Manufacturer: Macabi
                       P.O. Box 520944
                       Salt Lake City, UT 84152-0944
                       (801) 588-0424
                       (888) 550-7540 Toll Free
                       sales&macabi.com

Year of Manufacture: 2004 (?)
URL: http://www.macabiskirt.com/
Listed weight: not available
Weight as delivered: 9 1/8 ounces (262 g)

May and June could not have been more different in the Southern California region. The beginning of May saw temperatures soar into the 100s (38 °C), then drop to the low 70s (21°C). June brought our infamous "June Gloom" - cool, overcast mornings and warm, breezy afternoons, with temperatures ranging from 60 - 85 °F (15 - 29°C).

I have had the opportunity to wear the Macabi Skirt® on a handful of day hikes, in addition to three field trips for my Oceanography and General Geology classes at California State University, Los Angeles. Below are some of my observations regarding the Macabi Skirt®.

General Use -

• Los Angeles, California - As a professional geologist and educator, I spend a good deal of time going back and forth between hiking in the sun and teaching indoors. Sometimes both in the same day! While the dress code at CSU Los Angeles' Department of Geological Sciences is rather casual – jeans and a casual shirt are the norm – I find it nice to sometimes wear dress or skirt to work. The Macabi Skirt appeals to me because of its ability to be either a skirt or a pair of pants. I was able to wear the Macabi Skirt® as a skirt to work many times. Several of the students in the Geology department really liked the skirt, and thought that the skirt's ability to convert into pants was really cool (although they did think it looked a bit silly). On a couple of days I had the time to take a brief hike after work and before picking up my daughter at daycare. I was able to convert the skirt into pants, do a (very) brief hike, and head over to pick up my child. I really liked the fact that the Macabi Skirt® could multitask and thus I did not have to bring a separate change of clothing.
  
  
• Tampa, Florida - Actually, the conference took place in a little town just north east of Tampa called Wesley Chapel. I was able to wear the skirt a few days while attending the conference. The conference attire was to be "business" or "business casual", and the Macabi Skirt® was decidedly more "casual" than "business casual". However, the Macabi Skirt® (suitably paired with a nice blouse and pumps) and I must of passed muster as we were allowed to stay. The Macabi Skirt® kept me nice and cool while outside in the hot, humid Florida sunshine, but I was a bit cool in the air-conditioned conference rooms. The deep pockets came in handy - I was able to slip my room key, a pen, a small notepad and a little pouch containing my driver's license and credit card in the pockets without having them bulge out.

Field Trips - In May and June, I took my students out on three field trips: 1) a 4 hour oceanographic cruise in the waters of the San Pedro shelf (outside the Los Angeles Breakwater); 2) an eight hour trip through the San Gabriel Mountains to Palmdale, then Vasquez County Park in Agua Dulce before heading home; and 3) a four hour trip to Cabrillo Beach and Marine Aquarium in San Pedro.

• Oceanographic Cruise (May 16th, 2004) - I was unable to use the skirt on the boat trip as planned due to my own shortsightedness. The Southern California Marine Institute (SCMI) discourages wearing very loose fitting clothing on the cruises for safety reasons - loose clothing might get caught up in the machinery, etc. I knew this, but forgot about that fact when creating the testing program for the Macabi Skirt®.
  
  
• San Gabriel Mountains Field Trip (May 23rd, 2004) - This field trip begins with a tour through the San Gabriel Mountains to view the various igneous and metamorphic rock complexes that comprise the mountains, followed by a trip to Palmdale to see the San Andreas Fault Zone, and ending at the tilted sedimentary rocks of Vasquez County Park. The day started out very cool (60°F / 15 °C) and overcast with some drizzle as we hit the 4000 foot (1200 meter) elevation range. Needless to say, I was COLD in the Macabi Skirt®! This skirt simply wasn't intended to be worn in cool conditions! Perhaps if I had worn thermal underwear beneath the skirt I wouldn't have been so cold, but I wasn't expecting the temperatures to be so cool that day.
  
  When we descended out of the mountains and into the Palmdale/Mojave Desert area, we were greeted with strong wind gusts (my estimation: around 20+ mph / 32 kph). As you might expect, the Macabi Skirt® was whipped about my legs furiously. Converting the skirt into pants helped. However, the wind puffed up the pant "legs" quite a bit and pushed them up my legs. I will point out again that the Macabi Skirt® is NOT intended to be worn in anything but warm to hot temperatures with perhaps a light wind. That said, I was impressed by the skirt's durability. The wind was blowing so strongly at one point that I was concerned that the clips used to convert the skirt into pants might be under too much stress. Careful study of all the seams and clips when I returned home indicated that no damage occurred.
  
