Dry suit vs Wet Suit + Cag

elastik

Am getting a lot more into sea kayaking recently, and am a bit tired of beg borrow and stealing gear when I go out, so I wanted to invest in my own.

I want to get good gear that will be versatile, and last a long time, so I amn't afraid of spending a bit extra for something that's worth it

I'd pretty much discounted drysuits since they seemed so expensive, but I came across the Lomo drysuit, which looks good, and comes in at around the same price as what I'd budgeted, so I'm wondering what peoples opinions are? Is it worth it to splash out on the drysuit, or would the cag and wetsuit combo be better?

Thx!

yomchi

i don't have Lomo dry suit but I know some who do and they tend to fall apart a bit sooner than other recognised brands. Seals and the like tend to go sooner.
I'm a cag and dry bottoms dude myself, just more room for manoooovering

elastik

Yeah, not expecting the quality to be up to the likes of the kokatat or palm ones but I figured that I repair whatever happens until I can afford something better...

Hadn't considered the dry pants option, will give it a look. Thx!

pullandbang

A post I made on another forum last night : -

"Myself and jonnyfisherdude were out in Clogherhead tonight to catch a few macks and we got plenty. I wanted to try out the efficiency of my "dry" gear - namely my chest waders secured with a wading belt and a dry cag. I also wanted to practise re entry into my kayak. So when we finished fishing we loaded all our loose gear back into the cars and headed back out on the kayaks - not too far, just about 15 yards or so - enough to be in deep water where I couldn't reach the bottom.

Anyway, Jonathan didn't feel like getting dunked so it fell to me and I duly ditched sideways into the water. It took all of 10 seconds for my chest and legs to get wet - so much for my "dry" gear! Now the water didn't pour in and my waders didn't fill to put me in danger of being sunk. However, there was enough seepage to give me a good soaking and if the water was cold enough I'd be in serious trouble!

Next trick was to try a re entry. O f course I did everything wrong and flipped the yak over, giving myself a good wallop on the face which could have been disastrous - still waiting for the swelling to go down! I managed to climb up onto the upturned yak fairly easily using the scupper holes as grips so at least I could get out of the water. Next test was to try and right the yak and get back into it. Flipping it back over was handy enough but clambering back in was another job.

At first I tried getting back in from a position where I was upright in the water or basically 90 degrees to the yak. That just didn't work because all I ended up doing was pulling the yak back over on top of me again. You need to have your legs out behind you - like when you were learning to swim in the pool and you held the bars while kicking your legs. From that position, you could fire yourself across the yak, all the time keeping your centre of gravity low, and balance yourself across the kayak. It was then a case of easing your legs in and turning at the same time to get yourself back into a sitting position.

I did this a couple of times and felt confident enough about it at the end of our session. Now don't get me wrong - this was in a very controlled and relatively calm environment. I'd want a lot more practice runs in more hostile situations before I'd be totally comfortable but it was a valuable lesson.

I leant two things from tonights session. First I need a proper dry suit - this half arsed alternative just isn't going to cut it. Second - practice your safety routine as often as you can."

MugMugs

I'd highly rate Typhoon.

I have one years now and no issues with it (albeit a stiff zip) but that's lack of maintenance on my part.

You can generally find one cheap enough and they outlive Lomu by a long shot.