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? In 1997, I kept a detailed paddling log that included what I wore for each trip. I generally make my own decision on what cold water to wear gear based on my own personal comfort level and feelings about safety, not on the recommendation of others. 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. Since I didn't save the water temp in my log, I downloaded the local (Thomas Point Light - http://www.nws.fsu.edu/B/buoy?tplm2) air and sea surface water temperatures off the Internet for all of 1997; loaded the data points into Excel (Microsoft's one good program) and plotted them in a graph. I also totaled the water and air temps for each time period and plotted that as well. Someone else on the list had suggested that a "100 deg F rule" such that when the air and water temp combined were greater than 100, cold water gear was optional. I wanted to see how this rule fit into my paddling style and if there was any validity to it in this area. Here's what I learned about my personal preferences. In 1997, I stopped wearing cold water gear at 62 deg F on May 20 and began wearing cold water gear again on October 10 when the water temp was 68 deg F (the air temp was cold that day). So, what about that 100 degree rule? Based on the data I have for this area, if I had gone purely by this rule in 1997, I could have paddled on 22 days where the water temp was 50 degrees or less. On 8 of these days, the water temp was 45 or less. In 1996, there were 12 days where the air temp and sea temp totalled over a 100 while the water temp was less than 50, 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. There are my thoughts... feel free to add yours. Greg - Greg Hollingsworth EMAIL: gregh_at_abs.net PHONE: 240-228-6065 WWW: abs.net/~gregh/kayaking LIVES: Sykesville, Maryland WORKS: Johns Hopkins/Applied Physics Lab PADDLES: Red Nordkapp usually on Chesapeake tributaries - *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:55 PDT
