About me, I have been paddling for 4 years, paddle mainly rivers of GR3-4, play on the local wave a bit and do a bit of kayak surfing with friends and the family. I also spend a lot of family time on the beach with my 3 yound children. I have a 'drysuit' for winter, a dry cag and 3/4 strides for the spring and a Ti-vest for summer surfing.

I bought the Nookie Ti-Vest last spring to use as a shell when surf kayaking, playing at the local wave or just messing around on the beach with the kids. I thought it would be a good alternative to getting my regular dry cag salty and make it easier when hauling all the kayaking and kids beach gear down to the beach for the day.

The top is really well made, is of a nice weight, is very figure hugging but does not restrict movements in any way. The wrist and waist seals are very good and keep all water out, even when punching through 3-4 foot surf in a play boat or just swimming in surf and have a good seal to a spray deck.

I only have one niggle with these, would be excellent, wetsuit tops and that is the neck seal. The neck seal is very soft and comfortable, fits over your head easily and does not cause chafing, unfortunately is does not keep a good water seal either! I found that whenever I went under water in it (either rolling or swimming) it would leak water and when I punched through or swam in a wave it would take on a good cup full of water.

I found that after a half an hour session in the waves when I got out I had about a pint of water sloshing round my waist, kept in by the excellent waist seal. I feel these tops are very useful in warm sea and surf, but could be so much better and more versatile if they had a better neck seal. They could be used much more comfortably in British waters or play waves in the spring to autumn rather than just summer use.

Hopefully Nookie will pick this up when they bring out their next mod of the top.