Re: [Paddlewise] Lake Erie Sea Kayaking Death

superiorvisions_at_att.net wrote:
> 
> This is a response to Jack Martins post about the sea
> kayaking death on Lake Erie last December.
> Back in the early nineties I heard of a sea kayaker
> dying on Lake Michigan and he was found in the water
> with his drysuit unzipped. In that case the ambient air
> temperature was comfortable but the water temperature
> was cold enough to cause hypothermia. Back then we
> wondered if the paddler could have performed a self
> rescue with water in his suit. After reading Jacks
> original post about the Lake Erie death a few months ago
> I went to our clubs pool session and capsized with an
> unzipped drysuit. I performed the self rescue fine until
> I had to pull my feet and legs into the cockpit. I would
> later find out that I had three gallons of water in each
> leg. I performed the self rescue but I wondered how far
> I could paddle with all of that water in my suit. I
> looked at my PFD knife in a new way. I could have used
> it to cut my latex socks so the water could drain out.

That is exactly my point...the fact that waterproof clothing, be it a
dry suit or paddling jacket and paddling pants, do fill with water and
hinder re-entry if you are out of your boat.  And if you do get back in
your boat, you will get immensely chilled and possibly hypothermic
because of those gallons of water that are robbing your shakened body of
heat.

With a dry suit, yes, the choice is to use a knife even if it ruins the
suit.  With neoprene gaskets on paddling clothing, you can open up the
neoprene if it has velcro adjustable tabs (some earlier and less
expensive jackets had unadjustable neoprene wrists).

Back earlier, Stohlquist offered what they called a semi-dry suit.  It
had neoprene at neck, wrists and ankles but not a waterproof zipper
(just a bit of velcro over it a la any good hiking jacket.)  It just
would not work as any capsize would get tons of water inside. 
Stohlquist still offers an economical dry suit that has latex gaskets at
neck, wrists and ankles but which employs a non-waterproof zipper that
has an outer device of velcro and material that rolls up similar to what
one does with a dry bag (connect the velcro and roll over material two
or three times to form a seal).  This will keep water out but not in
hydraulics such as surf.  I had a friend who had the drybag-type closure
on his Stohlquist suit pop while winter surfing in Rhode Island.  His
suit filled with water.  I am not certain how he survived...lots of
other people around, not far from shore, etc I guess.  Suffice it to
say, he got rid of that suit in a hurry and bought a drysuit with
waterproof zipper.

ralph diaz 
-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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