As a "person of larger girth" I tend to overheat in the South Alabama summer. I wear my PFD no matter the heat so I need all the help I can get. Good Breathable shirts and pants help but under a solid PFD there is no relief from the heat. Thankfully a friend suggested the Astral V-Eight to me this spring. It is very light and comfortable and very well thought out ( it even has Velcro to hold up any extra strap length! ) If you research the company they have done some awesome stuff to make this PFD as environmentally friendly as they can. That is a detail that really made me take notice of Astral as well. The high back is plenty tall to go over my Jackson Coosa HD seat back and allows me to have full benefit of the lumbar support. The vents on the front of the V-Eight allow just enough breathing that it will help your temperature control on a scorching day. In fact, I wore it on a cooler spring morning and almost froze because I underestimated the cooling ability. The pockets are big enough for what I need and I appreciated the streamlined simplicity. Not a lot of "stuff" to hang a fly line on. I lost a good fish in a tournament last year due to my reel handle tangling in a strap on the pocket of my last PFD. This will not happen with the V-Eight. I am thoroughly pleased with the Astral and would fully recommend it to anyone who needs a lighter, more breathable PFD.