8 Tips for Choosing a Drysuit for Kayaking - Kayak Hipster

where I am temperatures are dropping so it's almost dry suit weather with that here's a video with eight tips of what to look for an atrocity if you've never paddled in cold weather before I highly recommend researching about it I put together a video with a bunch of risks and tips to help paddle safely in cold weather I think it's a matter of preference when to start wearing the dry suit however I think once the water gets cold enough I think they're an absolute requirement in order to paddle safely I was recently discussing this topic with my buddy Chris and he shared with me his list of requirements for a dry suit and I think it's very much very similar to the things that I look for in a dry suit so the first thing you should think about is if you want to go for a full dry suit or a semi dry suit semi-dry suits are becoming more and more popular lately because they are indeed a little more comfortable a full dry suit comes with a latex neck gasket while a semi dry suit comes with a neoprene neck gasket the main reason between the two is comfort versus dryness latex gaskets make a very good seal around your neck and that way you stay dry if you're rolling tumbling around the water or swimming for some people wearing dead latex gasket around the neck all day can really become uncomfortable so you have a semi dry option which is the neoprene gasket that gasket does not seal as well around your neck but it's way way more comfortable to wear all day so if you were to take a tumble if you were to be upside-down a little bit of water would get in you would still be safe but you would not be anywhere strides it would be asset latex gaskets so for example someone that's probably gonna be surfing or is gonna be playing in rough water would want a full dry suit versus someone that's just taking leisurely paddles and paddling all day and only needs it has a level of safety if they were to take a capsize can't easily get away with having a semi dry suit instead and that will also influence price because usually a full dry suit will be a little bit more expensive than a semi dry suit now the second thing to look for is what type of zipper setup you want and that is how you will be getting into the dry suit the most common one is a zipper that goes across the chest you get into it you put one hand put the other hand on the head and then you zip across your chest this is my first dry suit it's quite old and you can tell it has a zipper that goes across the chest and it also is in metal a lot of companies are not opting for plastic zippers which makes it a little bit easier to open and close but if you keep your metal zipper well-maintained it'll still be easy to use now there's several other options out there there are zippers that go across the back there's a new one that allows for just a head gasket as a unit to come down and remain tucked away in the chest and there's a new one by Coco Tot that's essentially a dry top and a dry bottom that is joined at the waist with a zipper now I've had friends that have gotten back zippers and then change them for front zippers I had friends have tried the way zipper and then opted to go for the back one instead so it comes down to preference so if you get to chance before you buy one go to a kayak store try one on move around grab a PFD while you're at the store put it on and see what it's like to have a zipper either on your back or on your waist on your chest see what you think might be more comfortable now the third thing to look for are what types of booties come with the dry suit there are dry suits that don't come with booties at all they just have latex gaskets around your ankle but most risers will come with fabric booties or latex booties my old dry suit has latex booties which were very easy to fix if anything happened to them but they were a pain in the butt to get into my neoprene booties or shoes or anything else I was wearing on top of the dry suit on the other hand companies are using fabric booties a lot more often so that's something to look for Nestle to listen very important because also this influence is the price quite a bit and that is if nature calls and you have to go will you have a really tipper or not we'll use this for a very short amount of time or will you be touring all day with them for women there are two different options you could have the front leave zipper where you can use something else to help you go to the bathroom through the front or they have dropped zippers that go behind the back so that you can easily drop that back and then use it now I know that some people prefer one versus the other because it is easier to use the back zipper however that could get in the way depending on how you sit on your seat or what type of seat you might have forget all the other options a relief zipper in my opinion is extremely valuable to have in your dry suit now the next one I think is important because even though it'll influence price a bit some of them can help with the longevity of the suit and some will just be more useful than others and that is cuffs zipper covers tunnels and hoods sunlight will deteriorate latex gaskets over time so most companies will put in a neoprene cuff on top of that the neoprene cuffs will also help them in punctures or anything that might damage them as well and you will find that pretty much over all of your guests now there are dry suits and semi-dry suits that are cheaper because they don't have these cuffs but I would recommend making sure you have discussed so that they last for a long time as well as protection you don't want anything that might actually scrape up right against something that is the most important part of your dry suit working another thing to add is sunscreen also damages latex gaskets over time so you just have to be conscious of that when you apply next the zipper covers the zippers are just as important as the gaskets in functioning correctly and keeping the dry suit dry so a lot of companies will use covers that then go down with Velcro to stay in place there's another feature that can drive the price slightly up on your dry suit but over time I think it's something that could be helpful and keeping those zippers functioning properly tunnels are very useful and keeping water out of your kayak most dry tops will come with tunnels as well so dry suits that come with tunnels are very useful for that reason you pulled the tunnel up you slide your skirt as high as it'll go you put the tunnel on top of it velcro have gone into place now you have an extra layer on top of the skirt that's gonna try to help keep water from going between your body and the skirt into the car lastly some dry suits come with hoods some dry suits like my old one come with a detachable zippered hood so that you can use it once in a while and take it off when you don't need it so once again all of these items I think will come into play depending on the type of pedaling you're gonna be doing and personal preference if you're gonna be taking a short leisurely paddle and in the calm place and you just want a dry suit because you know the water is cold so you want to us a level of safety I see absolutely no problem and using a semi dry suit without booties with exposed cuffs with exposes if burrs it doesn't make a difference because you're just using for that however if you're gonna be doing other things you might want to have some of these options because it'll probably make the dry suit last longer another thing to think about it's a type of material and the thickness of the material and this will also make price vary quite a bit and you'll have the top top dry suits that come with gore-tex materials that are extremely breathable but very very waterproof and you can maintain them as well and then you'll have more affordable versions as you go down the line most will come with reinforcements at the knees at the elbows at the butt and then if I save you're a whitewater paddler some will come with extra reinforcements and very thick fabric in those particular places because there is a chance those are gonna get scraped some house so it would be good to get a dry suit very specific to the type of paddling you do let's say you're paddling long adventures weeks two weeks out on the water you're probably gonna want one of the better dry suits and if you're taking these really paddles well the lower level also might be absolutely perfect for the type of paddling you do now the main question I get all the time when I talk about dry suits is price I don't have a thousand dollars to spend on a dry suit can I get them somewhere else the answer is yes there are closeout sails lots of stores depending on the time of season will put a lot of their stuff on sale at different prices and you can always get a great deal my very first dry suit which was absolutely fantastic I got it a closeout sale and I got it about 60% off of the price you could also buy them use but you have to be very careful about that because this is something technically that you are using to protect your life in the event of a capsize in really cold water there are places online like kayak Academy and there are kayak stores that will sell used dry suits that have just been fixed and tested by them so that's one way of going finding a used dry suit that is still safe to use another thing you can do is if you go and places like eBay you can find sometimes people buy a dry suit they think they're gonna use it two years go by they've used them twice and then they want to put them back on the market so in that case the dry sigmah be perfect but it still would be a good idea for you to test it when you get it depending on the brand some brands will actually fix leaks and gaskets for you and send them back after testing others will let you send them in and then for a small price will actually maintain the dry suit and send it back to you but between buying used in a smart way or finding a closeout sale you can certainly find deals on great dry suits for a lot less money so the last thing I'll are to say is no matter what if you get a used or not test it so put on pajamas put on long sleeves fill up your tub get in there with your dry suit and then take the dry suit out and see if there's any parts of your body that are wet it's very important that you test it ahead of time so a lot of times people will do the bathtub trick or they'll take them to pool sessions put on the dry suit get in the water and see what it's like what's good about wearing long clothes underneath is that oftentimes you're able to see where the leak is coming from because you'll see where you're wet on your body if you're not wearing anything ill be a lot harder to pinpoint so that's only testing to see if the dry suit is keeping you dry what I'm saying is also test what it's like to be in cold water situations with your dry suit because remember the dry suit doesn't keep you warm it only keeps you dry so you need to layer appropriately underneath so put on your layers put on the dry suit and walk into the water before you go kayaking and see what it's like to hang out for let's say a couple of minutes see what it feels like are you layered appropriately you don't want the first time to test if you're dressed appropriately to be the one time you capsize so that's a tip that I think can be helpful looking for a dry suit please if you have anything to add don't hesitate to comment below or if you want to discuss anything further if you have any questions please just comment below I hope that was helpful please subscribe if you'd like I'm always trying to put these videos out or if you have any other topics you want to discuss I so we slipped norica I kept staring q for joining me see you next time [Music] [Music]

