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/ ***************************************************************************
ralph diaz wrote: > 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. [snip] > > 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? Pretty amazing, all right. Wonder how much antifreeze they have on board? <g> The only data point I can bring to mind re: acclimatization to cold water immersion is a careful study of fish-filleters which was done several years ago. Filleters work in frigid water (ca. 32-35 F, IIRC) for many hours a day, with no loss of function in their hands, **after** a "break-in" period of six weeks or more. New filleters not already accustomed to the cold water could only work for half hour periods, separated by an hour or so of warmup. After a week of this, their work time rose to an hour each time. After three weeks, IIRC, it was two hours, and so on, until after a month and a half of five 8 hour shifts/week, they could work an entire eight-hour shift (with short coffee breaks and a half hour lunch break) with no impairment. That's the good news. The bad news is that the acclimatization is lost a little faster than it is gained: after a week's layoff, the filleters could only do two hours of immersion (IIRC). I suspect the cold shower routine would work, but it would take many weeks to have the effect desired ... and you'd have to maintain that regimen. (Yuck!) Thirty years ago, when I did a lot of cold weather XC skiing and mountaineering, I noticed that my hands adapted to the cold after several successive weeks of 2- or 3-day trips/week, but not to the extent of the filleters' adaptation. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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