Drysuit wear from Alpacka Whitewater Skirt

[ClintHelander]

Am I the only one who has noticed an astonishing amount of wear on the inside forearm of their drysuit from the velcro attachment points on the spray skirt? I probably only have about 10 days on my new boat, but my newish drysuit has seen excessive wear (scuffing, and in one point even the white underlayer of the gore-tex). I'm already not a fan of the velcro system, but this is pretty disappointing. Everything else about the WW deck is excellent. I believe this part needs some additional tweaking.

[twarner08]

Which dry suit are you rocking out of curiosity? The Stowaway, the Stowaway Tough, the Trekker or some other brand?

[ClintHelander]

A kokatat gore-tex drysuit. Trust me, it's not the dry-suit's fault. It is limited exclusively to the portion of the suit where it hits the velcro on the spray deck. My hands get kind of beat up on a long float too if I'm not using gloves and paddle aggressively.

[ChadL]

Clint, happening on my Kokatat GFER as well from the same culprit. I rounded the edges of the skirt velcro (with scissors) and that seemed to help...

[Simone]

Or buy some velcro hook & loop tape - a roll or by length - and use the loop part to 'deactivate' the velcro hook tabs on the packraft when you are not using it. But rounding off the corners as suggested above is also a good idea.

See http://www.flymarketkites.com/velcro/34 ... elcro-tape for a picture.

[Kirkinbend]

You could try to teach yourself to paddle without hitting the raft with your arm. There is really no reason to be dragging your arm down the tube, inefficient and destroys gear. Try lifting your paddle up and be more vertical with the shaft while paddling, much more powerful, better control and you won`t trash your gear.

[dougtally]

Purchase the additional seat or figure out how to increase the height of your belted in seat. Adjust paddle length longer if you can, if not consider swapping out your paddle for an adjustable model. One of both... seat or longer paddle will do it... I think! Let me know what worked. I'm getting ready to purchase a drysuit and it may be the Alpacka 'Tough' model.
Doug