The Gear Shed - Astral Green Jacket
Intended Use: Whitewater Rescue / Sea / SUP
Entry: Pullover
Foam Insert: PVC Free Gaia®& PE Foam
Shell Fabric: 500 Denier Cordura Nylon
Liner Fabric: 200 Denier High Tenacity Nylon
Webbing: Nylon
Zipper: YKK® Self Locking Vislon Teeth
Hardware: Heavy Duty Acetal and Stainless Steel
Weight: 2.9 lbs / 46 oz / 1315.42 gr
Sizing: S/M = 31-37” M/L = 38-44” L/XL = 45-51”
Design Buoyancy: 16.4 lbs
Approval Type: USCG Type V
Astral Green Jacket Review
The Green Jacket is one of those iconic pieces of equipment that comes to define a generation of boaters. This PFD is wildly popular with guides and boaters of all shapes sizes and crafts. Boaters have a love hate relationship with this PFD with few people taking a middle ground approach to this PFD. Some of the design elements of this PFD makes it less conducive to raft paddling especially in higher class whitewater.
For many, this is a comfortable PFD for advanced users with a built in rescue harness and belay harness. The free floating panels in the PFD are designed to offer greater flexibility and customization options of how it fits to your body. Depending upon your body type this PFD can be an amazing to paddle / swim in or bulky and difficult to work with.
Ideal Uses for the Green Jacket
The Green Jacket is a pretty solid all around rescue PFD. The PFD is a bit more suited to Kayaking and Inflatable Kayaking due to the different body dynamics of those sports over rafting. Green Jackets do have a home in a raft and being a type V PFD require special training to use effectively (i.e. Swiftwater Rescue). The harness is solidly built and tested to standards comparable to other swiftwater rescue PFDs. A Green Jacket can also be a one stop shop if you like to have all of your rescue hardware close at hand and on your PFD in a rescue situation.
How does the Green Jacket feel in the water?
The Green Jacket excels in its role as a rescue vest. Astral put a lot of work into the features of this PFD including the built in belay harness. Some of the nice features are that there is plenty of storage and a floating front panel allows a bit more freedom of movement than more traditional solid piece PFDs. The panel is designed to move from side to side as you move about. This makes swimming a bit easier by increasing range of motion. Having all your equipment at hand definitely helps in a rescue situation.
When you are paddling the PFD fits well for some, but others find this style to be bulky in many ways. Remounting a raft can be especially challenging for shorter folks with shorter arms. Similarly boaters in class IV and V have a a harder time making advanced paddle strokes which pass near the hip and midsection such as draw strokes because of the location of the underarm padding and pockets. The free-floating panel can make it easier to make cross chest strokes like hard forward paddles.
How tough is the Green Jacket?
Astral’s PFD construction and warranty are pretty spectacular. Green Jackets are built using GAIA Foam which is a synthetic nitrile rubber that is often described as a more eco-friendly option to PVC Foams often used in PFDs. Nitrile does have some environmental advantages and is often more form fitting than PVC PFDs. General properties of Nitrile however are that it is less resistant to ozone, weather, high temperature, and sunlight degradation. This is often the foundation of anecdotal claims that the PFD’s longevity suffers, however that claim is naturally subject to specific conditions of use and therefore difficult to substantiate.
Important Considerations for Using this PFD
The PFD has a lot of real estate for storage with several pockets to keep your equipment close at hand. If keeping hardware on you is important, but you don’t want your equipment mounted on a belt this can be a very helpful bonus for you.
The extra storage comes at the price of creating more bulk in the chest and underarm area. Shorter boaters may have a harder time climbing and remounting rafts. Paddle boaters often times have trouble with advanced strokes, though this is less of an issue if you row.
The PFD is a pull over style PFD so for many boaters this requires you to loosen the PFD each time you don it. Unlike side or front entry it can be difficult for some boaters to get into especially if your flexibility is limited.
The free-floating front panel and torso adjustment built in does accommodate a wider range of body types with more customization options in fit and feel.
Like many PFDs in this style our Female team boaters have expressed there is a tendency to lift and separate in the chest or the PFD can put extra pressure on the sternum. This can range from uncomfortable to reducing your ability to breathe depending. For some this is a non-issue, but ultimately it is all about how you are built.
Some folks just feel uncomfortable with plastic buckles and zippers being the only thing holding the PFD together. If you feel uncomfortable with that and you want a PFD that is fully stitched all the way around this style is definitely a solid choice. Most PFDs are tested to the same load ratings for breakage during the USCG, Transport Canada, and CE testing process. That fact aside many PFDs have 2-3 buckle points so it stands to reason that there is less built in redundancy. Absent scientific testing however, this is difficult to quantify outside of pure conjecture at this point.
Is the Green Jacket worth the cost?
All things considered this is a solid PFD and its popularity is a testament to that fact. The PFD has been designed with input from several Astral Team Paddlers and the material is tested to meet or exceed USCG specification. This means the PFD is designed to last in any adverse weather conditions that nearly every paddler will encounter.
From a value stand point Astral packed a lot of features into this PFD, and while it is not the least expensive PFD out there it certainly has a lot of versatility to offer. Again sizing is an issue for this PFD so it is nice if you can try one on before you buy it.
Astral has a pretty fantastic warranty on top of all of that and their warranty department is quick to take care of any issues that arise with their products. In fact, this may be one of the best parts of this PFD, the fact that they stand by their product so fiercely you would be hard pressed to find a company that provides better customer service with their product. That the extra level of service is often cited as why paddlers are willing to pay a premium price for this PFD.