Re: [Paddlewise] Layering wetsuits

Having a few thousand hours in the water (lots of it cold, some deep),
I will present my ideas.

There are three major factors to the warmth of wetsuits.

1. Coverage.

Do you cover all skin or leave some exposed?
Do you wear a hood? The head is your fastest place to loose heat, next
are the groin and armpits.

2. Thickness.

How thick is the wetsuit?
It the suit the same thickness everywhere, or thicker in the most
important
areas.
Thicker is warmer.

3. Water exchange.

Does the water seep into the suit and not swish in and out, or is the suit
loose and floppy so that water runs in and out all of the time?

Less water exchange is warmer.

This can often be te dominant factor. A poorly fitting suit that lets the
water
move a lot will usually be coolder than a thinner suit that fits and keeps
the
same water inside.


My final thoughts.

1. The wetsuit must fit snuggly, like a second skin, but not so tight that
it
   cuts off blood flow.

2. Additional layers that also fit snugly are very nearly as good as a
single 
   piece unit that is the new thickness.

3. If the added layers reduce the exchange of water, they will often be
warmer
   than the simple added thickness. Examples of this are gloves, booties
and
   hooded vests that do a lot to keep the inside water 'inside'.

You are right. It is not a simple question.

How your movement interacts with the suit also has a major influence on
the
exchange of water and thereby the warmth of your suit. It is a good idea
to
test a suit both for just waiting for help and also doing the kind of
things
you might be doing to recover.
When you tuck under to reenter and roll, does the suit blast you with cold
water? Can you do the movements at all? As suits get thick this can be a
factor.

Just when you thought something was simple......  :-)))

michael

JCMARTIN43_at_aol.com wrote:

> When we swim, roll, low-brace, etc., water replaces the air between the suit
> and the body whenever and wherever it can inside the base layer longjohn.
> Physics is physics.  The process continues until the air is fully replaced by
> the water --- 

> So, does two plus two really equal four?  Or does it equal two point one five?
> Or three?  I'm pretty sure it's not anywhere close to four!  This isn't an
> idle question --- it's getting colder on the Chesapeake.  I've been working
> with a premise that I now think is flawed.  This isn't an idle how-many-
> angels-can-stand-on-a-pinhead question --- nor is it designed to fill the
> current information vacuum on PaddleWise. Any thermal engineers out there?
> Divers?

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