I find new skirts keep you the dryest. As the skirt ages, it lets more water through. Doesn’t take much aging before the drip happens. Recently I used a brand new Seals Rental skirt (nylon) and stayed perfectly dry. In the same calm conditions on a 2-ish hour paddle, The older neoprene one I normally use leaves me pretty wet.
Tricks to help:
make sure skirt is high enough on our torso. Goal is to reduce/remove any pooling of water on your deck.
drain top of skirt before exiting your boat. If water is pooled on your deck, it will get you wet as you stand up.
take skirt off as soon as possible. The material may be wet and will get your clothing wet. This is harder if you use a skirt that has suspender.
If you have a paddle jacket or the like, put the jacket over the skirt tunnel.
if you wear a dry sit or bibs or similar, a wet skirt doesn’t matter.
Getting wet is something I associate with getting low in water. Kayaks do that— for the most part.
A dry suit or maybe a tulik will keep your body dry (or dryer) but to the best of my knowledge, nothing will keep all water out of a kayak cockpit,------ other then not putting the kayak in the water.
So I’ve never had issue with getting wet when using a spray or splash skirt.
I’m using currently a Seals inlander skirt mostly because the hips don’t work right for rolling anymore so I really don’t care id the tunnel is waterproof. I spray the nylon down with boot waterproofing compound so no water in on the deck and tunnel of the skirt. how water gets in (and this also applies to neoprene.) isyour clothing above the skirt gets wet and if the tunnel isn’t tight. tight,.tight your shirt is going to drip down inside, even if the tunnel is tight you shirt is going to wick.
Try using a neoprene skirt, I would also spray it down with a hydrophobic coating just for good measure. make sure the tunnel is tight on you then pull you shirt to the outside of the tunnel so that the tunnel is making neoprene to skin contact. this will prevent wicking and help keep you dryer.
Back when I ran whitewater I used a neoprene skirt and sprayed it with silicone spray. I wore a wet suit so neporeen to neoprene contact and that worked quite well. The only wet I got was if I rolled and got a bit of water around the neck of the wet-suit. then you’d get intrusion.
but short of rolling getting the skirt to contact your skin is going to prevent most of the splashies that are going to occur.
I wear a Seals Surf neoprene spray skirt and it works well. Your torso can still get wet from sweat because it doesn’t breathe. It helps if the skirt is properly sized and pulled up far enough so that water runs off and does not pool on the skirt.
I never had much luck with nylon skirts. They tend to leak at the seams after a while. My last nylon skirt seemed to only keep out leaves and large fish.
I’ve used GPs for 14 years and have dealt with similar issues. Among what I have learned is that any seams or zippers in a spray skirt deck will let in the water that drips off a GP. Also, it needs to fit your coaming very snugly and not have gathers around the edge that can let water seep in. Being loose also increases the “pool” that can develop on the deck.
I have had to sell off or give away every skirt I had that was not just plain solid fabric and didn’t fit any boat snugly. My favorite was a Snapdragon I had for 3 years – heavy coated nylon that fit the cockpits on my 3 favorite boats like a glove and kept me quite dry. But somebody “borrowed” it at Delmarva skills camp last Fall and I lost it despite multiple pleas on the event FB page for fellow participants to check their gear for it. Alas, Snapdragon is out of business so I can’t replace it! But I also have a Peak UK that is similar in being plain fabric, good fit and also very good at keeping me dry. Even with a snug fitting deck, I do have to periodically lift a knee to spill the collected dumpwater off the surface. I have considered trying to make a skirt with a built in arch beneath, using a stiffening strip (like the whalebone in old corsets) to arc the deck up to shed water. Might get to that this summer after all the other projects get done.
In the Polar World exhibit in the Carnegie Museum here in Pittsburgh they have a lifesized replica of an Inuit seal hunter in his kayak and several collected native paddles in other displays. ALL have cotton rags wrapped around the paddles midway between the blade and loom. I have to presume this was how they lessened the water run off but I keep forgetting to try it.
I’m using a Seals Sneak nylon spray skirt that has a built in arch which helps to prevent water pooling. It also has removable suspender straps, small zipper netting pockets on each side and a waterproof zip opening down the front which is great for accessing stuff inside the cockpit and cooling off heat build up without having to take off the skirt from the coaming.
It comes in different sizes. I use it with an Aleutian paddle and it’s been fairly good at keeping me dry. YMMV.
I have a similar skirt to what you describe. I have considered glueing a panel of coated nylon over the underside to seal all the stitching from leaking water into the boat. It would block the zipper that accesses the cockpit space, but otherwise might help keep it from seepage.
I forgot to mention that skirts that are a better fit for the SHAPE of your cockpit don’t sag as much as the “one size fits all egg shapes” of most makers. Only PeakUK, that I know of, offers such a range of different shapes rather than just scaled sizes. Umingmaq Paddling Center in Minnesota stocks them and they have been great at helping me match sizes to my oddball kayaks, even shipping me two different models with a return authorization to send back whichever one doesn’t fit the best. The PeakUKs are the closest to Snapdragon that I have found yet. They are also quite reasonably priced but now with the tariff chaos (and our Feckless Leader not realizing that the UK is no longer in the European Union) that may change.
