Review: CAPELLA 3.0 MEN’S CGA VEST for River Surfing

The following is an ocean surfing centric biased review of the Ronix Koal Capella 3.0 CGA wakeboard vest for potential use in river surfing. First let’s start with an overview matrix chart:

CALL	RESPONSE	COMMENTS
Brand/Model	RONIX KOAL CGA CAPELLA 3.0	Removed front web belts & buckles so the vest would not slide on top of the surfboard while paddling in the river. Might not be CPW compliant after making the belt modification.
Coast Guard Rating	Type III	Type III pfds require tilting head back to avoid going face down in order to provide a stable face-up position, and will NOT hold the face of an unconscious wearer clear of the water. Most typical kayak/SUP vests are also Type III CGA pfds.
Style of PFD	Wake Style (CGA)	Wakeboard Vest front zip. Mimics the look of an impact vest but is a CGA certified vest. Is a bit more “ocean surf-style” looking than a traditional kayak/SUP vest.
Connect Leash	No	Could connect to the original web belt & buckles.
Paddling/Popup	Very Good	The Capella has less foam on stomach area; however, the Capella vest rides up on back of the head while prone on a surfboard. Arm holes are small and might feel restrictive compared to traditional kayak vests.
Safety Increase	Bad	Too buoyant for river surfing passing over (not under) the secondary wave risking a head/face hit by the surfboard. Too buoyant for proper defensive swims thus unable to properly negotiate wave trains that risks flush drowning. Lastly, Type III pfd’s do NOT hold an unconscious person’s face out of the water and literally will NOT be of much of an advantage for “rescue team” help of others especially when a “knocked-out” surfer is floating face down unnoticed by anyone in the surf lineup/queue who are more intent on their next turn up than watching out for the prior surfer who came off the wave before them.
Comfort	Poor	Feels too bulky all the way round, especially when in the river.
Appearance	Poor	Looks like wearing a puffy coat on a wave while surfing.
Overall Rating (River Surfing)	Poor	Too restrictive in the water because of buoyancy in wrong places. CGA wakeboard vests are literally made to float in calm water in one spot waiting to be picked up by the ski boat. Not a defensive swim vest for the river; however, the lower foam in the chest area is much better than a typical kayak pillow vest when it comes to staying on top of the surfboard to paddle to eddies and/or when negotiating wave trains only when paddling on top of the surfboard.

REVIEW WRITE-UP (Not The River Surfing PFD You Have Been Looking For)

Preface:

Educate yourself about river surfing and know conditions before you go. When in doubt, don’t go out. River surfing can be dangerous or worse. This article is not drafted to discourage use of CGA PFDs if you currently use one or think you may need one. The opinions are from the perspective of a river surfer who currently does not use a CGA PFD, surfed ocean waves for four decades, and whose opinions should be balanced against others who do use CGA PFDs. Ultimately you set your own risk tolerances based on your knowledge, skills, and the dangers of river surfing that vary from one spot to another and from one flow level to another even at the same river wave.

Background:

In August 2023, the controversy of having to use a certified Coast Guard Approved personal floatation device (referred to as “CGA PFD” or “certified vest”) while river surfing the the Scout Wave in Salida, Colorado was raised by Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) and their Park Rangers. A full write-up was posted on The Denver Surf Report (see: https://denversurfreport.blog/2023/08/13/pfd-controversy-at-scout-wave-beyond/).

Basically CPW has warned the river surfing community that it is against the law in Colorado to river surf without a CGA PFD. This is being disputed by a number of persons in the river surfing community since there are no river surfing specific certified vests whatsoever on the market, and the law is not clear if CGA PFD’s are actually required for river surfing in Colorado statewide…. With that said, we have searched the industry over and have found “possibly” a CGA PFD that might work for river surfing, but only to an extent and poorly at that.

After hours of looking, we narrowed the field down and chose one certified line of vests worthy to test for river surfing, the Ronix Capella 3.0 CGA Vests. We then begrudgingly dropped $140 to purchase a Ronix Koal Capella 3.0 “Black Ops” for further inspection.

Below is our critique of the Ronix Capella 3.0 certified vest for potential river surfing use and can be extrapolated as a review of other similar constructed certified vests.

The Fit:

The Ronix Capella line of CGA PFD/certified vest is one of a few pfd companies (Ronix, Liquid Force, and Jet Pilot) who instead of utilizing the traditional flat two piece CGA vest, have created a round cylindrical vest to conform to the body similar to a competition wakeboard vest but in a CGA certified “Type III” compliant vest. Where the Ronix Capella 3.0 certified vest differs than other similar PFDs, is the reduced foam volume in the lower third of the vest making for a better prone paddling vest for a surfboard at a river wave. This was why we chose the Ronix Capella 3.0 certified vest over Liquid Force’s “Watson” vest and Jet Pilot’s “Shaun Murray” vest (both also certified CGA wakeboard vests).

