New Kokatat Drypants?

Just saw them in a Kokatat ad - drypants with booties rather than latex gaskets, material is Tropos T3, and they come in full price at $159. That makes them basically the cost of the booties more than the other drypants like NRS Black Rock or some of the other comparable ones. (and a smidge cheaper than Palm’s)



Anyone try these yet, or are they still too new? I’ve been waiting for someone to put out drypants with booties. There are days that a minor amount of wetness would be OK, and anything two piece is easier for relief breaks than one. But I’ve gotten so used to dry feet…

lots of new product
Hi Celia,

Kokatat released lots of new product for 2009 and the Tempest Pant was one of the new releases. As for trying them, I haven’t yet as the only sample I had was of a men’s L. The testers loved them. They are meant to be worn with a semi dry top though and not alone.



http://www.kokatat.com/product_detail.asp?code=ttp



My personal favorites of the 2009 releases (have had prototypes for 2008) are the new liner - far surpasses the old as it has Powertec Powerdry 4 way stretch and a new zipper instead of drop seat in women’s.http://www.kokatat.com/product_detail.asp?code=wli1



The other fav is the Nomad boot - a high mukluk style boot with a breathable upper and neo foot and all the adjustments are under a thin neo so no ability to catch on your foot pegs. They dry overnight instead of holding water for days on end.



http://www.kokatat.com/product_detail.asp?code=WBM



Suz

Thanks Suz

– Last Updated: Jan-23-09 7:38 AM EST –

I have two quite decent drytops, but I've never had proper drypants to mate them with, cause I went thru such a long time of my roll being flaky so one piece it had to be. But now... I've been looking around. There are day or after-work paddles locally where I could taker the shot to go without the full dry suit.
I covered the mukluks actually - found a really nice pair in a local dive shop that have the attributes of the Chotas or the Boundary boots, but thicker neoprene so they should be quite toasty. Can't take cold feet these days.

PS - thanks again for the help with the Expedition drysuit. I love it! (and am using it much mroe judiciously than my treatment of the first one)

Swimming
Interesting that they specifically mention mating these pants with a top for full immersion protection (‘swimming’). I thought pant/top combos used a roll closure – how do these work?

Looking forward to them
Should be arriving any day. Looking forward to getting mine as well as the new Launch Sock which for anyone with non-bootied drypants or who is going to stomp around in the water, allows you to go up to knee deep in the water without getting your feet wet so you can wear as thick and warm of socks as you like.



The new Tropos 3 layer material will also be a significant step up in performance and durability without the usual associated price of more traditional 3 layer breathable laminates.



As soon as they come in I’ll jump around in the water with them. 'Course I may have to hack a hole in the ice of the harbor by the Boathouse to find water first. Oy, this winter!



See you on the water,

Marshall

The River Connection, Inc.

Hyde Park, NY

www.the-river-connection.com

My first question is, how do they mate
to the drytop? I have a Palm “Bib” with booties, and it mates fairly securely to my Stohlquist drytop sleeves.



Drytop pants with booties could be worse than ankle gaskets if the torso seal fails and you get a mess of water in the legs. At least with gaskets you can get the water out the bottom.

hmm
I’d love to try these on with my drytop. Although I haven’t seen anyone selling drypants in my state. I can order them from a few of my local stores, but I’d need to see these first.



Anyone know a dealer around Maine or MA who might be carrying them?



Underneath the velcro-cinch waist that you see, do they have an inner waist tube that goes higher, for rolling into the inner tunnel of a drytop?

top then bottom
I borrowed a pair of IR Splash Pants which had a similar waist treatment. The inner tunnel of the top went on first, then the pants, then the outer tunnel, then the skirt. The IR Splash Pants have neoprene ankle gaskets which I liked a lot better than latex and were quite dry for me. I went for a swim while demonstrating rescues and didn’t notice leaking. I would presume the Kokatat pant’s would fair similarly. I liked the Splash Pant’s so much, that I’m having IR customize a pair with booties for me. Can hardly wait until they arrive.

no roll closure
The waistband of the pants simply goes over the tunnel/skirt of the jacket and then your skirt or second layer of the jacket goes over that. Pretty simple, it has the neoprene/velcro cinch down closure on the pant. When you close it cinches pretty tight.



The key to wearing any pant is wearing it with a jacket.



Unlike wearing a dry bib with suspenders over the shoulder, should the pants flood with water, just slip right out of them - take them off. I’m looking forward to trying them to see what kind of leakage there will be at the waist.



Of course it will be minimized with a PFD over top of the pant/jacket and skirt if you wear one.



Suz