Yak Taurus PFD

When it first landed I thought that it was one of the best looking PFDs I had seen in some time. It reminded me a great deal of some of the Lotus PFDs from the 1990s in both its shape and size.

The Taurus is a slab based over the head PFD with full CE/ISO approval. The slab has been shaped to contour with your torso. The range of movement is allowed is superb. Adjustment to all of the straps is simple and straight forward and the addition of the little tabs makes the straps easy to release by hand.

The Yak Taurus is a rescue vest and as such can accept a rescue belt. The Taurus is also setup to work both left and right handed. Unfortunately it doesn’t come supplied with the belt. However, all of the standard belts are available after market and Yak do their own at just a little over £22. So the entire setup with the £90 PFD will come in at just over £110. This is almost half the price of the Astral Greenjacket.

Split D-rings are provided on both the left and right hand side of the PFD to clip your cow-tail into. A small press studded pocket located on the front of the PFD is designed to store a folding river knife. I’ve tried a couple of different knives including my favourite Spyderco Salt, which isn’t the smallest but fits easily. I found getting into the pocket very easy with the plastic press stud fastening simple to use.

The front pocket is huge and is easily accessed via a large zip. But not being a clam shell design means that it doesn’t have such a wide opening as the Astral Greenjacket. The zip is easy to spot as it has a tag on the zip pull in bright green. The pocket and the foam slab sits low on your body, which again gives great levels of movement for paddling and dare I say it, makes swimming pretty easy.

The shoulder straps are well padded and are covered in anti-slip silicon to help make carrying your boat a little easier. Mesh panels on the inner part of the PFD allow for quick drainage and drying.

The waist strap and adjustment sits within the PFD and doesn’t sit below the buoyancy slabs. It seems such a simple thing but really does help the PFD sit well against my deck when paddling. Although I have been wearing the PFD with a few layers, I suspect that this feature will also help the PFD to be pretty comfortable in the summer months when I may only be wearing a rash vest on my top half with the PFD.

After plenty of use and plenty of time to think I reckon that Yak have struck gold with this design – it’s not radical in anyway but does it’s job really well. I like the look, fit and performance. If you haven’t looked at Yak gear for some time, I’d recommend checking out the Taurus.