Keeping your butt dry in a kayak
I have started looking at sit on top kayaks. Several have looked promising. Though I just realized, in most of them the lowest point in the boat is where your butt goes. I normally travel in a canoe and any extra water can mostly be bailed out and the remaining is just at your feet.
So if I have a sit on top kayak, how do I prevent sitting in a puddle of water most of the time?
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You're going to be sitting in a certain amount of puddle regardless.
A spray skirt/deck on a sit in kayak will reduce the effect but even that has its limits. Only wearing a full dry suit or dry trousers and cag will fully mitigate this. The sacrifice you make in exchange is that if it's too warm for full drys you're going to be sitting in a puddle of your own sweat instead.
At the end of the day you need to accept that kayaking is a wet sport, you can never come out completely dry, but wearing some proper waterproof gear will help.
For your purposes you're probably better off either changing your shorts as you swap from bike to kayak and back or getting tri-shorts that are suitable for all activities even when wet.
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned a Farmer John. They're like overalls made out of wetsuit material. The reason I sometimes wear one is for safety in BC's frigid waters - if you fall in, you want to have something that keeps your core warm. That's also their weakness in summer - they get hot.
Anyway, they go all the way up to your chest and they should keep water away from your butt - it can only get there through your ankles or from the top. Don't get something that goes too far up to your neck, covers your arms or is really thick - you are going to get too hot.
If you get a skirt, make sure you familiarize yourself somewhat with exit procedures to follow when you flip over. And don't practice that by yourself. Friend of mine won't go near a kayak since he took a course which had you flip over and in which he was mistakenly issued an advanced, tight-fitting, skirt which he had great difficulty getting to disengage from the kayak. All the other beginners got more forgiving models. It sounded like he didn't get out until the instructor realized he hadn't flipped back up and helped him.
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Answering my own question based on recent experience.
As Aravona says in their comment many have drain holes in the seat area. I bought a sit on top, kayak with drain holes in the seat.
I took it to the lake and, put it in the water at the dock. I weigh about 180 pounds, and the kayak is rated at 350 pounds. I carefully got myself in the kayak and kept my feet completely dry. But when my butt hit the seat, water shot up through the drain holes and soaked my back side. Also When I paddled harder, it seemed like more water came in. I didn't really dwell on it, but I think the bottom of the seat and the drain holes in the seat are at or near water level when I am in the kayak.
I don't know if it was my entry style (sat down to hard?) or if it is a design issue with this particular style kayak.
I was wearing dry on the fly, long pants. Even gettting out of the kayak at the dock, I kept my feet dry until I stood up and the water from my soaked butt, ran down and soaked my water shoes.
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In answer to your title question (and for the purpose of future readers): Use a spray skirt for SIT IN kayaks.
Further reading: https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/spray-skirt.
For your purpose of sit on top kayaks: @Aravona's comment is the way to go. Get a seat so that you sit above the water. Of course, the seat itself will be a lot more comfortable as well
Further reading: https://kayakguru.com/best-sit-on-top-kayak-seat/
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/22848. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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