Midlifekayak

One the GB360 Team gets married this afternoon. Mike and Caroline are finally tying the knot at St Mawes Castle.  As Tanya hunted through her wardrobe this morning trying on several outfits asking for my expert advice on each, I made a clumsy remark about never finding a man struggling with what colour to wear or what shoes to go for.  Tanya gently reminded me just how many hours I spent looking at the Kokatat catalogue and just how many phone calls and emails there were between me, Mike and Geoff before we could finally settle on our expedition kit.  Ok, good point.  I may not worry so much about my shore clothes but when it comes to looking the part on the water and feeling safe and warm – well that’s another matter altogether.

Our yummy Kokatat gear has arrived and this week Geoff and I got together for a couple of days paddling to get some miles in and test the new gear.

It didn’t disappoint!  In total we spent about 10 hours in the suits paddling over the 2 days and a good 3 hours in the water practising rescues and skills.  Air temp was around 8-10 degrees and water temperature also around 10 degrees.  At the end of each day we were very impressed to be bone dry and still cosy and warm.  As the wind freshened on the second day it was a real bonus to pull up the hoods on the Expedition Suits.

The Outfit Tour PFD has plenty of pockets for essential gear and a wide cut under the arms to make for unrestricted paddle action.

So paddling kit all sorted!  Think we still need to work on the tarp configuration for bivvying under though!

Looking forward to the weather warming up so we can try out the dry pants and shorts!  Getting the whole team together again at the end of March for a full kit test.