Check out this quirky vid by Ronix about their Capella vest line: https://youtu.be/CdTtTt3FuRo?si=o6wJ13fjVfcTcgsP.

Also here is a comparison by an experienced wakeboarder of the Ronix Capella CGA vest against the Shaun Murray Jet Pilot CGA and against the Liquid Force Watson CGA vest: https://youtu.be/7IDUzjKW8HI?si=L34L72dBtMpa-bMq…

_{(Note, I have an older version of the Liquid Force “Watson” vest that in my prior river surfing use I found to be too bulky and fit poorly. I could not find a Shaun Murray Jet Pilot CGA in Colorado to try on and despite multiple attempted contacts to Jet Pilot for a demo vest, Jet Pilot never responded.)}

The Ronix Capella 3.0 vests are similar to their line of “comp wakeboarding” vests but the Capella 3.0 vest has enough floatation to garner the “Type III” Coast Guard Approval. This is nothing new for beefed up wakeboarding vests except for Ronix lengthening out the torso and, as we mentioned, thinning out the lower third portion of their Capella 3.0 vest. What this potentially does for a river surfer using a Ronix Capella 3.0, is avoiding the pillow compact bulkiness of a traditional kayak vest and lengthening/thinning out the shorter corked-out CGA wakeboard vest. In essence, the Ronix Capella vests are easier to paddle your surfboard onto the wave for pop-ups and to get back back on the board to paddle to the eddys as compared to a traditional two piece kayak CGA PFDs or typical beefed up certified wakeboard vests.

Ronix admits that their Capella 3.0 vests are not the lightest vests but Ronix claims that their Capella 3.0 vests are more comfortable because the way their Capella 3.0 vest conforms to the body. After putting the Capella 3.0 vest on, there does seem to be some legitimacy to the Ronix claim of a longer form fitting CGA PFD that is more comfortable.

To be completely transparent, we made a quick modification to the Ronix Koal Capella 3.0 “Black Ops” XL vest we purchased, that may in fact might make the vest non-compliant in CPW’s ticket book. What we did was, remove the two buckles on the front and removed the webbing belts in order to keep from sliding around on a surfboard when paddling to the eddy lines caused by the buckle system if had been left intact on the Capella 3.0 vest. Unfortunately all the other manufacturers of certified wakeboard vests also utilize the same front buckle method.

Even with the buckles removed from the Ronix Capella 3.0, the vest seems it would remain securely on the river surfer even in the most turbulent waters. The Capella 3.0 vest’s front zipper is self locking and has a velcro tab to keep the zipper in place. The arm holes of the Capella 3.0 vests are much narrower so the vest will not lift up to the ears like a traditional vest often does when not cinched down around the body.

We could probably have the buckles and web belts sewn back on to the side of the vest, but it is not needed since how tight fitting the Capella 3.0 vest is and how the smaller arm holes are going to keep the vest from inching up over your head when you are bobbing up and down in the fast moving and violent parts of the river.

We also took the Ronix badge off the chest and blacked out their logo on the back of the vest. What this did was make the Ronix Capella vest look more like an impact vest or comp vest than a CGA vest or fishing vest for that matter. Though we did notice online that the Ronix Capella 3.0 also comes in a Volcom collaboration version. This gives Ronix, the company, at least an appearance of embracing ocean style surfing culture.

The River Surfing Test:

We took the Ronix Capella 3.0 out for a surf at Wave Sixx in small conditions and did not expect any magic other than fitting better and paddling better than other CGA PFDs out there. Unfortunately when you dawn any CGA PFD, there is going to be a “stay-puft marshmallow man” float effect to them in the water, the Capella 3.0 did exactly that in the river.

_{(Note, there is no way in hell would someone put one of these CGA vests on in the ocean and paddle out into the surf because it would make it impossible to duck dive waves.)}

As expected the Capella 3.0 CGA PFD in the river, will keep you floating higher when getting pushed down the river by the wave train and rapids down river after coming off the river wave. But in big fast moving water, the Capella 3.0 certified vest or any other CGA PFD will give you a false feeling of safety. Truth is, there is no guarantee you will not flush drown even with CGA PFD on. See our story about “flush drowning” that most river surfers (ocean centric surfers or even SUP centric surfers) are unaware of…. Do yourself a favor and click this link and read the piece so you don’t die even with a damn CGA PFD on, like what occurred at Staircase Wave in 2019 and again with a CGA PFD wearing tuber in BV earlier this season in 2023: https://denversurfreport.blog/2023/07/08/flush-drowning-you-need-to-know-about-it-2/

