost all of the examples above started out as temporary repairs. But I never got around to really fixing them because the tape worked so well. Our sufboard is still sealed by tape, my sleeping back still has the same piece from 4 years ago, and my camera went through seveal strips of tape until it was finally stolen 3 years later.

So, I guess the moral of the story is dont leave home without duct tape. But once you are home, get your equipment fixed properly or you'll be left with that awful sticky grey residue that duct tape unfortunately leaves behind.

Finally, while I do love the stuff, I think my passion for duct tape pales in comparison to these guys' love for it. Their site is pretty funny, and even uses Napolean Dynamite quotes when you switch between pages.