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Name: nickweissmusic
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Barely adequate is the best way to describe this. I had a West Marine branded dry bag that had a fairly thick waterproof lining and worked great for at least 2 years. When that got beaten up enough to be retired, I went back to West Marine, but all they had were these sea to summit bags. More money, less dry. This bag is not completely waterproof in constantly wet conditions, the lining is just too thin. It doesn't hold air either, one of the nice features of my old bag was it would float if you sealed air in, definitely a nice last resort safeguard. This one is a shriveled mass in 10 minutes or less. It's dry enough for my wallet and key fobs, but definitely not for a smartphone. Sea to summit makes some cool products, I have a packable backpack that is quite useful (but you sure do pay for it), but this is an expensive disappointment. I won't be buying another.
I bought this, tried once, returned it, spent a little more, and got a REAL kayak fishing vest.
I was anticipating a great product but was immediately underwhelmed when I saw it in the store. I bought it anyway because it got very good reviews, figured I'd give it a chance. I just didn't care too much for the look, feel and function of this vest. The mesh seemed flimsy, zippers weren't great, overall just felt cheap and while I didn't test it out, in not sure how effective the small sections of flotation foam would work, it's not a lot of foam. 2 little pockets, better than none, but hardly a full featured fishing vest. One trip on the water and I took it straight back to the store, was not happy spending $60 on such a chintzy product.
I took my $60 back, sunk $40 more into the NRS Chinook... Holy cow, talk about quality and function, I reviewed it too. I can't recommend this field and stream vest, maybe it's fine for a casual kayak fisherman who really wants the least bulky shoulders possible, but it's not ready for the big bays, and just forget about the ocean.
Overall for price, ease of use, and versatility, it's an easy 10/10 in my book.
One caveat is the measurements in the instructions to install the bars are wrong, not really sure where they came up with those (or maybe there were for a different length bar? I went with 60" which seem perfect for my van) but after a little finagling was able to get them evenly set up on my own. Not even worth taking a star off in my opinion, but I can understand if someone were confused or unhappy. I'm mechanically inclined so it was maybe a 10 minute bump in the road, just had to figure out what measurement would be equal from the end of the bar to the edge of the foot on each side of the car, and beware, the front and rear bar measurements will not be the same. I started by eye and refined it by measurement, and put a sharpie marker on the bottom in case I have to remove them, done and done.
I use the rapid traverse foot pack and aero blade bars. The foot pack was simple to install and stays rock solid, I check and tighten periodically but they've never been close to loose. The bars are very strong and nearly silent at freeway speeds, which start at 65 in CA. I can easily transport my 2 yaks, I use a cheap j rack bought on Amazon for my smaller lighter kayak and the Yakima even keel for the big heavy one, obviously not a symmetrical setup but they both fit easily in that configuration and I don't have much other choice, my lifetime sportfisher will not fit in J racks. For toting a couple miles to local beaches it's never an issue. I don't bother with nose straps if I'm not going more than 10 miles, but I have for longer trips. In each case there's never been a problem or any movement.
I have complete confidence in the Thule components, a case of paying a hefty price for very good products. Couldn't be happier,
Overall an excellent kit, I've installed 1 on each of my kayaks, and am going to put one on the other side of the yak I use most at some point in the future, why limit the angles i can fish based on one side of the yak? The video is way more helpful than the instructions, but there is an issue with both. The last kit I had did not come with any pop rivets, rather, just more self tapping screws and screw protectors for one of the components. Had to figure that out for myself as the instructions and videos all had pop rivets, I'm sure many would think they got a mis-packed kit, I thought I did for quite a while, was ready to pack it up to return it when I figured it out. At least all the stuff is good, and they really do work well, I won't hesitate to buy it again, it will be faster now that I know what to expect