I got the pink Life Shorts as a present and I liked them so much I bought the Team Edition set as well. Initially you may be thinking – “Damn, £50 for some swimming trunks!” – I can tell you now that these are the best swimming trunks I have even worn, and for kayaking they hit the nail on the head. I am now going to explain why I like them so much and why I can’t recommend them enough whether you kayak, surf or just want a snazzy set of shorts for sunbathing this summer.
First off the shorts come in 8 colours: Orange/Blue, Grey, Pink, Blue, Pink/Yellow/Blue, 2 Piranha special editions and the SEND version as well. No matter what your colour tastes are there’s a set for you; personally I love the pink shorts and they match my plastic Jed. Dewerstone say on their website that they use “full sublimation printing” that doesn’t fade, I don’t know about that but I’ve had my first set for about 5 months and having used them in the sea (which tends to fade most items of clothing) as well as having washed them multiple times they are still as vibrant and striking as when I first got them.
The shorts are made from recycled plastic bottles and polyester. This might appeal as saving the planet seems quite important nowadays but it also explains why the shorts are so expensive. Despite being made of bottles the shorts are very comfortable, they are light and breathable. Dewerstone say that their “surf leash inspired, triple fold hook and loop waist closure” mean the shorts will stay on avoiding any embarrassment after a swim; to laymen like myself this means the shorts have 2 rubber strips on the inside of the waist which prevent the shorts from sliding down. I actually prefer to get a size larger that I am, just so that I get a bit more freedom of movement but this kind of defeats the point of the system – it depends on whether you like your shorts loose or not. The shorts have a flat fitting waist band with very strong velcro. This means that when sitting in a kayak the shorts don’t rub against the backband or the spraydeck and you don’t get off the water with red marks on your lower back. The velcro is great, normally I don’t like it because it tends to stop working as soon as it gets wet but with this design the clasp simply will not come undone unless you deliberately undo it. There are a couple more complexly worded technical descriptions of the shorts on the Dewerstone website but I’m going to round it off by saying that they are comfortable to wear, they don’t rub, they dry very quickly, they stay on and the fit is perfect.
While you may think I have fallen head-over-heels for the design you’d be wrong for one very small reason – the pockets. The pockets are so thin that you couldn’t put anything (like keys) into them without it rubbing your thighs raw. Sure the pockets are discreet and you can take of the zippers (although why would you?), but the pockets just aren’t good. Another problem with them is that anything in the pockets pulls the shorts down, while they won’t come off this isn’t ideal… I guess you could put plastic notes into them and in that case they wouldn’t be entirely useless but I think Dewerstone really need to improve them, maybe in the Life Shorts 3.0 the pockets won’t flap about on the inside and swing your keys against your skin over and over while you’re walking, or maybe they just won’t have pockets at all – who knows?
Alright then, to summarise I love the shorts. They fit well, they aren’t too hot, they dry really quickly, they stay on (not that we’d be swimming anyway) and the colours are gorgeous. I probably wouldn’t carry anything in my pockets anyway so we can forgive Dewerstone for that small design flaw and other than that they’re perfect. If you want to look cool and be comfortable get these, you won’t regret it.
Patrick Kyak 