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Looking for a skirt? Snap Dragon can help. |
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Even the most intense kayaking gear junkies tend to say very little about their spray skirt, and for years spray skirts have been the rarely talked about, yet highly essential piece of equipment. In the sports infancy spray skirts didn’t need to be very technically advanced, since most kayakers floated down very mellow rivers and only needed a skirt that would keep occasional splashes out of their boat. Now, newer boat and gear designs allow kayakers to do much more than just float down a mellow river, and spray skirt designs have been improved to facilitate paddlers that wish to paddle through large waves and holes, perform dynamic freestyle moves, and run steep and intense whitewater. Snap Dragon Designs makes a skirt to suit all paddle sport needs.
Touring skirts are designed for use in the calm ocean, lake, or flat water, and are generally made out of a nylon material (or Nylon/Supratex or Sympatex) with an adjustable bungee to fit around the cockpit rim, and often times suspender straps. These skirts are designed to be lightweight, have a more universal fit than whitewater skirts, and are often times more comfortable, since a truly watertight fit isn’t necessary around the paddlers torso. Check out Snap Dragon’s Glacier Trek and Sea Tour line.
Skirts designed for whitewater paddling are much more durable and tightly fit than touring skirts because, at the bare minimum they need to be able to keep water out through multiple rolls. Figuring out the correct size for your skirt is surprisingly simple and we can help you find what you need (note that if you own two kayaks then there is no guarantee that one skirt will fit both kayaks, and you may need to buy two skirts or compromise dryness on the smaller cockpit rim). Figuring out which type of whitewater skirt is easy, and one of the following options is sure to meet your needs.
The River Trek EZ is Snap Dragon’s basic whitewater skirt, made of Supratex Neoprene throughout, and sealed around the cockpit rim with an easy fit shock cord. CKS offers the River Trek EZ with all of our beginner kayak packages. It’s affordability and ease of getting it on the kayak makes this a great choice for someone that is just getting into the sport.
The Reinforced skirt is the best selling whitewater skirt on the market. At a modest price, this durable skirt comes with expedition thick neoprene and a reinforced edge to protect against abrasion in the areas that see the most wear. Combined with a heavy-duty shock cord, the Reinforced Edge skirt will keep you dryer than the Trek EZ, but will also be a little tougher to get on the boat. Paddlers that want to run class V whitewater will enjoy the optional implosion bar, which keeps the skirt from popping off when current hits directly over the top of the skirt, like at the base of a waterfall.
The Armortex Reinforced skirt is arguably the most durable skirt ever made, with all of the structural features of the Reinforced (including optional implosion bar), only made with a type of Kevlar woven neoprene that protects your skirt in the worst conditions…the ones found getting to, from, and around the river. The skirt is a creek and expedition paddlers dream, and an excellent investment for anyone paddling over 60 days a year. If durability is a requirement, then look to the Armortex Reinforced.
All of the whitewater skirts above will work with the IR Overthruster or the Jackson Kayak Happy Thruster. CKS recommends removing the implosion bar for use with these items.
-Kyle McCutchen
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