Palm Bora drysuit
Drysuits are a big purchase and one to enable you to paddle throughout winter unless you are one of those hardy folk who sticks with split kit or a cag deck all winter. Which I guess is sufficient for shirt sessions on the water. However, big river trips, long sessions on the water and any risk of taking a dip could be a good reason to want to stay warmer and play it safe with a drysuit.
A drysuit without a doubt is one of the biggest luxuries to a kayaker, SUP boarder or canoeists, with the ability to throw on a drysuit over your clothes or layer up underneath in some nice fluffy thermals.
Anyway, this is not about selling you a drysuit. If you know, you know! This is about informing you about Palm Equipments top of the range suit the Bora immersion suit.
The Bora is pitched at a touring market, therefore will not be to everyone’s needs. If you’re a freestyle or river paddler, this may not be for you which I’ll come to later. However, if you are a canoeist, touring kayaker, instructor, sup tourer or recreational paddler, this may do just what you want with some nice bells and whistles to top it off.
The Bora is designed on two different models a male and female version. At first look, both appear the same – some slight colour difference on the zips orange in the male and blue in the female. The differences are mostly on the cut and shape of the suit with the female taking a different shape on specific areas. The other difference is the facility to visit the toilet. The male suit has the usual front zip for you to take a tinkle, the female suit a newer designed back zip which can be undone to do your business. It’s lovely to see both options rather than a one suit fits all style seen by some brands.
Aesthetics
Visually the suits are the same, coming in a bright yellow top aesthetically designed to help with visibility, grey bottoms intended to take the brunt of the dirt and wear. In winter you will know dry trousers can get very dirty. I also own some palm atom bibbed dry trousers and bought them in yellow, I’d say they are now a brownish colour after maybe six years of wear and tear.
The suit comes with a neoprene neck, not a latex neck which can often cause rubbing and a lot of discomfort when wearing for a long time. Admittedly these do not hold the water quite so well as a latex neck but a great compromise if wearing a lot for comfort. The Bora comes with a hood which folds out of the neck in a similar way to most waterproof jackets. This can feel a little bit stiff packed into the neck at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly, and it does soften over time. The hood itself is an excellent feature for this suit. It has excellent adjustability, both at the back to tighten and around the neck to get a secure fit it in heavy rain or winds.
As mentioned earlier, this may not be a feature required for those more dynamic styles of kayaking such as freestyle or river paddling. The hood also has a zip-up neck which covers the lower chin and partially covers the mouth to prevent wind chill yet still allowing breathability. This outer neck has a fleece lining too, which is super toastie!
As for the suit itself, the Bora is very similar to the Atom regarding design and materials. The main differences being the hood, the wrist cuffs are a little larger on the Bora than the atom wrist cuffs, rather than a single chest pocket on the Atom. The Bora has a double pocket which is fleece-lined for warmth and like that of a hoody pocket you can put both hands on together and warm them up. This is an excellent feature for those cold sessions! The Atom has the latex inner neck seal whereas the Bora uses an ultra-stretch neoprene. However, the material is the same on both suits and makes use of Palm’s four-layer 320D fabric reinforced in critical areas of wear.
Access is via the back of the suit using a YKK aquaseal. Over the shoulders zip is not always the easiest to do up and open if paddling solo, however, I’ve been managing fine, you need to get the knack. Once on the zip does not get in the way, nor does it feel restricting.
Multi paddlesport
As both a paddler and sup paddler I’ve been mostly wearing this on a SUP board. Although aimed as a kayaking and canoeing drysuit, it does not feel cumbersome on a SUP even with unnecessary features such as the waist rim used to put your spraydeck in and seal against the suit. So if you are a multi paddlesport coach/wanting a suit for a bit of everything, the Bora is worth considering.
In true drysuit style, however, the feet are massive! I’m yet to find one that’s not! But you have to consider the sizing range if shoe size were added into the mix there would be so many sizing considerations it just wouldn’t work.
Having worn this suit on a warm autumnal day it was forgiving, and I wasn’t overheating in a short sleeve base layer and trousers, also worn on a couple of very wet and cold days with more layers and it was toastie warm. This will definitely be my go-to suit their winter on the SUP. During a swim test the suit held water off well, there was no water ingress, and the water was beading off the suit after approx five minutes in the water. The air held in the suite offers a bit of extra swim floatation too.
Conclusion
All in all, I think this is an excellent drysuit for those real explorers, whether ocean, river, lake, canal, sup, coaching any of these disciplines would compliment this suit it is a quality piece of kit. It is a higher price at £770 however you are getting premium features and something that if looked after will last you many seasons.
