Gear that genuinely lifts your mood matters. That’s what this is about.
If you’ve spent any time in paddle sports, there’s a reasonable chance you recognize this lotus flower logo — and feel something when you see it.
Lotus Designs was a beloved paddle sports brand that was eventually acquired by Patagonia. When Patagonia later exited the paddle sports market, Lotus Designs disappeared with it. The brand and its iconic logo were gone.
What came next was Astral. Founded by Phillip Curry — one of the original people behind Lotus Designs — Astral started making PVC-free PFDs from a farm. A quiet restart, built around the same values.
For a while after Astral launched, the lotus flower logo couldn’t be used — Patagonia still held the rights to the Lotus Designs name and branding. When the logo finally returned to Astral products, a lot of people in the paddling community felt genuine joy about it. I was one of them.
My first PFD was a macpac vest I inherited from a senior paddler — and I had real attachment to it. The timing never quite worked out for me to own a Lotus Designs piece while it was still around, and then it was gone.
Second PFD: Astral Aquavest 300 A design philosophy from an earlier era — clean shoulder profile, with buoyancy distributed lower on the torso rather than concentrated at the chest the way modern designs tend to do. A different approach that still works well.
Third PFD: Astral Green Jacket At this point in life, this is probably my final PFD. The one I’ll paddle in for the long haul. The Aquavest 300 has been passed on to my wife for flatwater and lake use — a good second life for a good vest.
There’s something real about gear that you actually want to pick up and put on. Performance matters, obviously. But so does the feeling of it — the history behind it, what it represents, whether it means something to you personally.
The lotus flower on my PFD is one of those things. Small detail, but not a small thing.
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