I bought this skirt as I wanted something cooler than my full neoprene skirt. The adjustable waist works very well. The suspenders, I don't think they are needed so I took them off. As far as being cooler, it's a "little bit" cooler than my neoprene skirt but not way cooler. If you think about the surface area of your lower body when you sweat inside a kayak on a hot day, there is no way the area of gortex the size of any skirt is going to be able to evaporate that moisture. I tried it while paddling on a river on an 80F day as I like a skirt as I can play with edging my turns with risking flooding. But I ended up taking it off and going without a skirt as I was overheating. But, if it were an 80F day on the ocean where I had to have a skirt, this skirt definitely would be better than my all neoprene one. So, if you want miracle cooler, no full skirt is really going to work. But if you want something a bit cooler, this skirt isn't a bad choice.