Getting back to the review of the Ronix Capella 3.0.. The swim in this vest sucks as it is designed for wakeboard use to just hold your head up higher in the calm lake waters floating in one spot while waiting to be picked up by the ski-boat. You can force a river defensive swim in the Capella 3.0 vest like a kayaker does going for an unwanted swim after dumped out of the boat or a downriver SUP’r who hopefully pulled their quick release leash to get away from their battleship board from dragging them through the rapids out of control. Though, one will likely find that a defensive swim in any wakeboard style CGA vest will be cumbersome, awkward, and inefficient compared to a kayak/SUP style vest or even no vest at all. Though, the Capella 3.0 vest does lend itself to a short distance easy conventional controlled swims back to your surfboard or to the nearby eddy out.

So, here is where the reality of Colorado river surfing will possibly be used by CPW to attempt to justify the requirement of CGA PFDs like the certified Ronix Capella 3.0 or kayak/SUP style vests… In Colorado, we will hazard a guess that ninety percent (90%) of river surfers use of some sort of surfboard leash and most river surfers in Colorado do a defensive swim drag board thing to the eddy that rarely includes paddling their surfboard in the prone position like an ocean surfer does. This means a CGA vest is actually going to be helpful to a good portion of the current river surfer population in Colorado; however, we do not think it has to be mandated by law that all river surfers must use a CGA vest and there are other safety concerns about CGA PFDs for river surfing.

What is sketch (and CPW has no jurisdiction over in the river safety), is the unintended consequence that the quick release leashes that are used by almost 100% of CGA PFD wearing river surfers in Colorado. These so called safe leashes are unproven to work in a hold down situation and are insanely just as unsafe as a regular surfboard ankle leash. Case in point, all types of river surfing leashes (including quick release leashes) are strictly prohibited by the authorities for use river surfing the Bend, OR river wave after they had a fatality at their river wave in 2022.

For those river surfers who don’t depend on a leash river surfing for “the swim drag the board to the eddy thing”, the Ronix Capella 3.0 vest is somewhat better than other certified vests in the recovery phase after coming off a river wave of getting back up on the surfboard and properly positioning for paddling to the eddy. Again, this is due to the Ronix Capella vest’s thinner lower third. But the Ronix Capella 3.0 (as compared to a Pategonia impact vest or comp wake vest or no vest at all) makes for an awkward and out of control paddle due to lack of body contact of the stomach and lower chest to the surfboard.

Another point of concern with the Ronix Capella 3.0 along with all CGA PFDs and certified vests is too much floatation that impedes the ability to duck under the secondary wave to avoid the surfboard hunting your head. A CGA PFD, like the Ronix Capella 3.0, with basically too much floatation leaves the surfer open to a hit the head or face by their surfboard while going topside over the secondary wave. Add in a leash attached to the board, and you’re asking for a board in the nose or worse…. And if you do get knocked out, a Type III CGA PFD is NOT going to float you face up; and guess what, you are going to breath in water likely unnoticed by the river surfing lineup… as rarely does the next river surfer up in the queue watches out for the proper safe exit of the river surfer before them.

The Conclusion- Shine These CGA Wakeboard Vest For River Surfing, They Suck:

The Ronix Capella 3.0 vest line is going to be the closest on the CGA wakeboard style PFD market that can be used at best “half-assed for river surfing”. Improvements should be made to the Capella 3.0 such as extending the lower thinner part to up to the just below chest pectoral area. Also making the vest a side zip and side buckle entry CGA PFD, as well as increased sectioning out of the flotation panels more to make the vest more bendable.

What is good about the Ronix Capella 3.0 vest is that the floatation panels on the side will act like an impact vest and it seems to be currently the best certified CGA PFD (kayak style or wakeboard style certified vest) to paddle your board on in the river. Also it goes to say the Ronix Capella 3.0 certified vest looks a lot more like “surf style” than it does looking like you just showed up from paddling a kayak, or paddling a SUP, or straight up looking like a tourist about to go on a commercial river rafting trip…..

Though, in our opinion: all these CGA PFDs (kayak style and wakeboard style) are way too bulky for river surfing; and, when combined with a wetsuit, has way too much buoyancy than the Coast Guard requires for a person on a “vessel”; and the over-buoyancy of a CGA PFD is counterintuitive to safe river surfing.

_{(The comment section will be left open for discussions or any questions/comments you have about the Ronix Capella 3.0 vests or any other vest options)}

LBK

“Freedom of choice is what you got.. Freedom from choice is what you want.” D-E-V-O…. /s (as in sarcasm)