The Paddler ezine Issue 50 Autumn/Fall 2019 | Page 26
ThePADDLER 26
Yak Taurus PFD
https://crewsaver.com/uk/yak
By Phil Carr
www.unsponsored.co.uk
A brand new Yak Taurus PFD landed at
Unsponsored HQ at the end of August 2019.
Since then it has seen a hundred hours of use.
When it first landed I thought that it was one of the
best looking PFDs I had seen in some time. It
reminded me a great deal of some of the Lotus PFDs
from the 1990s in both its shape and size.
The Taurus is a slab based over the head PFD with full
CE/ISO approval. The slab has been shaped to contour
with your torso. The range of movement is allowed is
superb. Adjustment to all of the straps is simple and
straight forward and the addition of the little tabs
makes the straps easy to release by hand.
The Yak Taurus is a rescue vest and as such can
accept a rescue belt. The Taurus is also setup to
work both left and right handed. Unfortunately it
doesn't come supplied with the belt. However, all of
the standard belts are available after market and Yak
do their own at just a little over £22. So the entire
setup with the £90 PFD will come in at just over
£110. This is almost half the price of the
Astral Greenjacket.
Split D-rings are provided on both the left and right
hand side of the PFD to clip your cow-tail into. A small
press studded pocket located on the front of the PFD
is designed to store a folding river knife. I’ve tried a
couple of different knives including my favourite
Spyderco Salt, which isn’t the smallest but fits easily. I
found getting into the pocket very easy with the plastic
press stud fastening simple to use.
The front pocket is huge and is easily accessed via a
large zip. But not being a clam shell design means that
it doesn’t have such a wide opening as the Astral
Greenjacket. The zip is easy to spot as it has a tag on
the zip pull in bright green. The pocket and the foam
slab sits low on your body, which again gives great
levels of movement for paddling and dare I say it,
makes swimming pretty easy.
The shoulder straps are well padded and are covered
in anti-slip silicon to help make carrying your boat a
little easier. Mesh panels on the inner part of the PFD
allow for quick drainage and drying.
The waist strap and adjustment sits within the PFD
and doesn’t sit below the buoyancy slabs. It seems
such a simple thing but really does help the PFD sit
well against my deck when paddling. Although I have
been wearing the PFD with a few layers, I suspect
that this feature will also help the PFD to be pretty
comfortable in the summer months when I may only
be wearing a rash vest on my top half with the PFD.
After plenty of use and plenty of time to think I
reckon that Yak have struck gold with this design –
it’s not radical in anyway but does it’s job really well. I
like the look, fit and performance. If you haven’t
looked at Yak gear for some time, I’d recommend
checking out the Taurus.