• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Rain Jacket - Inside or Out?

Rain Jacket - Inside or Out?

  • I wear my rain jacket on top.

    Votes: 5 29.4%
  • I wear my pfd on top

    Votes: 12 70.6%
  • I don't wear a rain jacket or pfd

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    17
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
813
Reaction score
400
Location
Livingston, Montana
I've gone back and forth on this for a number of years, but I finally came to the conclusion that I like to wear my rain jacket on the outside of my pfd. I like keeping the pfd dry since I have a bunch of stuff in the pockets, but I also think the jacket works better, ie. is able to breath and keeps the inside away from my skin. Last fall my rain jacket started falling apart, so I went and ordered a new one, a Patagonia Torrent Shell. I generally have to replace my rain jacket every few years, not as much from hard use, but also from it sitting in the bottom of a pack and getting beat up and ground up with dirt and other unfriendly things there. Like most apparel companies, Patagonia is unable or unwilling to leave good enough alone with regard to their sizing and garment fit, so the new large sized jacket I bought doesn't fit over my pfd any more. I just ordered another one of these jackets, this time in XL. It fits fine over my pfd.

So, what is it? Rain Jacket Inside or Out for you?
 
In the rain I wear a rain jacket for portages and paddles, but when it's worn the pfd is only worn for the paddle.
It makes more sense to don and doff the pfd without having to peel and ply the rain gear too.
The pfd goes over.
 
Last edited:
On the water, the pfd stays on. But the rain jacket will be put on or taken off according to conditions. So rain jacket goes over the pfd. This also helps things breathe, and keeps the pfd dry. I also don't want to take off my pfd while on the water to take off the rain jacket. Pfd is always on, when on the water. That's the golden rule.
 
In the spring and fall I use a Patagonia paddling jacket and pants. I keep them in a seat bag that clips under my seat. In the summer, I use my backpacking rain gear, a Patagonia Rain Shadow jacket and Cloudburst rain pants because they are breathable. Both jackets go under my NRS Chinook vest because I keep things in the pockets that I want to access. The vest does a pretty good job keeping things dry, but I have a zip lock bag in the pocket with anything that I don't want to get wet.
 
I trained in water rescues at one time. It is impossible to grab a rain jacket. It is easy to grab a shoulder strap of a PFD. I actually went up in person against Cliff Jacobson years ago. He said that he wore PFD under because he used it also for a pillow.
This was in Lousiana so we did a test in the warm pond. Cliffie was safe but it was very hard to hoist him out of the water in rain coat over PFD and he is a little guy.

I think I won that argument. But ego does not matter. When a club participant went over after suffering a heart attack on a local trip we were able to get him out of the water easily by grabbing his shoulder straps of the PFD>

No contest in my mind. You choose for you
 
I never paddle without my PFD. I paddle flat water in the Adirondacks. When the first drops fall, I pull over and put on the rain gear.
 
I trained in water rescues at one time. It is impossible to grab a rain jacket. It is easy to grab a shoulder strap of a PFD. I actually went up in person against Cliff Jacobson years ago. He said that he wore PFD under because he used it also for a pillow.
This was in Lousiana so we did a test in the warm pond. Cliffie was safe but it was very hard to hoist him out of the water in rain coat over PFD and he is a little guy.

I think I won that argument. But ego does not matter. When a club participant went over after suffering a heart attack on a local trip we were able to get him out of the water easily by grabbing his shoulder straps of the PFD>

No contest in my mind. You choose for you

In theory I agree with YC on this one, but in practice I do as Cliff does. In WW I would wear it on the outside to prevent the garment from possibly getting up over my head and disorienting me.

Also in cold weather my pfd may not fit comfortably over my outer garment.

YC good for you for taking on CJ.
 
PFD on the outside, for many of the reasons above including rescue knife on lash tab and whistle in pocket.

But mostly because I like paddling during the shoulder seasons, usually wearing full rain gear as a wind barrier over layers, and it is already hard enough for me to find a breathable waterproof XXL jacket with sleeve lengths that fit. One big enough to fit over my PFD would have to be enormous and, worn around camp without the PFD underneath comically oversized, with my hands 3 inches up in the sleeves. Skinny people fit and sleeve length may differ.

Summer paddling, without using a rain jacket as wind barrier, I’m usually in quick dry stuff and often don’t bother, I’d rather be wet with rain than sweat.

Worst case scenario I can usually pull over, get out my kept-accessible raingear and put it on under the PFD. For a brief summer shower compromise I might simply pull into an eddy and sit under a golf umbrella for a few minutes.
 
Heck, I just don't paddle in the rain unless it's an accident. Then I'm usually looking for a camp site and don't bother to suit up. It's a water sport, right? Besides, That's what layover days are for.

If I wear my rain jacket it is under the PFD. Don't think it would fit under my coat. That's one of my pet peaves - rain jackets are cut wrong to fit over a sweater. If you up in size, the sleeves are too long.
 
Last edited:
I "took on CJ" at the dinner table at a canoe symposium. It was great coversation and I had the chance to chat several times with him at the Maine Canoe Symposium. They were amicable conversations.. And after the PFD discussion we took off in his van to shuttle for a trip on the Bogue Chitto. We were all Northerners in Missippi with a brand new fangled Road GPS thingy that none of us could figure out. Twas a good outing even though we had to ask a Mississipian for directions and had a hard time deciphering them.
The river was far easier to navigate than roads.
 
Back
Top