Contributions by Rickwa77 (1)

The minute I started paddling with this Stohlquist life jacket, I believed whoever designed it had done lots of paddling. It is totally unobtrusive. Upper torso felt very well ventilated as I paddled. And it stayed above the seatback without riding up against my neck and chin. I also use life jackets for risky snorkeling situations and found that it did not ride up against my chin and neck like the previous jacket I had. Previously, for the past 12 years, I kayaked with a knarly, difficult to put on life jacket that crowded my chin, was hot, and interfered with my kayak seat back. Look, this new jacket may give me a bit of a pot belly in appearance, but it puts that bulky flotation material where it will stay out of the way. How much nicer my previous kayak trips would have been had I used a properly designed jacket. The Stohlquist web site impressed me that they put real life factors into their designs, and now I see they were exactly right.