skimmer wrote: > "I remember seeing on TV a story about a lady who could swim in > Antarctic water. " Paul Montgomery This sort of effect is common for folks who work with their hands in very cold water: fish filleters, for example. Studies show (can no longer recall the sources) that you can acclimate your hands to immersion in 35-40 F water, over a period of many weeks, working up from a few minutes to a full eight hour work shift. OTOH, if you fail to maintain the regime, you lose the acclimatization pretty fast: couple weeks or so, IIRC. Acclimatizing your body to full immersion must involve something more demanding, although when I swam regularly in the ocean, as a kid, we could stay out in 63-64 F water for at least an hour, moving actively. The demarcation was quite sharp, however: at 60 F, we could not stand it for more than 15 minutes; at 70 F, we were in heaven, and could last basically all day. Again, we were swimming actively. -- 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Mar 26 2007 - 07:29:21 PDT
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