Per Bill Tuthill:
Hopefully I can troll for discussion about breathable fabrics.
Kokatat still uses Goretex in most of their drysuits, except
a semi-drysuit with Tropos. I don't know if they have switched
their high-end drysuits to Goretex XCR yet.
Here's an anecdotal/single-data point observation:
Today I did about 45 minutes pretty hard wearing my old Bare Polar (neo john
bonded to coated nylon bag top). I usually do 1.5-2 hours, but today I didn't
put the right mitts on soon enough and my hands got cold.
Having ripped the neck seal on my "good" suit (a Kokatat Goretex w/the sock
option), I wasn't particularly looking forward to going out today.
Surprise. I think upper-body mobility in the Bare was significantly better
than in the Kokatat full-bag. Don't ask me why....but that's how it seemed to
me - who was expecting the worst. OTOH, my car definitely runs better after
it's been washed.... -)
The lower-body mobility was no contest: the neo john won hands-down.
As far as being wet goes, I don't think my shirt was any wetter inside the
coated nylon that it gets inside the GoreTex. I suspect that the main diff is
that, as somebody else observed, if I stop working long enough I'll dry out in
the GoreTex.
Given the amount of sweat that I accumulate in, say, 90 minutes of hard paddling
(about half a kilo as measured by weighing my shirt before/after) I don't hold
out much hope for any vapor-transmitting system tb a significant improvement
over GoreTex.
I'm still looking forward to repairing the Kokatat because of the ease of
entry/egress (you gotta stop to pee in the Bare and, believe me, you've got a
problem. Not an insurmountable one, but it's gonna be 10-15 minute stop.
Also, the GoreTex bag is more tunable. 5mm of neoprene doesn't leave much
latitude for adjustment except in the thickness of the top undergarment.
Finally, if somebody's trolling for dry suit info, I'd opine that if Kokatat is
calling out to them, they also need to check out
www.ossystems.com -
particularly the "Spirit". The long zipper seems to eliminate the need for a
convenience zipper and it looks to me like they've got a friendlier sizing
system for us statistical outliers.
--
PeteCresswell