A group of us are planning on paddling part of the Dallas end of the Trinity tomorrow a.m., but the forecast gives a large change of rain. It has been abvised that we bring rain gear, but since this will be my first rainy day paddle I'm kind of at a loss..... does rain gear go over or under my PFD? The answer to this is kind of crucial since it impacts the sizing of the gear.... that is over pfd need a larger size, under pfd smaller / more normal size. Thanks

If you wear your pdf all of the time then I would probably go with a jacket that would fit over the pfd. Would you really want to take the pfd every time you want to put the jacket on or take it off? Plus if you go into the water and need to get out of the jacket really fast would want to take the pfd off also?

I think this might go by the way of personnel preference.

Thanks for your response and you make a very valid point. I'm sure that this may be a stupid question... yeah I know there are no stupid questions, just stupid people asking questions, but would the pfd lose any buoyancy under a jacket?

I wear my PFD over everything.

It would also depend on the pfd you have. If I had an inflatable pfd I would wear it over everything. I can't imagine what an inflatable pfd wound do if you tried to inflate it inside a raincoat.

As for the buoyancy...I would think it would not lose buoyancy but I am not an expert in pfd buoyancy.

I have a standard PFD and my rain gear goes over my PFD.

I wear a Frogg Togg raincoat over everything.

A couple of other thoughts... I use an app called RadarNow that is very good. It might be handy since there could be storm cells moving through tomorrow. I just like to know what's coming. The link below also provides really good hourly weather forecasts. It's tuned for Texoma (aka- the greatest place on earth), but you can get the same data for any US location by going to weather.gov and entering a zip code or city/state. The next page will have a link to the hourly forecast at the bottom.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php...it&site=FWD

ditto

Thanks all for the recommendations. I went to Bass Pro Shop at lunch and looked at the Frogg Togg gear, really nice looking stuff but looked like it might be a little too warm for tomorrow, but no doubt it is quality gear. I ended up with a little $5 poncho for now, but if it doesn't do the job the Frog Togg will certainly be on my to buy list for next time out. Double thanks for the link to the forecast website, that is a really good site.

I also sometimes use a poncho and it can even help keep your lower body and seat covered some and allows good arm movement...but wet arms usually. But for rainy periods when it is warmer, I would get a rain jacket that will fit over the PFD as you may want to open it up occassionally, take it on and off, etc. plus it keeps your PFD dry. Remember that anything attached to your PFD should prob be relocated (whistle, nips, knife, etc). When it is really cold and wet and I know I won't be removing any outer layers, I prefer the PFD on top.

I like PFD over everything. But, I dont think the PFD would not loose bouncy if under something ( might be different for the inflating type ).
Dont forget what ever you wear, it may fill with water ( waterproof works both ways).
I.e a jacket will fill up and hold water, same with waders.