elizilla
Guest
(from old forum)
The jacket in my userpic is the Olympia AST.
I bought the men's version because the sleeves on the women's version are too short. I'm 5'11". The jacket fits me better than most men's 3/4 length jackets because it has zippered hip gussets that help a lot. (I also think the men's version is more attractive than the women's - I like that it has more hi-vis and less black.)
The armor stays in place pretty well, except that if I put the liner in, the hip gussets are no longer quite wide enough to keep the back protector from sliding up and hitting my helmet. If I were a guy I'd have a longer torso and narrower hips so I wouldn't have this problem. I may try to modify it a bit at the hips, open those gussets farther.
It has a lot of nice features, like large waterproof pockets, good waist cinching straps, and lots of well designed vents. I especially like the chest vents which have little straps you can cinch down to hold them open, and the great long zipper vents on the arms. All the vents have mesh screens in them so bugs won't fly in. For high summer I prefer to wear one of my less bulky jackets. But this one does have reasonable enough venting that you could wear it year round and be reasonably comfortable as long as you are moving.
The outer skin of the jacket is supposed to be waterproof, and it also has a waterproof/insulated liner. The outer skin is not as waterproof as claimed, though. The sleeve vents leak even though they have those fancy rubberized waterproof zippers in them. No matter how carefully I close them, water seeps in there in heavy rain. The liner doesn't have these vents, so it would probably keep the rain out just fine. I have not tried this because of the aforementioned problem with hips and keeping the back protector in place.
The liner is designed in such a way that you can wear it separately, around camp in the evening or whatever, and it looks like a normal jacket.
It's well constructed and made from quality materials. I expect to wear it for years. I might even wear it for skiing.
The jacket in my userpic is the Olympia AST.
I bought the men's version because the sleeves on the women's version are too short. I'm 5'11". The jacket fits me better than most men's 3/4 length jackets because it has zippered hip gussets that help a lot. (I also think the men's version is more attractive than the women's - I like that it has more hi-vis and less black.)
The armor stays in place pretty well, except that if I put the liner in, the hip gussets are no longer quite wide enough to keep the back protector from sliding up and hitting my helmet. If I were a guy I'd have a longer torso and narrower hips so I wouldn't have this problem. I may try to modify it a bit at the hips, open those gussets farther.
It has a lot of nice features, like large waterproof pockets, good waist cinching straps, and lots of well designed vents. I especially like the chest vents which have little straps you can cinch down to hold them open, and the great long zipper vents on the arms. All the vents have mesh screens in them so bugs won't fly in. For high summer I prefer to wear one of my less bulky jackets. But this one does have reasonable enough venting that you could wear it year round and be reasonably comfortable as long as you are moving.
The outer skin of the jacket is supposed to be waterproof, and it also has a waterproof/insulated liner. The outer skin is not as waterproof as claimed, though. The sleeve vents leak even though they have those fancy rubberized waterproof zippers in them. No matter how carefully I close them, water seeps in there in heavy rain. The liner doesn't have these vents, so it would probably keep the rain out just fine. I have not tried this because of the aforementioned problem with hips and keeping the back protector in place.
The liner is designed in such a way that you can wear it separately, around camp in the evening or whatever, and it looks like a normal jacket.
It's well constructed and made from quality materials. I expect to wear it for years. I might even wear it for skiing.