Leland and Andria Davis, of Brushy Mountain Publishing, Inc have published several guide books and a few yoga DVD’s over the years(which you can check out at http://www.rivergypsies.com/), and they are always on the move towards the next river or festival. Here is what Leland had to say about the 4-layer material that we have been using in our technical outerwear for the past couple of years:
“We never fixed our drysuits.”
With winter breathing down my neck last fall, I was painfully aware that both of my drytops were old and leaky and that my ancient drysuit had a blown neck gasket. I made arrangements to refurbish the suit and have the gasket replaced, and was going to take care of that after a pre-Christmas road trip. Right around that same time, Andria and I both managed to score some of the new IR Comp LX drytops, and I got a pair of the Comp Pants as well (Andria already had a pair). We’ve been rocking IR gear for a while, but were stoked to try the new fabric they’ve been using recently after hearing some good reviews.
On the first day of our road trip, I arrived back at the put-in after hitching shuttle to find Andria awkwardly trying to duct tape the neck gasket on her old drysuit. It was the Smokies in December with snow on the ground and ice-cold water – she looked like she was pretty bummed to ride out the rest of the trip with no drysuit, especially since it was only supposed to get colder the next day.
On the following day we arrived at the Big South Fork for a long wilderness run to find that the balmy 37 degrees the National Weather Service had advertised was simply not gonna happen; in fact, it barely broke 30 all day long. We busted out our new IR gear and put on hoping for the best. By the end of the run we were still warm, dry, and totally cozy. The sweat we built up in the long flat stretches breathed right out of the gear. We even took time to pull over for beverages and take in the scenery.
As winter wore on, we wore the IR gear over and over, each time more amazed at how warm and dry we stayed in this newest evolution of IR’s stuff. Even on Andria’s only swim of the winter, she stayed almost totally dry in just her IR drytop and Comp Pants! As for our drysuits…..they’re still sitting in the laundry room with blown neck gaskets, where they might languish for years to come with how well this new IR gear performs!
Andria at Watauga Falls in the butter Comp LX drytop (photo by Leland)
Leland boating in the icy cold on Big South Fork (photo by Kemper Begley)
