----- Original Message ----- From: Richard G. Kemmer > Never measured comfort versus actual temperature, but will pass along an experience > > Last Memorial day in Apostle Islands, debated whether to wear wet suit or dry suit in unseasonably warm weather. Chose wet suit rather than cook under sun. (Can't roll, so couldn't cool off that way.) When reached island destination was overheated in wet suit and took plunge. Unbelievable shock! Farmer john gave some protection, but shoulders and arms numbed immediately, driving me out of water in less than a minute. > How thick is a "normal" wetsuit in your part of the world? Here you can buy from 2mm to 8mm, perhaps even 10mm. I have 3mm and 6mm suits, farmer johns plus jackets. A polypro top, 3mm farmer john and a paddle jacket is my normal warm season wear, substituting the 6mm farmer john in the winter. The 3mm waist length jacket is normally taken along, but rarely worn. The 6mm jacket is a hoodless dive jacket, gives great extra protection, but is too restrictive to paddle in for any length of time. Does anyone have guidelines on water temperature vs wetsuit thickness? Or for when wetsuit should become drysuit? Allan Singleton Hamilton NZ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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