packrafting rain jacket

[Dan Geiger]

Looking for some recommendations for a jacket that can be used for Paddling and also as a good rain jacket.

[David Chenault]

Kokatat and other companies make several permutations at points along the line between a conventional rain jacket and a dry top. Some have latex cuffs, a neck gasket, and a tunnel waist to interface with dry pants. Some just have neo cuffs. All the ones I've seen add enough bulk, weight and expense that I've not seen the need to invest in one over my normal rain coat.

Conventional rain coats with thumb loops do a fair bit to keep splashes from running down your sleeves.

[Charles P]

If water running down your sleeves is the issue, you could sew up some neoprene "tubes", or 8" long wrist bands, that you could use to externally seal your jacket at the wrists. Hope that makes sense. You could do something similar with latex too. There used to be a Scandinavian company that made these, though its not an idea that ever got much traction.

[Dan Geiger]

In the end I found a very good deal on a Westcomb switch neoshell .It has some stretch and seems to be quite durable It will have to do.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I sewed some neoprene 'wrist gators' into my rain jacket. Easy to do when your jacket is old and on the brink of being replaced anyways. The elastic wrists were poor performers, so I added velcro enclosures to the wrists and then later added the wrist gators.

SPECS
Neoprene: 1mm neoprene (QuestOutfitters.com)
Dimensions: 8.5" circ. (9 x 5" piece of neoprene with 1/2" overlap).
Thumb hole: 2.25" slit that's 1/2" back from the end.
Weight: 17g / 0.6oz

Just the gators should help a lot for summer use where warm gloves aren't needed.

Shoulder season setup adds DeFeet Durawool gloves (shown) and MEC Cloudraker WPB mitt shells (not shown).

[Author]

Posts