Channel: Kayak Hipster

Views: 51,558

Rating: 4.9541669 out of 5

Keywords: kayak, sea kayak, kayaking, sea kayaking, winter kayak, winter paddling, kayak hipster, kayakhipster, drysuit vs semi drysuit, cold temperature kayak, cold water paddling, cold water kayak, cold water gear kayak, sea kayak cold, cold canoe, drysuit tips, gearlab paddle, nrs drysuit, kokatat drysuit

Id: lFzrbNiHqSw

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 06 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/KayakHipster]

I was recently asked to put together some tips for getting a drysuit, and I had a really great conversation with u/myatariisbusted on things we look for, so I have this list of 8 things to go into detail with thoughts and experiences on each.

1. Drysuit vs Semi drysuit
2. Zipper position / entry
3. Booties
4. Relief zippers
5. Cuffs / zipper covers / hoods / tunnels
6. Materials / thickness
7. Sales / buying used
8. Test it!!!

It also sparked interesting discussions in the comments, so I thought it could be helpful and start some similar conversations in this sub - especially since a big part of our community is in the northern hemisphere and temps are certainly dropping for us.

Cheers!

Disclaimer - vid has ads

[u/slackshack]

Just buy a kokatat and call it done. Have been using the same gmer suit since 2005. Nice write up.

[u/matttherat2003]

Great video, you have another sub.