I am a pen fanatic. Sounds weird, I know, but over the years I’ve used so many crappy pens that I now am pretty
finicky about what I take with me. If you rifle through my pockets on any particular day (hey! stop that!), you can
usually find at least one (often more than one) Uni-ball Micro, black.
But now I have another favorite. I just got my hands on an Inka
Pen, a real outdoorsman’s pen.
The Inka pen in the brainchild of Greg Adelman, an optical engineer, who came up with the idea for a new kind of
outdoor writing instrument while doing field work for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, where he
helped oceanographers design instruments for oceanic research.
In the course of his work, he discovered there was a real niche for a pen that could hold up under extreme
conditions. Most pens (even my beloved Uni-balls) don’t handle wet, windy conditions, and so Adelman began to think
about creating a pen that you could take anywhere. The result is the Inka pen, which uses a pressurized ink cartridge
that writes in heat, cold, upside down, at high altitudes and under water.
It is great. I keep it now right on my keychain, and even went paddling with it recently. The
uniqueness of the pen stems from its non-corrosive casing, complete with a watertight seal built to withstand harsh
environments. The pen folds up nicely, halving its size when it’s not in use. And it’s ridiculously light, weighing in
at a mere 0.6 ounce.
Completely weaning me from my Uni-balls is probably impossible, but I now take the Inka wherever I go.