[Paddlewise] when start/stop cold water garb

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?
SNIPPED
> I generally like to get wet and I like to
> be comfortable when I am wet, so I'll often put on cold water gear sooner
> than the average paddler.
SNIPPED
> 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.
SNIPPED
> 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.
> 
> There are my thoughts... feel free to add yours.

Very interesting graph.  A couple of questions and comments.  I don't
mean to be picky and precise but your graph brings that out in me!:

You seem to have worn cold water protection just beyond Oct 10th on a
day in which the air temperature hit 80 degrees and the water was at 70
degrees.  Similarly you wore cold water protection prior to the May 20th
date on a day in which the air temperature was 80 degrees and the water
temperature in the low 60s.

a) What sort of cold water gear did you wear those days?  (if you can
recall :-)) I assume it was not a dry suit.  For that matter, what did
you wear in general in those marginal periods in earlier May and just
after Oct 10th?

b) Why did you not go sans cold gear a bit longer into that 80 air/ 70
sea day?  I suspect that the wind or where you planned to paddle may
have accounted for this.  Or something else.

2.  You do intend to get wet, as you state.  That certainty certainly
dictates your clothing choice to wear the gear at water temperatures
below 65 degrees.  I know I would certainly wear such gear in the low
60s degree water if I were practicing rescues etc.  Not that it would be
needed but that it would be more comfortable.

(But practice situations are different from actual situations.  If I
know I will be doing lots of self-rescues drills even in 80 degree water
temperature I wear pants instead of shorts.  Getting in and out of a
boat can get your legs scratched up on deck hardware and rough
surfaces.  Why needlessly get cut up.  In a real life self-rescue, if
you got scratched because you were wearing shorts, so be it.  You would
be in shorts because that is what the paddling conditions dictated.  If
you needed to self-rescue, the shorts might mean getting scratched up.)

If a trip did not plan for such exposure I doubt that any paddler
in non-cotton clothing, experienced or not, would be in serious danger
of hypothermia, cold-water shock, incapacitation, etc. if he fell into
60 to 65 degree water with air temperature in the 70s and either by
himself or the help of others would be back in his boat within a
few minutes?  Those temperature conditions prevail for several
months of the swimming season for beachgoers in many parts of the
country and I don't think that first aid stations at beaches are filled
with hypothermic victims at that time.  So a human being can certainly
tolerate them.

I hope I am not coming across argumentative.  I agree with you in the
main about the problems with guidelines that are based on the sum of air
and sea temperature.  Water temperature is the key.  Below some water
temperature you must have some level of cold water protection no matter
what the air temperature.  

The precise choice of cold water gear would differ
according to other conditions, where you were paddling, and your
intentions regarding getting wet.  Dry suits for some situations.  In
other situations, lesser items such as farmer john neoprene or
watersport polartec combined with waterproof jackets and possibly
waterproof pants.

Judging by what you are doing and from what I have heard from others, I
think this spring I will raise my own personal threshold of cold water
gear from the present 55 degrees to a new level of 60 degrees. At least
on the upper part of my body with a vest or short sleeve shirt or jacket
of that watersport polartec stuff. 
  
ralph diaz
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