Reed chillcheater pre-bent trousers

Treated myself to some Reed chillcheater pre-bent trousers a few weeks back.

These trousers are a sort of waterproof (allegedly breathable) stretchy plastic with a knit fabric inner surface. They are cut to be 'fitting right' when in a seated position.

High waist, particularly at the back.

Fit - slim on the legs and well shaped on waist and hips. The hips, for all sizes, are smaller than the waist. That is ideal for us Middle aged blokes, but not for many women and skinny guys. (Although I did lend them to my daughter, who is short with wide hips and they fitted her fine.)

I'm 170cm tall, 83kg and take a medium in jeans (86cm at the hips). A bit bigger around the tum.
The trousers fit me well, maybe a tad tight on the belly. Size Large.

Biggest worry for me was calves. I have big fat calves and was concerned I wouldn't get into the chillcheater - I do, but it is snug.

They are super comfortable when paddling. I had read that people found the material wouldn't slide on fibreglass, bit of a problem if you are trying to get some rotation. In my plastic ski they did stick a bit, but a quick scoop of water into the cockpit solved that.

Warmth? Not super super warm straight on, and I could feel a very slight windchill once they were wet. That didn't increase though (as it would if I'd been wearing my normal neoprene trousers).

With the neoprene trousers, they would start off warm but then get cold throughout the paddle. Big downside of ski paddling. The chillcheaters didn't get worse, and, crucially, once I got out they dried off during the portage home and kept me warm. Usually I absolutely freeze when getting out and walkign home; wet and windchill reduce me to a popsicle. Now the main concern when portaging is the PVC bondage gear look.

They are best 'dried' inside out, so that the fabric dries. Some water remains on the outer layer if dried inside out, but I've not found that to affect the warmth when wearing them.

I'm super happy with them. Should keep me going right through winter.

Another possibility is neoprene wetsuits that have fabric face inside as usual but smooth “raw” neoprene on the outside. Seems to be favored by triathletes. The first time I wore mine was on a cool day and I *roasted* in it when in the sun. There is little or no evaporative cooling even when wind is blowing.

On a cold day, that lack of evaporative cooling means I finish a paddle feeling comfortable instead of quickly chilling down.

The smooth outer skin does stick more to gelcoat seats than regular double-nylon-faced neo does. It was a problem when rolling a sea kayak with a gelcoated fiberglass seat. My surf ski has a seat pad covered in nylon, so it’s not too bad on that, though I’d still prefer both surfaces to be slippery. Maybe wearing a pair of slick basketball shorts over the wetsuit would do the trick.

Been using them for a while now.

The sticking to the seat is definitely a bit of a pain. I just hitch my bum up every now and then so water can get underneath.

Warmth is great. Still not needing thermals under them, even when I took a swim last week in 8C water and 6C air with 30knot winds.

Inside out, the fabric inner dries overnight, but the outer is still wet.

Working very well for me when I paddle on consecutive days.

The stickyness can be a bit of a bother for rotation, but even worse is rescues: getting your ass down somewhere in the bucket, an then slide into place no longer works. This makes it a lot harder. (Fortunately I found this out during an exercise, not in a real situation!) I therefore always wear a pair of shorts over the chillcheaters when paddling in them.

ErikE wrote:

The stickyness can be a bit of a bother for rotation, but even worse is rescues: getting your ass down somewhere in the bucket, an then slide into place no longer works. This makes it a lot harder.

I always wear 2 pair of shorts. 3 mil neoprene for comfort and a pair of spandex shorts over them.

Similar to cycling shorts without the chamois.

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082WDR5DN/ref...01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I find it best to be as slippery as possible. Not only for safety (slipping quickly in as we remount), but to allow the bum to slide around in the bucket.

I prefer more motion under my sit bones, not less.

ErikE wrote:

The stickyness can be a bit of a bother for rotation, but even worse is rescues: getting your ass down somewhere in the bucket, an then slide into place no longer works. This makes it a lot harder. (Fortunately I found this out during an exercise, not in a real situation!) I therefore always wear a pair of shorts over the chillcheaters when paddling in them.

I can see that being a problem, but I've never done a remount (for real) in a situation where the bucket wasn't swamped, so not so much of a problem then.