Re: [Paddlewise] When in Rome do as the Romans do?

Tomckayak_at_aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 8/4/99 6:59:54 PM EST, hlevin_at_jlc.net (Hal Levine) writes:
> 
> << Additionally, the outfitter from Friday Harbor instructed the newbies to
>  put the spray skirt  over the pfd.  I know it was near a full moon but I
>  was very surprised. In a week of traveling around in Southern Alaska and
>  Washington I never saw a wet suit or dry top. >>
> 
> Serious sea kayakers in the Northwest that I paddle with wear Wet or dry
> suits. I just completed a two week trip in SE Alaska and spent every minute
> on the water in a Gor-tex dry suit.
> On the other hand, the only requirement clubs have is to wear polypro and no
> cotton.
> Outfitters in general are driven by greed. The big rental outfit on Lake
> Union, in the heart of Seattle, does not even give out spray shirts for kayak
> paddling on the lake and their one of the best operations.
>  This has been going on for years and the body count is very low.

Tom accurately describes what I have seen in Seattle.  I choose not to paddle
in the San Juans.

Tim Mattson's experience (summarized in another post) is somewhat different
from what I see around here.

On the Lower Columbia River (*flatwater* conditions), most sea kayakers do not
wear immersion protection clothing, winter or summer.  Maybe 20 per cent of us
do, when the water is cold.  When the water is warm, nobody wears a dry
suit/dry top or FJ.

When the conditions on the River get gnarly, the only people I see out on the
River are the folks with the skill to deal with the conditions -- invariably
they wear immersion protection clothing.

Those who kayak surf, as Tim notes, almost always wear wet suits or dry suits.

Hal's experience is similar to what I have observed in another popular area
for guided parties: Barkley Sound, FWIW.  Barkley Sound has what I would call
"cold" water, most times of the year.

As Tom says, the body count in the PNW is low -- which I attribute to a very
low incidence of capsizes, not to appropriate clothing.  All it will take is
one "incident" in which the majority of the clients of a guided party succumb
to immersion hypothermia to change this.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
cynic

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