Re: [Paddlewise] Cold Water Clothing

Shirley writes:
There must be some way of resolving the code red caution of the drysuiters with 
the more optimistic neoprene-clad. . . . Guidance, probability factors, tales, 
and wisecracks would be appreciated!
-------------------------
Just for the fun of it, some months ago I tried to see if there had ever been 
any objective research on the insulating differences between wetsuits and 
drysuits.  In other words, if you wear a wetsuit or a drysuit in X degree water 
for Y minutes, what is the effect of each on maintaining body temperature? 

I launched myself out into the Internet and contacted the Navy, the Coast 
Guard, wetsuit and drysuit manufacturers, universities that had done research 
on hypothermia, and people who had done research on the insulating properties 
of various fabrics.

What I expected to hear was something like this:  "a 180 pound man with 15 
percent body fat wearing thus-and-such wetsuit in 40 degree water will lose 3 
degrees of body temperature in 20 minutes; the same person wearing thus-and-
such drysuit will lose 3 degrees of body temperature in 40 minutes."  Or 
something like that.  But that's not what I heard.

I actually got responses from some of these folks.  The general theme of the 
responses was "well, you see, this is very difficult, there are a number of 
factors, it all depends. . . ," and so on.  It appears that there never has 
been any research on the topic.  At least, I couldn't find any, nor could I 
find anyone who had heard of any.  The most "solid" information I got was the 
assumption that since a drysuit is more comfortable in cold water, that it 
would help you to maintain body temperature "longer."  But there was no 
indication as to how much "longer" would be.

So it appears that there is no one who actually has any *data* on how much 
longer a drysuit would let you tolerate cold water vs. a wetsuit.  I was very 
surprised by this.   

jim holman
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