I have both an old 'space blanket' and a large plastic bag. I seem to remember that the 'space blanket' was a neat 60s-70s marketing idea to cash in on the multi-billion dollar NASA inventions during the space race.[ Remember the Teflon frying pan rage?] The space blanket idea was that the shiny surface would radiate back body heat. I have kept mine to use on top of the tent floor as insulation between thermarest, sleeping bag and cold ground. Works fine in that limited role. As an 'emergency' blanket, for use without a tent, it has serious drawbacks. I guess it might be useful to wrap a hypothermic body inside a space blanket and then put the body inside a windproof BAG. As John, a fellow Kiwi, has noted, the key is to get the injured party [ or yourself], OUT OF THE WIND, as soon as possible. Tent or bag. Hard to make a blanket draught-proof. I have also experimented with one of those ultra-light bag type reflective bivvies. Great, but fragile one-use wonder. Would not stand up to the rigors of kayaking. For mine, best bang-for-buck is the ol' heavy duty rubbish orange [garbage] bag. And in an extreme marine survival situation, ie, facing the likelihood of clinging to the remains of an upturned kayak in cold water for hours, a bag can be used to isolate/slow down the temperature-sapping effect of cold water on the body. My 0.02c worth... *************************************************************************** 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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