Re: [Paddlewise] (Paddlewise) Spray Skirts/PFD's/Dry Tops

This reminds me somewhat of the debate whether jeans should be tucked into
cowboy boots (like Roy Rogers) or left outside like virtually every real
cowboy I've ever known. Unless you want a lot of dirt and... um.... fresh
cow stuff in your boots, wear the jeans over them. So now... on to spray
skirts.

There's a segue for ya...

I wear poly-pro clothing first (Pam... are you paying attention?), then the
drytop (with the dry-bibs if appropriate - thanks to Sue), then the
sprayskirt, then the PFD.

The drytop is not there simply to keep spray off your while you paddle or
just to keep you warm while you set up for a roll; it's there to keep you
safely warmer and dryer if you swim. And to do that it needs to have some
close seal around your body. Now, granted, if you wear clothes under the
drytop then you will have some water entry unless the seal is against bare
skin. But you're going to get a LOT more water entry under that spray skirt
if you bail out of your cockpit.

As far as the instructor telling you to pull the spray skirt up over the
outside the PFD I am at a loss. This would introduce a fair bit of water
down the sprayskirt if you took a wave over your chest. He must've been a
Roy Rogers fan. :)

Craig Jungers
Royal City, WA

PS: Ok, ok... sometimes I just wear jeans and a tee-shirt and no spray-skirt
and my PFD behind my seat. Does that make me ineligible for the "on the
fringe" club?


On 11/17/06, Dave Bishop <bishopd_at_jps.net> wrote:
>
> The recent issue of Canoe & Kayak has reviews of a half-dozen spray skirts
> and
> as I looked at the accompanying pictures of paddlers in their kayaks, I
> noted
> that none of the paddlers were wearing PFD's   I am assuming that was
> because
> the pictures were posed and intended to show the whole spray skirt,
> including
> the features of the tunnels.  The paddlers dry tops were all worn inside
> the
> tunnels of the spray skirt, I assume for the same reason, however, that
> brought some questions to my mind.
>
> My first instructions in what to wear, and how to wear it, while  kayaking
> were to don the spray skirt first, then the dry top with its tight
> waistband
> down over the skirt's tunnel, and then the PFD on top.  This  manner of
> wearing these has always shed spray and splash and rain very nicely and
> kept
> me dry inside.
>
> On a recent tour I was chastised by a professional guide for wearing my
> PFD
> over the spray skirt and instructed to put on the PFD first and pull the
> tunnel of the skirt up outside of it.  We were paddling on very calm water
> on
> a warm day, so in order to keep peace (and with very skeptical second
> thoughts),  I did so, though the pockets in my PFD were covered up.
>
> So, my sea kayak paddling  Paddlewise colleagues,  how do you wear these
> items?  What do you put on first, second, and third?
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