I have no personal experience with dry suits but have heard a fair amount about them. On the other hand I am a member of a boat club and I can speak at lengths about communal equipment longevity in the club. In one word... BAD. I hope the people of your club takes better care of things than in ours in Chicago. Stuff is not properly dried out, often stuff gets piled on the floor wet, damaged equipment does not always get reported. It is like a bunch of children were the members. Communal gear seems to be subject to much more abuse than personal gear and the idea of the delicate dry suit gaskets and other critical features seems to make them a very bad choice for a group purpose. Also, it seems proper sizing is important and if a person is headed out for a paddle and if their size is not there and they grab a bigger one, it could be potentially fatal if in for a swim to much air in the suit that rushes to the legs and creates the wrong buoyancy (head down, feet up). Perhaps that can not happen with a PFD but it might be worth looking into. Perhaps if you feel compelled to do something, going with more durable wetsuts and perhaps paddling jackets might be a better idea. Again, I have only read about them but those are my 2 1/2 cents. Bob Chicago .......................................................... Robert Brubaker http://home.earthlink.net/~rbrub .......................................................... *************************************************************************** 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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