Global Expedition Vehicles (GXV), a Missouri based manufacturing company of extreme off road Expedition Vehicles, announces the addition of the UXV-550 to their line-up.

The UXV-550 is built on the Ford F-550 4X4 chassis.  Mounted on the Ford chassis is a severe duty expedition camper body, available in two lengths and three widths, which is a U.S. industry first.

GXV reluctantly uses the name “camper” because what they build is structurally capable and ready for extreme off-road use.  Campers, as the public knows them, are built for asphalt or certainly less then extreme conditions.   This new vehicle is also built for sustained adventures away from civilization. 

The UXV has industry leading fuel and water capacities, allowing for month long trips away from cell towers and power lines.

Aquapac is delighted to name Sarah Outen, ocean rower and campaigner for youth and the environment, as the Aquapac Outdoor Champion of 2011. With the title comes a cash award of £1000 (US$1500 approx) in recognition of Sarah's achievements and future endeavours. They caught up with Sarah preparing for her next expedition, and managed to ask a few questions:

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Aquapac: You're best known for your mammoth row across the Indian Ocean. Tell us a little about that trip.

Sarah: My row across the Indian Ocean last year was the most incredible experience of my life. I rowed solo from Australia to Mauritius - and four months alone on the ocean certainly gives you some interesting perspectives on life. It also gave me a beautiful opportunity to be at one with nature. The journey was the culmination of a three year trek through grief after my father died in 2006, so finishing was very special - I had survived the ocean but also the storms of grief.

Aquapac: How did you get into rowing? Have you always been an outdoor adventurer?

© Sarah Outen

Aquapac is delighted to name Roz Savage, ocean rower and environmental campaigner, as the Aquapac Outdoor Champion of 2010. With the title comes a cash award of $1,500 in recognition of Roz's achievements. Aquapac caught up with Roz as she travelled between Copenhagen and California, and managed to ask a few questions and we here at The Lowdown are happy enough to be able to relay the interview for our readers

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Aquapac: You're best known for your epic rowing voyages across the world's great oceans. Tell us first about your Atlantic row.

Roz: At the age of 37 I set out to row solo across the Atlantic - a distance of 3,000 miles. I'd rowed before, at college, which was enough to give me the happy delusion that rowing across an ocean was something I was vaguely qualified to do. But of course rowing on the River Thames and rowing across the Atlantic are wildly different propositions!

Roz: All four of my oars broke - before halfway - as did my camping stove, stereo, and cockpit navigation instruments. A month before the end, my satellite phone also broke, severing all communications with shore. Everyone - including me - was vastly relieved when I rolled into Antigua considerably thinner and more weather-beaten, but hopefully also a bit wiser, than when I'd set out from the Canaries 103 days before.

Aquapac: Sounds like quite a baptism of fire. Have you always been such an adventurous person?

Roz: Don't tell anybody, but I'm really not adventurous or 'outdoorsy' by nature. I'm perfectly comfortable sitting in a nice warm house. But I'm so glad I've chosen this outdoor, adventurous lifestyle. It has definitely forced me to become a stronger, more fulfilled person. Nature has taught me so much - particularly that humans are still a part of nature, no matter how much we might think we are in charge. There is nothing like 20-foot waves and a gale-force wind to remind me who is really running the show.

On December 9 in Clewiston, Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) heard testimony before moving forward with its draft rule revising the way the state determines and protects state "threatened" species.

Conservation groups including Audubon, Defenders of Wildlife, Save the Manatee Club and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida testified that the rule is getting close, but some problematic last-minute concessions to development and recreational interests threaten the rule's carefully crafted compromises. In particular, some of these problematic provisions include:

* Delisting data deficient species after five years regardless of their data deficient status,

* Setting permitting standards for incidental take in management plans without a minimum standard in rule, and

* Declaring it is not the rule's intent to limit hunting, fishing or other recreational uses even when they result in annoyance or disturbance of threatened species.

This last provision is perhaps the most troubling because these are all activities the FWC must have the latitude to influence in order to recover disturbance-prone species like nesting and migrating birds. Audubon and others continue to work to improve this language.

FWC will consider stakeholder comments received this week in its next version of the rule, but will also hold at least one stakeholder meeting in January to try to resolve the controversy around these provisions and others. Comments from the public can be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .