Kokatat Tempest pants gear review

For Christmas my wife asked Russell at Sweetwater Kayaks to special order me a pair of Kokatat Tempest pants with socks and relief zipper.  I did not know about this gift… 😉  Unfortunately it arrived after Sean and I left for the Suwannee River.  So, during the Sweetwater Symposium I lived in them and mated them with an old dry top.

I have been told that these dry pants easily combine with a double skirted dry top to make a nearly dry system.

I combined these pants with my discontinued Stohlquist double skirted dry top.  I folded the bottom of the inner section of my dry top up.  And snugged the waist band of the Kokatat pants on top of the inner section of my dry top.  I then pulled my neoprene spray skirt on with the tunnel over the dry top.

For most of the time during my BCU L-1 coach training I was dry.  It was only after the third water rescue that water started to enter into the system.  As I floated in the water warm cold Florida water seeped into the waist.

I discovered that even with a gallon of water in my pants I remained comfortable because of my Smartwool pants and socks.  I love Smartwool.  As I sat in my kayak I also attempted to remove the water with my  bilge pump by way of the relief zipper.  It worked.

For Florida paddling these pants with a dry top are a good choice.  Granted when I travel to Sea Kayak Georgia in October I will be wearing a Kokatat GORE-TEX® Expedition Dry Suit EXP

-Jeff