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<p style=”text-align: left;”>As tax season draws closer I’m expecting a sudden increase in funds. I’ve decided it’s finally time to stop putting off buying a important piece of gear.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>What features have you all found to be benificial for whitewater kayaking? Example: rear entry zipper vs over the shoulder zipper, socks, cuffs on sleeves, suspenders, relieve zipper (duh)</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I’ve already decided to go with Kokatat due to the amazing warrantee their product carries. That’s about as far as I’ve got in the decision making process.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.</p> -
A tunnel for your sprayskirt will help to keep water out of the boat. If you’re getting picky about it, brighter colors are safer and come out nicer in photos. I like my dry suit socks, even though they’re leaky after tons of neglect. You can wear a neoprene (or whatever material) sock on the outside of them to prevent sand rubbing between your shoe and the drysuit sock (which creates leaks). I’m going to be in the market soon too! Let us know what you get and what you think of it.
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I love my kokatat dry suit with relief zipper and front zip, the over the sholder zipper SUCKS IMO! I’ve had mine for 2 seasons now after figuring out ur underlayers are ur most important gear thanks to crazy jerry, ive had no issues with feeling wet! WICKING everything wicking underlayers, A person doesn’t realize how much they sweat in their dry suit, you feel like your dry suit isn’t dry and has leaks! But it’s not it’s your body producing sweat in return collects inside! Anyways back to the drysuit kokatat dry suit all the way man ull love it ICY COLD WATERS are no match for the suit! Make sure u get the gortex socks and not the other option and the extra abrasive options in the rear and elbows.
I chose to go through newyork kayak company since I had no idea about drysuits, when I first started paddling. they have super quick shipping, U can have have them specially design it for ur liking and size, just call them up and ask to speak to vince. he was super awesome in helping me find the right suit for me! http://nykayak.com
Tell vince I sent you there! if you do decide to get ur suit through them. he should hook u up he did me, I got extra goodies for same price. Hope this helps ya decide. -
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I have a rear entry IR suit. Works fine for everything I’ve done so far.
Only bought it because it was a good deal on used suit.
Previous owner convinced me that you wouldn’t ever be kayaking alone when you need to use a drysuit, so I agreed and bought it. Luckily, I’ve always been able to find a buddy who would help me out and zip it.
It’s great that everything is out of the way once your in it, but if you ever need to open / close it by yourself, it’s very difficult. The rear entry does allow the spray skirt tunnel to work better (IMO). And if you have rear entry, you must get relief zipper, although I would highly recommend it for any drysuit.
+1 for built in booties rather than ankle gaskets.
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Jason, I once saw a guy at the Tellico put in who used an ancra strap and a biner small enough to run through the zipper pull and still go over the strap. Worked every time for him, on or off, just having it binered to his zipper just before and putting the strap around a tree.
For the rest of the topic, I will never get a drysuit without a skirt tunnel, a relief zipper (or drop panel for women), or gore-tex socks again. They are just that important if you go to the expense of a drysuit at all.
Kokotat has the best customer service I have seen in just about any paddlesports company, except maybe Snapdragon. That means a bunch when things go wrong. They also have a great product, except maybe that their latex gaskets are thinner and require more care than others.
The driest drysuit I have every used was Sweet Protection, but the out of the country factor has made customer service difficult and often unapproachable. IR comes and goes as far as quality of materials and workmanship, but I believe they are on an upswing now. Stohlquist is now out of my list of choices now, for reasons I should not post.
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