Melbourne is a city with very strong wind. Weather can be quite challenging here, for we are famous with “four seasons in one day” reputation. This is somewhat true. We could have a really cold morning with showers, really hot noon with UV index above 10, then followed with hail in the evening. I had experienced that, multiple times. And so I learned my lesson to always carry an umbrella, even if weather forecast says sunny with 10% chance of rain. Compact umbrella is something I always need in my bag.
For many years, my compact umbrellas are always bought from Japan. My wife and I found compact umbrella that we really liked in Kyoto train station. We bought a lot. After that, every time we have a friend going to Kyoto, we always asked them to buy more of these umbrellas for us. These umbrellas are nice because they are very lightweight, with reasonable strength compared to cheap Australian umbrellas twice the weight. This “reasonable” strength is probably enough for many other cities on the planet, but certainly not for surviving Melbourne.
After many struggles with windy rain and broken umbrellas, I decided it’s time to get a really strong umbrella. So I did my research and found Davek and Blunt as my candidates. Blunt makes good umbrella with unique design, but they don’t offer a model portable enough for my small-sized everyday bags. So I got myself Davek NY umbrella.
There are 7 different models of Davek New York umbrellas: Solo (the standard one), Traveler (smaller size marketed for portability), Duet (larger size for 2 persons), Elite (full sized with cane), Golf (marketed for sport with duplex frame and anchor spike), Mini (smallest model) and Savile (most expensive model with premium stuffs). I bought Davek Traveler and Mini in a combo pack.
The Traveler model has one push button to open the umbrella just like the Solo model. Mini model has to be opened manually. Traveler has 35″ straight diametre, Mini has 34″. For such a small difference, Mini comes in much smaller form factor when fully folded, and significantly lighter, too.
My Davek Traveler has proven itself to survive at least 5 Melbourne rain with annoying wind. If only this umbrella is not so heavy and bulky when folded, this could easily become my favourite umbrella ever. Sadly, the weight and bulk become more and more of a burden. I get tempted to leave the umbrella on some days trying to avoid the weight, and ended up wet in some sudden showers typical of Melbourne.
Davek Mini started as my backup umbrella, then lately became my main umbrella thanks to its amazing portability. This umbrella fits even in my smallest bag, and I can easily put it in my jacket’s pocket when I need to step out of work to get lunch. Mini is probably not as strong as Traveler, but it is still much stronger than my old super lightweight umbrellas from Japan, or any “ordinary” umbrellas I can buy from normal stores here.
As added value, Davek umbrellas offer unconditional lifetime guarantee and loss protection program. With lost protection program, every Davek umbrella comes with special code printed on the tag label. We keep the tag label with the code safe at home. If someday we lost our umbrella, we can get a new one from Davek with significant discount using these special codes.
Very happy with my Davek NY Mini so far. Will probably get more to put in the car and other bags.
Melbourne’s unpredictable weather calls for a reliable umbrella, and the Davek New York umbrellas, particularly the Traveler and Mini models, have proven to be sturdy options. The Traveler handles Melbourne’s windy rain well, but its weight and bulk can be a drawback. On the other hand, the Mini is impressively portable and still offers decent strength. The added lifetime guarantee and loss protection program make Davek umbrellas a practical choice for the ever-changing Melbourne weather.