Over my 24 years of paddling in the Northeast, I have spent from November to April in a drysuit at least two to three times a week on average. Most of this time, I actually owned two suits, one as a back up.  All this time spent paddling, training, and racing sea kayaks(1993-2003), then surfskis(2003 to  present) I have been in Kokatat Drysuits in the various fabrics though predominately Gore Tex. My most memorable suit was a bright yellow suit with a booties, relief zipper, and gaskets on the wrist and neck, skirt, and the heavy front metal zipper. I used that suit for 10 years. I loved that suit. Every few years, I would send it back to Kokatat to have the gaskets replaced. The last time I also had it water tested too. They expertly replaced the gaskets and resealed one of the wear spots to make it water tight again. I gladly paid for this, knowing it would be done right. My other memorable drysuit was one I bought on sale from Eastern Mountain Sports. It was a Women’s large with the drop down seat with the metal zipper. It actually was my best fitting suit since the arms were shorter as well as the legs. I sent it to Kokatat to see if they could take out the drop seat so I could use in a surfski. No problem they said. I used that suit for a few years as my primary suit though it did not have a relief zipper. Growing tired of this, I replaced it with one of Kokatat’s Gore Tex “paddling suits” with a neoprene neck vice a gasket neck which was like Nirvana. I have also tried the Supernova Paddling as well.

My favorite yellow drysuit taken on Sakonnet River.

 

Another Kokatat Paddling Suit taken in 2015 in Jamestown

 

Calm Winter Day on Sakonnet in my drysuit

 

Yet another Drysuit with Sean, Tim, Chris in our Kokatat Suits at Snow Row.

So a few weeks ago, I sent two of my three drysuits to Kokatat for gasket repairs and one to be water tested. Kokatat responded and said one was too worn to be reseamed and the other one was under warranty to my complete surprise. My intention was simply to have both serviced for gasket repair and one for water testing not knowing one was still under warranty but could not be fixed. So they are going to replace the warranty drysuit with a brand new SuperNova Angler Gore Tex Paddling suit. How nice is that. Totally unexpected, but not surprising from a USA company known for their customer service and superb products from Drysuits to PFD’s(I have two Orbits I use for racing in hot weather) along with their Tempest Pants with Socks for my spring and fall paddling.

Kokatat is synonymous with wonderful customer service that I have personally experienced for 25 years. I have throughly enjoyed all my products from Kokatat and am thankful they enabled me to enjoy my winter training by keeping me warm and dry and conversely keeping my cool with the coolest PFD on the market for surfski racing.

Kokatat Orbit in 2007 in one of my Mako 6’s practicing my remounts. I still use this pfd 10 years later in hot summer races!