I got this from Richard Clifford, our kayak swim escort coordinator for the Round Manhattan swim. Richard is on a lot of swim events websites and in touch with swimmers from Australia to Loch Ness. Take a look at this site: http://www.oceanswims.com/YADA/viktor.html Doesn't it make you wonder a bit about cold water exposure and how much a human can take. The water these people are diving into (sudden reflex gasp syndrome, anyone?) and swimming around in for 20 minutes (whatever happened to the adage about swimming robs you of heat and those odds of swimming x yards in x degree water being so strongly against you?) is at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and below (zero to minus 4 Celsius). Acclimation is obviously the key. I wonder what benefit might be derived from deliberately taking plunges as the cold water season sets in; or taking extensive showers with only the Cold tap on? Whatever the case, I think I will still wear full cold water immersion clothing at anything below 55 degrees and a modicum of such protective clothing for temperatures just above that. But the event depicted in that website does give one pause to think about survivability in cold water particularly about the dire predictions bantered around. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Mar 06 2001 - 06:46:19 PST
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