Re: [Paddlewise] Lightning Solutions?

Electricity or lightning is lazy and will always take the
easiest path to ground. I suspect that a mere antennae 
erected for safety ( as a lightning rod) in suspect weather 
with a tickler feed that drags into the water might be 
sufficient to avert serious harm to the body.
It's the amperage that kills and it only takes a few milli
amps to send the heart into ventricular fibrillation.

There is an elastomeric compound for sale called 'SUPER THERM'
that is a 'ceramic' based coating and offers a couple of ideas 
that might apply for sea kayaks. This is a serious industrial
coating compound. For example: On the interior permiter walls 
of a home the coating is sprayed on about 12 mills thick 
(about the thickness of a business card),
it is 70 percent whiter than white paint. Benefits? 
It offers a flame resistance factor of about 1600 degrees F. 
before it will burn through. It provides the equivalent of an 
R-19 for insulation value. It prevents condensation below water 
level (i.e. ships) and helps keep cabin temperatures more pleasant.
I have read letters from ship captains who no longer go to damp
and cold cabin rooms. 
This might be ideal for a sea kayak in cold water, and it just might
offer some insulation value against a migrating electrical
discharge from a lightning strike. Ceramic is an excellent insulator!
Food for thought here. 

I tested the product with a butane torch 
(the sleeve of an old shirt had been coated with the 'SUPER THERM'
I was amazed that there was such a delay in burning a hole through.
Same thing for roof shingles and pieces of wood. It does a great
job insulating the inside of steel doors to keep them from 
warping (from the inside) during cold winters, thereby keeping
a firm seal around the permiter of the door frame.
The company that I know sells the product is 'Conspec Industries'
here in Edmonton. If the interior cockpit area of a sea kayak
were coated it just might lend for more comfort in both hot
and cold climates. Moreover, it just might be sufficient to
ameliorate any concerns over lightening strikes (as unlikely
that might be). 

Best Regards,

Philip


Martin Doerfler wrote:
> 
> In the discussion of paddles and lightning, one factor has possibly been
> overlooked, the path of the lightning. Lightning causes major injury along
> the path it takes through the body to the ground (or water). If the
> lightning takes a path through the heart you die as the electrical activity
> of the heart is terminated. It also produces an internal injury similar to
> a crush injury along it's path. It may actually be better to have a
> conducting pole from the air, through your hands into the water as opposed
> to through your head into the boat or water. Yes your hands would likely be
> seriously burned but survival might be enhanced. The golfer with an
> umbrella has the current pass into his/her hand and through the body to the
> ground and is seriously injured, a paddler might fair differently. Other
> than the description of mechanism of injury this is purely theoretical (my
> lawyer made me say that).
> 
> Martin Doerfler, MD
> 
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