Jack, My most sincere condolences, and thank you for your very complete and objective report. While most of the information we might learn from the incident is based on speculation, there is one issue that it is worth analyzing --at some point he felt that he had to open his drysuit--. Maybe a dry suit is not the best thing to use in some conditions. Hyperthermia leads to premature exhaustion. It may even be deadly if not cared for without delay. Here is where drysuit have a problem. With a dry suit, a paddler has a hard time changing the amount of insulating layers to adjust to the current conditions, as all the insulation is inside the suit. Therefore, hyperthermia is extremely difficult to treat with a drysuit, unless the paddler opens the zipper, which creates a deadly harzard. In that respect, in climates where the water might be 50 degrees F, and the air temperature over 60 degress F, a better protection would be obtained with a wet suit, a fleece jacket, and a paddling jacket. Thus, based on the fact that he had his drysuit zipper open, I conclude that if the conditions are such that a paddler will not be comfortable with the dry suit closed all the time, a dry suit might be a death trap. Again, than you, Jack. - Julio *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 12 1999 - 11:34:01 PST
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