  
• Beach Trip (June 6th, 2004) - Cabrillo Beach is the only natural sand beach in Los Angeles County. No sand is trucked in to re-nourish the beach, no bulldozers flatten out the beach for the throngs of people to lie out on, nada. Plus, it's tucked away in a place that not many people visit - near the docks. This makes it a great place to take students to study beach processes. Temperatures were pleasant, about 80 °F / 27 °C, and there was a light breeze. The Macabi Skirt®, while looking a bit out of place amongst the shorts, tank tops, and swimsuits present at the beach, was quite comfortable to wear. I found that converting the skirt into pants was the best way to wear the Macabi Skirt® while at the beach. I was able to sit very comfortably in the sand, scramble over the rocks to the tide pools, and hike through the sand with ease. I was then able to convert the Macabi Skirt® back into a skirt to do the tour of the Aquarium and look somewhat professional while doing so.

In my Initial report, I posed several questions. Below are my comments regarding them.

• Comfort
  
  • Q: Does the skirt fit well?
    A: The Macabi skirt fits very well and is very comfortable to wear.
    
  • Q: How easy is it to convert from a skirt to a pair of pants and back
    again?
    A: Very easy. Reach under the front of the skirt, grab a hold of the clasp, and attach it to the clasp just below the waist. Modest folks might want to find a bit of privacy to do this - nothing is exposed (except your legs) but it does look a bit odd.
    
  • Q: Will the skirt keep me cool in the hot, humid environs of Florida?
    A: Yes and no. I was still hot and sticky from the 90+°F (35+°C) temperatures and in 60 - 75% humidity, but no more so than other lightweight skirts. I was decidedly more comfortable in the Macabi Skirt® than I was in capris or shorts.
    
  • Q: Is the elastic waistband comfortable? Or does it bind?
    A: The elastic waist is snug, but not too tight.
    
• Durability
  • Q: Some of the hiking I do during fieldwork is off-trail so I will
    have ample opportunity to see which is more durable – yucca, rocks or
    the skirt.
    A: I've not yet had the opportunity to test the skirt amongst the yucca or rocks. This will be done in the next couple of months.
    
  • Q: How well does the skirt store in a backpack or daypack? Will it be
    a wrinkled mess or does it truly resist wrinkles as the Macabi website
    claims?
    A: Ah, hear I must disagree with the folks at Macabi. The Macabi Skirt® was packed along with the rest of my clothes for the ~5.5 hour flight from Burbank, CA to Tampa, FL. Out of the five skirts packed, the Macabi Skirt® came out of the suitcase with the worst case of wrinkles. I've also noted that the Macabi Skirt® tends to come out of the dryer more wrinkled than other items as well. Exposure to humid conditions typically gets the wrinkles out.
    
  • Q: How easy is it to clean? Machine washable? Any special care?
    A: So far, the Macabi Skirt® has been washed in my washing machine and dried in the dryer numerous times and has not been adversely affected.
    
  • Q: Typically clothing that is water- and wind-resistant is often not
    very breathable, but the Macabi skirt supposedly breathes well in warm
    weather.
    A: I really didn't get to do any hiking (darn it) while in Florida - most of my time was spent in conference rooms and a few hours of sightseeing. So I really can't say that I adequately tested the Macabi Skirt® in terms of breathability in humid conditions. That said, I can say that the Macabi Skirt® is very light weight and keeps me much cooler than many of my other skirts or shorts.
    
• Other
  
  • Q: Looks – how nice does the skirt look? Will it look silly as a pair
    of pants?
    A: Um. Yes. I do look rather silly when wearing the Macabi Skirt® converted into pants. Or so said my husband (who has a vested interest in saying nice things to me) and my students (who will say anything to improve their grade. Personally, I think I look rather silly, too, but they are fairly comfortable to wear as pants. When converted into pants, the Macabi Skirt® does not wear like normal pants/shorts do - the fabric gathers about the inner thighs a bit. Not truly enough to be annoying, but it does take some getting used to.
    

Thus far I have been impressed by the Macabi Skirt®. It is very comfortable to wear - so long as it is not too cool or too windy - and it multitasks nicely between a casual skirt and a hiking skirt. I only have two complaints: 1) it wrinkles much more than it is supposed to, and 2) it does look rather silly when worn as a pair of pants. However, I'm usually not too concerned with my looks while on the trail!

I plan to wear the Macabi Skirt® in and around town, on trails in the San Gabriel, Santa Monica mountains and possibly the San Joaquin Hills and Santa Ana mountains and selected portions of the Southern California coast. I may possibly go to the Colorado River, Portland, Oregon and southwestern Washington later this summer, too, which will allow for additional testing opportunities. Also, we have one tentative 2-3 day backpacking trip planned for the Sierras in the fall.

Trails in the Southern California mountains are fairly well maintained, and range in difficulty from moderate to very difficult. The trail surface along the coast varies between concrete, sand, or dirt. Weather in Southern California varies greatly with location and season. In general, temperatures can get into the upper 90's (35+ °C) in the summer and continue through the fall.