length (not width/tighness) of neck seal

Hi everyone. I’m a relatively new paddler and I’ve been looking for a semi dry cag for winter paddling here in the UK. I went to one of the few shops and got a lot of help looking and tried a couple on. The one I liked best was a female cut semi dry cag and had a rolled/stitched neoprene neck seal and I didn’t like that feeling. I also tried on a small Men’s (Yak Galaxy I think) and it fit perfectly and the neck was comfortable - tight but not gagging me -EXCEPT that it seemed extremely long.I pulled it all the way up to the base of my jaw in front/sides and hairline in the back and it rolled up so much across the neoprene/fabric join! If it rained, I could paddle around with a small moat around my head and if it froze I could have my very own ice doughnut. I am not sure if they are SUPPOSED to fit that way or if the neck is just long for me. It didn’t really seem like the staff member thought it fit terribly well - unless I really yanked the waist belt down to where it couldn’t possibly be if I was paddling.



Are women’s regular neoprene neck seals shorter than mens neck seals and/or is the torso usually shorter so that I could get away with tugging it? I’d worry a bit about cutting it shorter - it was bearably tight and if I cut it, it would loosen. (I did fold it over about an inch, and then it was fine). They didn’t have sufficient women specific stock for me to test the theory and it’s hard to find shops where I can try them on.



I’d really appreciate any thoughts! As I’m doing a coached weekly group and we are still all sub several months paddling we’re constantly doing very wet drills and I’m getting too cold too fast. I wanted to go out to this shop and buy a semi dry cag and some dry trousers but left empty handed :frowning:



Thank you so much!

“Dry” trousers and neck gaskets

– Last Updated: Oct-05-14 8:10 AM EST –

On the first, if you take a swim there is no such thing. Water will come in the waist. There is one multiple part system out there, used to be available from Kokatat, that people said kept them pretty dry. But it is near as pricey as a dry suit and takes more time to get into a sealed up well. The one piece systems with booties are your best shot.

I suppose there could be a length issue, but I am not a big person and I wear unisex sizes without being bothered by neck length. But I also have a very long neck.

If you can fix the issue by rolling the neck I wouldn't rule that out as an option. FWIW, the cold water divers that came up to Albany some years ago to retrieve bodies from a capsized cargo ship in the depth of winter always did so with their neck gaskets rolled, on purpose. They felt it worked more reliably to keep them dry.

I'd focus more on exactly how dry the stuff you considering will be in a real swim since you are working into colder weather.

you can trim some neck gaskets
Here’s a quick video:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtgWZli6SI



I believe kokatat has concentric rings you can trim along, one at a time. Be careful though, if the gasket has a taper to it, you can enlarge the opening by trimming it.



If you do a search in this or the Advice forum for “trimming neck gaskets” you can find some discussion on the topic.

latex are long
I have a Kokatat dry suit (much more popular here in the States than in Europe) and the neck gasket is long. I can pull it up to my chin, and even for fun, pull it over my mouth and breath in through my nose and out with my mouth until the dry suit is totally puffed up like the Michelin man.



But you don’t need to pull the gasket up, and can even slide it down if it is more comfortable for you. I push mine down so it is below the neoprene cover over the gasket (as sun does damage latex). So ling gasket is not an issue.



A prior posted mentioned about trimming the gasket, and that is true. But keep in mind that the gasket gets wider the closer to the garment. So if you trim it, along with shortening the length, you will also be making the opening larger.



Interesting you prefer latex over neoprene gaskets. I have the Kokatat dry suit, Kokatat paddle jacket with neoprene neck and latex wrists, and an old Palm also with neoprene neck/latex wrists. The neoprene neck is so much more comfortable for me. Enough so that I have considered switching my latex gasket dry suit to Neoprene.

And by the way…
a subsequent post gave me a V8 moment.

The gasket only has to be tightly sealed at the narrowest point where it intersects your neck. The rest of it can be loose, it is irrelevant.



My personal experience is that no neoprene gasket will seal correctly around “swanlike” neck. Perhaps a thicker neck… but in any case the OPer seems to be focusing on neo gaskets. Hence my comment about which one for dryness.