As my yaks are wetish rides my back will get wet, hence any waterproof jacket needs to be long enough that it doesn't ride up at the back as i move around in the seat as it will drip down the back of the pants over time. The lovig pants were worse, kokotats not as bad.

Trial and error will help you work out the solutions to most of your questions.

Sorry to resurect an old topic but someone suggested blowing up a PFD by mouth every two months to ensure it won't go down overnight.
Blowing up by mouth introduces moisture which will ultimately cause the bladder to stick together, by all means inflate with the mouthpiece but use a pump.
We check ours every six months and weigh the cylinders, the weight of each cylinder is stamped on it and we allow a tolerance of 1 gram to allow for innacuracies with our/their scales.
To date we have not had any cylinder leakages but we don't take it for granted that it can't happen, we also note all the checks of these tests in a log book that we carry for when the water police conduct random checks, and they do quite regularly especially during the holiday seasons on the Gippsland Lakes.

I'm almost against Inflatable pfd's as if they don't inflate, your wearing nothing more than a strap..

I bought a kayak pfd first off and it's so comfy I never know I'm even wearing it. Plus it can not ever fail due to no gas, or an unconscious person who's unable to pull a chord.

Just my thoughts on pfds and their intention vs comfort level

I use an ultra trek pfd and it's really good. I'd consider an inflatable one for a boat where you move around a bit but for the kayak the foam one is great.

We have 4 inflatable PFD's on the yacht, they are good as you can trim the sails and look up without a collar in the way and as we are always moving around there is less to hang up on.
Did try an automatic unit but they do go off if you inadvertently go for a swim or get a substantial splash when crashing through a wave, we use the RFD units with a bit of bias as I did some R&D with them some years ago for a fishermans PFD3 but they do a good range of PFD's, they choose to epoxy the seams as they found that welding causes a structural breakdown after a time.
My yak pfd is a MTI Calcutta.

I use the stormrider lite inflatable PFD.
It is relatively heavy for use on the yak compared to the foam PFDs but is good in winter as it doubles as a warm waterproof jacket and in combination with Lovig drypants I stay warm & dry.

laneends wrote:As my yaks are wetish rides my back will get wet, hence any waterproof jacket needs to be long enough that it doesn't ride up at the back as i move around in the seat as it will drip down the back of the pants over time. The lovig pants were worse, kokotats not as bad.

Trial and error will help you work out the solutions to most of your questions.

Yep, the original Lovig pants have an unsealed seam where the neoprene meets the fabric, which was usually responsible for leakage in that area and yep, the wetter ride models were more likely to expose that. Less of a problem in Vantage seat models obviously. The newer version of the pants has a sealed seam in that area which appears to have helped dramatically. The fabric is a bit lighter to (more like the Kokatats) and the DWR lasts longer as well:
https://slhobie.com.au/gear/kayak-acces ... hing-pants

Yakass wrote:Yep, the original Lovig pants have an unsealed seam where the neoprene meets the fabric, which was usually responsible for leakage in that area and yep, the wetter ride models were more likely to expose that.

now that doesn't surprise me - my lovig pants have always left me with a wet arse right from new

cheaterparts wrote:

Yakass wrote:Yep, the original Lovig pants have an unsealed seam where the neoprene meets the fabric, which was usually responsible for leakage in that area and yep, the wetter ride models were more likely to expose that.

now that doesn't surprise me - my lovig pants have always left me with a wet arse right from new

You are always going to get sweaty in them anyway if travel in any distance, especially paddling. I notice a big difference if I paddle vs Pedalling in the same seat.