: For sea kayakers breathability is primarily a comfort issue. The
: safety issue is if the suit leaks.

Also, fleece is nice and warm even when damp so even if your do sweat and the suit doesn't breath perfectly odds are you won't notice it until you take off the suit.

: Do you know what the failure mode of eVent is? Does the
: manufacturer guarantee that it won't leak? How well does the
: breathable layer hold up to wear and tear? Your linked report
: only discusses vapor transport it does not say anything about
: how the material holds up to use. It is quite possible it holds
: up quite well, but the manufacture makes no promises and I have
: not heard long-term use reports for the product.

I read the report too, but I'm not sure how the values translate into real world comfort. I have no idea what twice as good Water Vapor Diffusion Resistance (s/m) or Water Vapor Flux (g/m^2-day) actually means. It appears that Goretex is pretty darn close to the same performance when the average humidity goes up - which is I assume when you need better breathability.

: Kokatat provides the service because Goretex requires them to. If
: you have an old Stohlquist drysuit made with Goretex and the
: Goretex fails you will get a gift certificate to buy a Kokatat
: or equivalent drysuit. This is not Kokatat standing by the
: product it is Goretex.

Yeah, Kokatat is a great company but you probably won't get the same response if a Tropos suit started having the same problems.

: I am as cheap as the next guy. It took me a long time to bite the
: bullet to buy such an expensive article of clothing. I now have
: over 10 years of experience paddling year-around in harsh
: conditions with what I bought and I have been very happy with
: the performance. Further, I now have a suit that is as good as
: new and am still happy with it. If you have similar experience
: with eVent, please let us know because we would all be happy to
: save $50 if the product is truly better. If all you have is the
: results of one laboratory test to stake your life on, I guess
: I'm not going to be persuaded so easily.

It is always good to have competition, and I have bought non-goretex drytops/semi-drytops to save money but won't risk it with a drysuit for ocean paddling.