Gordin said: >Here's the promised update on my dry suit research.<>snip< I know of few paddlers who are overly fond of their White's paddling drysuit but, those same folks aren't overly critical either. The regular White's drysuits are reasonably affordable, serviceable immersion apparel that meets average criteria for performance, wear, and comfort. Dollar for dollar, there are a few US manufacturers whose suits are probably rated a bit higher in terms of value for a given performance level, but given the difference on the Canadian dollar, would cost too much by the time they got up here (check out some of the NRS catalogue stuff). If the club were to get a "good deal" on a large order, then I'd say it was money well spent (especially compared to the other option, which might be for some members, unfortunately, not pursuing the matter further and not procuring decent immersion apparel. A "club buy" is always a good way to get a bunch of paddlers into immersion apparel quickly and efficiently at an affordable rate. Personally, I have not had the best success with a variety of White's paddling immersion apparel over the last decade and a half, but I've never heard anything negative about their _dive_ gear in all that time. A manufacture's next sale is only as good as the last dive suit made. Diving is big business, but not paddling. I waited patiently until White's finally configured one of their highly rated dive suits with heavy duty zippers into a paddler's drysuit, along with consistent production runs and regular supplies of core material . I'm a very happy customer now with my black drysuit. Friends who own the same suit in the dive configuration (no tunnel, etc) use them year round and get 200 dives or more to a seal. That's not bad. I wouldn't be caught dead in a winter storm now, without mine...well, as Hutchy would say, maybe I would. Wanna do some night storm paddling Gordin? Black on black. Doug Lloyd PS Gordin, you gotta pick up the latest Wavelength, awesome First Nation coverage, and I'm not even a white pinko commie! And, looks like the Fish-farm friendly Liberals are backing down a bit. Also, I just finished up the entrapment article for Sea Kayaker, thanks to some of the Paddlewise members who contributed their thought-provoking examples. So, race you to the next article, or are we racing to see who gets their renovations finished first? :-) Better go... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ "Whatever can be said at all can be said clearly and whatever cannot be said clearly should not be said at all." Ludwig Wittgenstein ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ *************************************************************************** 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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