The Trakker brand has been at the forefront of bivvy design for the last decade, on any given fishery, at least 50% of all the shelters which line the banks are made by them! There has to be something in that!
I have owned a Tempest Brolly now for over 2 years, and in that time it has come under a fair amount of abuse! I use the Brolly for my overnight fishing, which through the summer can be up to 3 nights a week. Therefore it is put up and taken down a hell of a lot, often in a rush and covered in condensation! So it is fair to say, I have given it a thorough testing over this period.
I have been incredibly impressed with how it has performed over this time, considering the price point of the shelter, I honestly wasn’t expecting it to perform as it has, however I have been pleasantly surprised. The first point, which is one of the reasons I chose the shelter in the first place is how quick it is to set up! It takes less than two minutes, and that is if you want to put all the pegs in, which to be honest isn’t necessary, the Brolly is stable enough to cope without the need for pegs in every slot. Inside the Brolly you are treated to a huge space, plenty big enough to take even a wide bedchair, all your luggage and bait. Thanks to the shape of the Shelter, your bedchair can be pushed right to the back, which means even if the wind suddenly turns and you are faced with driving head on rain, you can still escape getting wet. Personally I have never used the tension strap which comes with the Brolly, as I find it a little too tall, however thanks to the design, it allows you to set the height of the Shelter yourself. I find keeping the System as low as possible just gives you that extra bit of security, meaning if the weather changes in the middle of the night you won’t find yourself out in the rain trying to lower it!
Despite my abuse, the material of the Brolly has held up well, and so far has no holes and has shown no signs of leaking as yet. The seams are well sealed throughout so unless I catch the material on something then I doubt it will let me down any time soon. One thing which is slight niggle of mine, is the poles themselves, this has only happened over the last 6 months of use, whereby they tend to twist. A simple rivet system would stop this from happening and I believe make the Brolly last even longer than it already has! However this minor point certainly doesn’t detract from what is undoubtedly the best short session shelter I have ever owned, which will hopefully keep me going a little longer still.
