{"id":18023,"date":"2018-12-05T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T18:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/community.nrs.com\/?p=18023"},"modified":"2022-01-06T07:52:28","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T15:52:28","slug":"pivot-review-take-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2018\/12\/05\/pivot-review-take-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Pivot Review Take Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I began raft guiding, senior staff had one rule about drysuits: you couldn\u2019t wear one unless you were 30. No exception. Spring on the Ottawa River is cold. River-icebergs kind of cold. A drysuit is a valuable piece of gear. But summers on the Ottawa meant warm air and warm water, so it just wasn\u2019t cost-effective for warm water guides to invest in a drysuit, because let\u2019s be real drysuits are expensive, and raft guide wages don’t really condone these kinds of luxurious comforts.<\/p>\n

Instead, each guide\u2014from rookies to decade veterans\u2014developed their own layering system using any combination of wool, polypro or neoprene. Neoprene-clad guides gave the rookies who showed up in drysuits such a hard time on the river, they eventually hung it up and hopped into wetsuits like the rest of us. Which sometimes required boiling water to soften our frozen farmer john in the morning.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been over six years since I guided a commercial raft and moved out of my raft guide home in a broken-down bus. I realized I had unintentionally stuck to the River Run drysuit rule when I hit 30 (just last year) and bought\u00a0my first drysuit. Spending my first day in a happysuit, I mean drysuit, was a day of blissful glee (and warmth).<\/p>\n

Knowing the discomfort of pulling on cold, wet gear made each day in my bright green Pivot drysuit<\/a> so sweet. Like I earned it. I wore my NRS drysuit every day for a month while taking part in Balkan Rivers Tour 2 (BRT) last year. From portaging around dams to protesting in the streets, there were times where I felt like a superhero in that lime suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n