CamelBak® is Born Almost 20 years ago on the scorching-hot west Texas plains of Wichita Falls, a former paramedic and novice cyclist, Michael Eidson participated in his first Hotter 'N Hell Hundred bicycle race. Texas, like Australia is famous for its heat, where temperatures during the hundred mile race can soar above 35°C and water stops are 2 or 3 hours apart. Michael started well back in the pack of the 1000 riders and quickly learned that reaching for a water bottle mounted on his bike frame was potentially dangerous. "I kept bumping into people, so I was thinking, there's got to be a better way to get a drink," he said. After the race, he returned home and began toying with materials familiar to him from nine years as a paramedic. He attached medical tubing to an I.V. bag, stuffed the bag into a sock, and sewed the sock onto the back of a T-shirt. One ride with the contraption sold him on the idea, which he dubbed the CamelBak for its hump-like shape on a cyclist's back. Today, CamelBak's headquarters are located north of San Francisco, California in a small town called Petaluma (it's the same town that George Lucas shot the film American Graffiti) and have gradually expanded to have over 100 staff that support three distinct Camelbak product areas: Recreational - Military & Law Enforcement - Industrial And a distribution network that now covers the entire globe. CamelBak In Australia. Our parent company “Off Road Imports Pty Ltd” was a business built up over 10 years concentrating on providing off road motorcycle riders products to the Australian market. From a small product review of a Camelbak published in an American motorcycle title, a contact was made with the Texas based company “Fastrak Systems” and in September 1990 Off Road Imports was appointed the Australian based distributor for Camelbak. Some 15 years later the Camelbak brand has become recognised right across our dry parched continent. So much so, that as a stand alone business, - “Hydration Systems Australia” distributes to over 1300 outlets Australia wide. Not Just For Cycling Anymore Just as in the US the first CamelBak products proved to be very popular among mountain bikers and motocross riders in Australia. Slowly the product began to cross over into other sports when scientific studies showed athletes drank more fluids and performed better when they wore a CamelBak hydration system. Today you will see people in all sorts of sports and activities using CamelBak hydration systems for their convenience and performance benefits. In addition to cycling, CamelBak has Hands-Free Hydration™ systems for hiking, backpacking, running, snowboarding and skiing to name but a few. CamelBak systems have been to the top of Everest and K2 – it's considered standard fare in most 8,000-meter summit suits. You can even see Camelbaks being used by some of Australia's top touring car teams to hydratate their drivers, including Kmart Racing who have won Bathurst V8 titles (2003 & 2004) . CamelBak products also now have widespread use amongst military and law enforcement departments in Australia, with just about every facet of these two communities across the nation taking advantage of the huge range at their disposal.
Future Out Look Looking forward we will continue to develop, with Camelbak, products that best fit the needs of the different user groups in Australia. In particular we see the growth in specialised women's products, another area where CamelBak have led the market, not by using soft colours or trying to adapt a pack from the existing line, but by making packs that fit women as another step forward. From the humble beginning of the first Camelbak sewn into a t-shirt we now have over 70 different systems in 120 colour finishes - one to suit almost every situation. | 
