Hi, Okay, I finally got out in my kayak Sunday. for the third time since my brain injury, I could not get my neoprene skirt over the cockpit coaming... It has been about a year and a half since I could get the silly [ooops-important] thing on. Is it possible that over this time, it might have shrunk? After getting out of my boat, I took the skirt off my body, and asked another fella to give me a hand putting it on the boat, and then put my cockpit cover over the whole shbang... Has anyone else had this problem? TomW... <gadfly_at_tscnet.com> homepage: http://www2.tscnet.com/~gadfly/ *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
I had the same problem with a wetsuit. Hadn't worn it for years, and then I went to put it on and it seemed to have shrunk a couple of sizes. Couldn't have been that I put on weight...... Nah..... Seriously though, I have been told that neoprene shrinks if it hasn't been used. -----Original Message----- From: Tom W... [mailto:gadfly_at_tscnet.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 3:50 PM To: PaddleWise Subject: [Paddlewise] "Shrunken Skirt"? Hi, Okay, I finally got out in my kayak Sunday. for the third time since my brain injury, I could not get my neoprene skirt over the cockpit coaming... It has been about a year and a half since I could get the silly [ooops-important] thing on. Is it possible that over this time, it might have shrunk? After getting out of my boat, I took the skirt off my body, and asked another fella to give me a hand putting it on the boat, and then put my cockpit cover over the whole shbang... Has anyone else had this problem? TomW... <gadfly_at_tscnet.com> homepage: http://www2.tscnet.com/~gadfly/ *************************************************************************** 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/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Yes, neoprene will shrink over time although some of the complaints about this regarding wet suits is a weight gain. :-) You might try wetting the neoprene sprayskirt as this will stretch it out a bit. You mentioned having to get someone else to put it on to your cockpit rim and then you got into the sprayskirt. Were you later able to pop the skirt off the rim without assistance? If not, you were perhaps in danger of not being able to release it were you to need to wet exit. I saw something along those lines when I first started paddling. It was a small group with two instructors one of them Chuck Sutherland who has appeared on PaddleWise in the past. The other instructor will go un-named. He was a wise guy and got a slim woman to put on the tightest sprayskirt imaginable both in how it fit her and how it fit on the cockpit rim. I don't think any of us noticed just how tightly it was on the cockpit coaming. We went out for some more instruction when Chuck looked over at her and asked "can you release that sprayskirt?" She tried and couldn't. Chuck then got alongside her and with all his strength (he is a big guy) tried to release the sprayskirt with no luck. He then asked her to paddle slowly back to the dock with me on one side of her and he on the other. If she had somehow tipped he would have just turned her boat back over. We got to the dock and she and the wise guy instructor pulled her boat bodily out with her in it. Then on the dock with all the leverage of being on terra firma, they managed to get the sprayskirt off. Chuck really laid into the guy for that caper. Anyway, don't venture out with a sprayskirt you can't release; odds are that if you can't put it on yourself, you might not be able to release it. Seems obvious but... ralph diaz Joe Brzoza wrote: > > I had the same problem with a wetsuit. Hadn't worn it for years, and then I > went to put it on and it seemed to have shrunk a couple of sizes. > > Couldn't have been that I put on weight...... Nah..... > > Seriously though, I have been told that neoprene shrinks if it hasn't been > used. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Tom W... [mailto:gadfly_at_tscnet.com] > Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 1999 3:50 PM > To: PaddleWise > Subject: [Paddlewise] "Shrunken Skirt"? > > Hi, > > Okay, I finally got out in my kayak Sunday. for the third time since > my > brain injury, I could not get my neoprene skirt over the cockpit coaming... > > It has been about a year and a half since I could get the silly > [ooops-important] thing on. Is it possible that over this time, it might > have shrunk? > > After getting out of my boat, I took the skirt off my body, and > asked > another fella to give me a hand putting it on the boat, and then put my > cockpit cover over the whole shbang... > > Has anyone else had this problem? > > TomW... > > > <gadfly_at_tscnet.com> > > homepage: > http://www2.tscnet.com/~gadfly/ > *************************************************************************** > 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/ > *************************************************************************** > *************************************************************************** > 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/ > *************************************************************************** -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Ralph, >You might try wetting the neoprene sprayskirt as this will stretch it >out a bit. You mentioned having to get someone else to put it on to >your cockpit rim and then you got into the sprayskirt. Were you later >able to pop the skirt off the rim without assistance? If not, you were >perhaps in danger of not being able to release it were you to need to >wet exit. This is an issue I ran into when I first got my Pursuit, and it lead to one of my early writings to was it "Wave-Length"... before Paddlewise got started? The skirt that came off very easily on my plastic Necky, refused to come off from the fiberglass coaming for three tries. Scared the heck out of me, and that is why I contacted George Gronseth, and one of the first things we did was go over the numerous ways to remove a skirt. George did a very good job of instilling in me, the habit of periodically closing my eyes and removing my skirt. Until I can get the skirt ON, I am at a halt... Your story is a good one, not just for me I am sure... >Anyway, don't venture out with a sprayskirt you can't release; odds are >that if you can't put it on yourself, you might not be able to release >it. Seems obvious but... Truly it does seem obvious, but at this point I am sort of "re-learning" skills that [especially in this case] are VERY important. <shrug> Ak! So My muscles are not doing what I want them to sometimes... thing is that if I am really going to get back into this activity, I have to learn what I can no longer do, and find a way around them...<g> BTW, I had help putting on the skirt, putting it on the KAYAK, I did that after I came back, and had already removed it from my waist<g> I always appreciate your posts Ralph... Tom... <gadfly_at_tscnet.com> homepage: http://www2.tscnet.com/~gadfly/ *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Tom W... wrote: > > Hi, > > Okay, I finally got out in my kayak Sunday. for the third time since my > brain injury, I could not get my neoprene skirt over the cockpit coaming... > > It has been about a year and a half since I could get the silly > [ooops-important] thing on. Is it possible that over this time, it might > have shrunk? I don't know if this is possible Tom, but my wife insists that her's had shrunk as well. I put it on the kayak for 2 weeks before she used it again and it seemed to be better. -- : : Gabriel L Romeu : http://studiofurniture.com furniture from the workshop : http://members.xoom.com/gabrielR life as a tourist, daily journal : http://users.aol.com/romeugp paintings, photographs, etchings, objects *************************************************************************** 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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