A couple of comments on Ralph Diaz's comments on the article on Rhino's death --- I share Ralph's concerns: many of us don't wear the kind of head protection we need for survival in cold water. Some of us carry it, assuming we'll be able to get to in and pull it on if needed. Most of us drysuited paddlers assume that our drysuits will work adequately, and depend on this as our protection against hypothermia. I tend to paddle solo most of the time, even in winter --- and, yes, I'm the same guy who wrote the report on Rhino Hancock's death. I'm also an absolute believer in dry suits now --- Julio's concern noted from a PaddleWise post, but I still think that drysuits are good, and GoreTex drysuits are wonderful! For situations where I overheat, "rotocooling" works. I've bought into the idea that they work, but, like Ralph, I don't hang anything important on the fact that they always will, and I wear a full (non-Rubberized) Thermal Stretch suit under the Kokotat GoreTex suit; it's good and warm for dry insulation, but, if I ever blew a neck gasket or a zipper in the drysuit, this Thermal Stretch (actually the earlier Polartec 2000S form) will provide a survivable solution for an extended period. Maybe it's a "belt and suspenders" mentality, but redundancy is a viable option, as is survival. Jack Martin *************************************************************************** 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 - 18:14:22 PST
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