Re: [Paddlewise] When do you start and stop wearing cold water gear?

Greg Hollingsworth wrote:
> 
> Ralph Diaz brought up a question to these lists about a month ago about
> our local club's standard for requiring cold water protective gear when
> the water temperature drops below 65 deg F.  This got me to wondering what
> my personal cold water dress preferences are.  When do I start and stop
> wearing cold water gear?

[major snip]

> [Re:  futility of the "100 degree rule"]: on 2 of these the water temp
> was less than 45, and on one day the water temp was 36 with the air temp
> at 66 (36+66=102).  I would <never> paddle in these water temps without
> cold water protection.  After seeing how air temps can fluctuate wildly
> while sea temps do not, I'm convinced that one should consider primarily
> the sea temp when making gear decisions.

> If you want to take a look at my graph of the 1997 data, it's at:
> 
>     http://www.abs.net/~gregh/kayaking/TPL-tmps.jpg
> 
> Based on what I see my in my own personal behavior, requiring cold water
> gear on club trips when the water temp is below 65 degrees may be a little
> conservative, but not excessively so.  Given that outings are often well
> attended by less experienced paddlers, such conservatism is probably good.

Thank you, Greg!  What a terrific post!  I've wondered myself what the
actual  *practices*  were for seasoned paddlers.  For those who did not
bother to hit the URL for the graph, it is really instructive.  In Greg's
area, the water and air temps (running 5-day average, anyway) track very
closely.

For comparison, around here, we never get water temps as high as his
graph.  Consequently, I 'spect Greg would wear his wet suit on more trips,
here.

Thanks again, Greg.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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