Hi group - I agree with just about everything Mike Daly wrote in his excellent post on wetsuits/drysuits. My own experience is slightly different from Mike's in that I probably sweat a bit more than Mike does, so even the Goretex drysuit doesn't keep me completely dry. After just an hour or so of paddling, and not extreme paddling at that, the polys which line the suit will be damp. After a few hours, they will be wet. Enough water accumulates just above the ankle gaskets so that I want to "vent" them just after getting out of the water, rather than dribble all that dilute salt solution onto the living room carpet (gross, I know, but what can ya do - ). In cold or windy weather, I need to be careful to have an additional layer of dry clothes to put on if I stop paddling for any length of time, for example when I take a lunch break. Otherwise I could get chilled . Even so, the goretex drysuit has been a wonderful thing to have. It's one of the best paddling investments I've made. I use it with appropriate poys underneath when the air temp or water temp is below 55 or so. For slightly more spring-like temps I use either a drytop or a wetsuit. Whatever I wear and whatever the temperature, the PFD is always on top of it, zipped up. In summer the PFD is sometimes hot, but it stays on anyway. My last word on drysuits - get a relief zipper if you possibly can. What a difference that makes! Bill Hansen *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:05 PDT