And using skirts with lightweight nylon with elastic or stretchy neoprene for the coaming rand gives a more watertight seal than the bulkier cordura or packcloth nylon tunnels with elastic.
I’ve also replaced the bungee elastic in some skirts with a thicker gauge (I get marine grade bungee from Sailrite boat supplies) and made it a snugger fit that way. Just make sure when you replace the elastic that you don’t knot it so tight that you’ll struggle to pull the skirt off if you have to wet exit.
While I think of it, here is that life sized exhibit at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum’s Polar World – a bit hard to pick out in the shadows but you can barely see that there is either fabric or animal hide “drip guard” tied around the Inuit hunter’s paddle just above the shoulder. This replicates what is found on all the Greenland and Aleut paddles that were collected from the field and thus displayed in the other exhibit cases. I admit I have always imagined this hunter’s expression reflects him thinking “wow, I hope this 2 ton walrus doesn’t land on my kayak when my harpoon hits him.”
I have the Seals Coastal Tour skirt, which has the same arch on the deck - I assume it’s some kind of plastic strip. Keeps the deck convex (it’s adjustable with a strap underneath) and completely prevents that annoying pooling of water on the deck. I do get some water in there when practicing rolls and balanced braces etc, but for normal paddling it’s a big upgrade from my old basic nylon skirt.
I think fat scrunchies would work better than elastic bands. All the paddles at the Polar World exhibit have rather thick wraps of material to deflect the runoff. I’m heading out next week for 10 days of coastal paddling and am throwing a bunch of assorted scraps from my sewing stuff in a bag (along with various scrunchies – thanks for the idea) to test some versions of this paddle modification during the trip.
I admit I am leery of the Seals Sneak. I have had leakage with EVERY skirt I have tried to use that had zippers in the deck. Unless they are wetsuit zippers I don’t trust them. This is the nylon PeakUK I have, similar suspenders and virtually identical to the discontinued Snapdragon. Available in 4 coaming profiles.
BUT, it looks like Umingmaq isn’t listing sprayskirts now – guessing the trade wars may have messed up the supply chain for European products and pricing for the time being. I think I only paid around $60 for this one (mine is 4 years old and has some cooler graphics.)
Thanks for all the advice, everyone! It’s not too big a deal in the winter when I wear a drysuit, but in the summer, I usually end up soaked. The funny thing is, I have a Seals “splash deck”, and even though it only covers the front half of the cockpit, it keeps me driest (maybe because it has that arch built into it to prevent pooling). However, my elbows rub on the arch area a bit, and it’s a slight annoyance. The one problem with that is, if it’s rough, and I get hit by a wave from the sides or rear, a LOT of water can get in the boat.
Doesn’t anyone make a skirt that is totally waterproof, like my drysuit is?
Chillcheater sprayskirt arrived yesterday. Not bad. Got here a tad bit over one week from England. Much lighter/thinner (stretchier?) than any neo sprayskirt I have had previously. It’s pretty much custom fitted to my Mega surf kayak (since Chillcheater has made competition sprayskirt/top combo for Mega kayaks for years). Having said that, I don’t think it is going to be 100% waterproof. Some intrusion/leakage will occur but how much? It’s the surf zone after all…
I’ve been using them since 2009 for anything but HEAVY surf (used on a 2000 mile trip up the Oz coast - see the bottom middle of the ‘slob’ picture - Pretty Pictures - Just Pretty Pictures - #2694 by raisins , bottom middle of picture)
And carried a spare - very little space when rolled up.
Yeah, some water will come in on rolling or surf sessions.
I’ve ordered them mostly from the UK, but there are some outlets over here that carry them (Sea Kayak Georgia, kayakwaveology, capitalcitykayak, others?)
Good to know! Tried it out this morning. It is easier to get on the coaming and stretches tighter. But, it is of a less robust material than my NRS neoprene WW skirt. Did a rolling practice (no waves today). It allowed some water intrusion, but not as much my NRS. Maybe because it is new. I like this as a lighter option for the easy peasy days.
having said that any fabric you wear has to be outside the sprayskirt (cotton, polyester etc…) as these if getting wet will wick between the skirt and your skin bringing water into the boat.
how much all depends on how tight the tunnel is and how much you get soaked.
I did Whitewarer for years and if the skirt is right and you (in summer are making neoprene to skin contact or Neoprene to wetsuit contact.) you don’t get water.
OMG I recognize that scene and the red coat from when I was a kid! Whenever someone in our family needed to see a specialist doctor, we went to Pittsburgh and afterward my mother would take us to the Carnegie Museum! Almost 40 years ago …
??? Was your response supposed to post in a different thread, maybe the one where I recently posted photos from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum Polar World?
The skirt has to fit right. I have never had any water get past one that fits.
Paddling a kayak in the Pacific Northwest in the rain in the fall, I found to be surprisingly warm.
Half the body is dry and protected.
Big waves in the San Juan Islands from ships, boat wakes and wind driven waves splashed right over the deck.
