After an hour long, 3 mile walk in the gusting wind and the heavy rain here's what I found out... it is not waterproof. But it is really, REALLY water resistant.
The shoulder area, hood, and the outsides of the arms of the jacket held out for the full hour, not only holding the rain at bay, but holding the water off the fabric altogether. The DWR did a great job in keeping the material totally dry.
The body of the jacket is made from a different lighter Gore Windstopper material. This stuff wet out in about 30 minutes. That being said, it seemed to keep the water from getting through, but just barely.
The least water resistant part of the jacket turned out to be the stretch panels at the cuffs, the cuffs being the usual weak point in any waterproof jacket's armor. On the Venta SV, these panels wetted out, soaked up, and then leaked through fairly quickly. This lead to the sleeves of my base layer getting wet. Which then lead to wet hands.
So there you have it, the Venta SV is not waterproof. But man it really tries hard to be.
And did I mention that the wind was gusting to 40mph? Did mention that none of that wind made it through the Gore Windstopper, and that I was quite comfy on my little walk? Or that the hood stayed perfectly in place? In fact, if this were a review of the jacket as it was intended, I'd give it a 9 out of 10 for it's fit, quality, looks, and function.
It looses a point for 1, pockets, that while set high so as to be accessible with a pack or harness on, are still so damn deep that items placed in them fall down behind said pack hip belt or harness. And 2, for not having a wire brim on the hood.
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