Oilskin? Japara? Goretex? Or what? (1 Viewer)

[Tannin]

I need a coat for my birding expeditions. I want it to be:

• Not too heavy (but middle weight is OK)
• Comfortable: able to move my arms freely
• Windproof
• Waterproof
• Hard-wearing
• Dark, don't-scare-the-birds colour
• Lots of pockets.
• Quiet - no rustling fabrics,
• Mid-thigh length. (I think: long enough to keep the wind and rain out, short enough that I don't have to take it off to get comfortable in the car.)
• Some warmth in it but not too much. Suitable, in other words, to wear over a heavy jumper and with fingerless gloves when it's 4 degrees C, but light enough to wear over a shirt when it's 20 degrees. (If it's any hotter than that and raining, then please turn me around and send me home: I'm in the wrong state!)

I don't really care about the price. If I have to pay top dollar for the right item, then so be it.

Right now, I'm considering:

• A DryazaBone: Australian-made range of oilskins. Fairly heavy cotton treated with oil and beeswax. Available in various lengths and with a thin lining, a medium lining, or a very warm but heavy thick lining. About $200 to $250.
• Various brands of Goretex coats. Nice and light, but hard to find in the right length and fit, and also hard to find in non-dayglo colours. Expensive at $300 to $500.
• Various brands of things made in quasi-Goretex fabrics. Often half the price of the Goretex ones, otherwise seem fairly similar.

By the way, I am tall and slim: it's a little difficult to find things that fit me properly. I can live with baggy though. My main interest these days is digiscoping.

At present, I am leaning toward a Drizabone. Farmers wear them all the time (probably have them skin-grafted on at birth), and farmers are very practical, sensible people. They are mainly designed, I think, for that market, especially for people who spend all day on the back of a horse or on a tractor. I wonder if by using one for bird watching I'll risk tearing it when I'm ducking under branches and on thorns and things. But then the same probably applies to the Goretex option.

What do you all wear when the weather ain't great?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[James]

Hi

There's no such garment unless you believe the advertisers! (Believe the advertisers! - what am I saying!!!).

I have tried several and stuck with a goretex style coat from Chris Brasher, it's about as good as I could get but never yet found the perfect garment. Its two tone green and brown which seems OK and relatively quiet.

James

 

[Michael Frankis]

Can you get Barbour in OZ?

Same basic format as Drizabone, but made for UK conditions (so may be a bit too warm & waterproof for OZ, unless you're in the Tasman highlands). Dark green, so great camouflage. And more thornproof than goretex style things.

What do you all wear when the weather ain't great?

I thought the weather was always great in OZ? - and when it isn't, it is blistering hot and dry? :king:

Michael

 

[POP]

tony have a look at the Barbour web site they do a great range of coats including some excellent lightweights,in days of yore an hertel & Reuss scope pair of leitz (spelling is dreadful)bins and a barbour coat was all the gear you needed.

John

 

[Adey Baker]

Don't know whether you can get 'Country Innovation' down your way but they seem to have a good reputation (as worn, endorsed and even designed by Bill Oddie!).

Their website: http://www.countryinnovation.com/ is down for 'reconstruction at the moment.

I have their top fleece jacket, the 'Harrier' and I can't fault it at all - if their more rugged Rover jacket is made to the same quality then it'll be well worth looking at.

 

[Charles Harper]

I dunno-- you guys DO find ways to spend money. I've got a good wool sweater ('British army', I think, actually), a long-sleeved cotton shirt, and a nylon semi-waterproof windbreaker in a little stuffbag. In combination they cover everything except blizzards and downpours. Altogether, they cost about 20 dollars, are easily and cheaply replaceable, and I couldn't ask for a better wardrobe system. Comes in a range of colours.

(Poor repayment for 'Pegasus', sorry, Tannin.)

 

[phyllosc]

Unlike Bill Oddie they wont pay me for this endorsement but I've had a Country Innovation' ventile jacket for 6 years and it's still working well and looking good. Ventile is such an under rated fabric and great for birding in.

Dave

 

[POP]

charles I must say how much I enjoyed reading your web site,

John

 

[Tannin]

Barbour, alas, are available in New Zealand but not here in Australia. But the general sense I am getting seems to be that a quality oilskin (such as Drizabone, or however you are supposed to spell it) is practical and hard-wearing. I'm in a rush today, but three-parts tempted to swing by the shops and get a Driza-abone on my way to the lake to see if I can get some nice pics of Musk Ducks mating.

Buy in haste, repent at lesiure. But it is raining on and off today, and cold. Hmmmm.....

 

[CJW]

Get the Drizabone.
By the way, Drizabone and Barbour are now part of the same group.

 

[Beverlybaynes]

Another possibility would be things from Filson -- using heavy cotton canvas that treated, also wools.

It's an American company, and I'm fairly sure they're on-line.

Their products were originally designed for hunters, waterfowlers, ranching, etc. I've not purchased anything from them, as they are pricy, but have heard from others about their quality.

Even make luggage, etc.

 

[Beverlybaynes]

AHA!

Filson DOES have a website:

www.filson.com

 

[Beverlybaynes]

Perhaps this is what you have in mind:

http://www.filson.com/1438.HTM

I do know they will ship internationally.

 

[Option1]

I'm 99% sure that the Drizabone won't rip easily, if at all - that's why the farmers where them all the time in the first place.

Neil

 

[MikeMules]

I wouldn't worry about tearing drizabones, the ones I've worn have stood up to barbed wire and blackberries without a scratch. The thing I found with them, though, is that they're too heavy and stiff for moving around on foot. But I didn't wear them too often, so they may become more supple with use.

I make do with a moderately heavy jacket that I bought about 15 years ago from Kmart. It is dark khaki cotton with an inner lining and while it isn't waterproof, with a bit of scotchgard sprayed over it, it becomes so. It doesn't rustle, it doesn't scare the birds and it has a pocket big enough to take Morecombe or Pizzey. That plus a bush hat keeps me dry regardless of the conditions.

 

[Tannin]

Thankyou all. Excellent advice (as always here). The consensus seems to be drizabone or equivalent, but also a strong vote for Goretex.

Yesterday I bought something I had no intention of buying: an ex-German Army Goretex jacket . Real Goretex, great camoflague colour (of course), second-hand but in good condition and not much worn, just under $100. That's a good deal less than I was expecting to spend. For good measure, I took the Goretex overtrousers to match. Tried the jacket out in yesterday's rain. (5 degrees, strong wind gusting all over the place, and peeing down rain from time to time - welcome to Ballarat. ) Kept me dry as you like, though it doesn't have much warmth in it. No matter, there is plenty of room to bulk up underneath.

That will be ideal for the worst weather - such as last weekend when I was (shock!) not taking pictures but planting trees in Benalla. (The Regent Honeyeater Project, Mike, which you may have heard of - restoring the box-ironbark country so as to give the endangered Regent Honeyeater a fair chance of long-term survival. There is another planting day next weekend, so I'll be better equipped this time.)

But for half-reasonable weather - odd showers and cold, as opposed to the downpours of the last weekend, I still like the idea of a drizabone. I'll get one of those too, in a medium, fairly flexible weight, but with the winter almost over now that can probably wait till next year. Or, maybe, I'll see one on special between now and then.

My main worry was durability from the point of view of tears and rips. Seems that that is not an issue. Excellent!

Thankyou all!