If the weather temp is in the seventies and the water temp is 42, what do you wear? The recent news of a kayaker in Lake Superior dressed in shorts and shirt who died got me thinking about what others wear versus what you should be wearing. I've worn neoprene in the summer and got very overheated. I get overheated in my Goretex drysuit when it's 50 degrees out. I was just curious what others think. --------------------------------- Bored stiff? Loosen up... Download and play hundreds of games for free on Yahoo! Games. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Jeri Rivers wrote: > If the weather temp is in the seventies and the water temp is 42, what > do you wear? The recent news of a kayaker in Lake Superior dressed in > shorts and shirt who died got me thinking about what others wear versus > what you should be wearing. Tough situation. Under benign conditions where I could get back in quickly, shorts and a top. If I am not double dog sure the conditions will remain benign, a farmer john below and at least a long sleeve lightweight layer up top. Between the FJ and my PFD, I can last a very long time ... enough to get back in, anyway. Otherwise, it is the FJ and a good paddle jacket, and rotary cooling. If it is rough enough to demand the full rig, chances are it will be easy to douse yourself with water to keep cool, even if you do not have a roll. -- 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/ ***************************************************************************
Easy. Dress for the water. Easy to cool down if too warm, not so easy to warm up if wet. Farmer John and maybe a light shirt for chafing, or no shirt, but if conditions windy and lots of spray then paddle jacket. Easy to cool down, hard to warm up if water is below 55 or so and you are getting wet. You must be generally hot. I have worn my G-Tex drysuit up to about 65-70 degrees and whether I get hot/// warm or not depends on how much time I spend in the water and what I have on under it. I have never been hot at temps below about 70 unless slogging along in direct sun. GaryJ Jeri Rivers wrote: >If the weather temp is in the seventies and the water temp is 42, what do you wear? The recent news of a kayaker in Lake Superior dressed in shorts and shirt who died got me thinking about what others wear versus what you should be wearing. I've worn neoprene in the summer and got very overheated. I get overheated in my Goretex drysuit when it's 50 degrees out. I was just curious what others think. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Jeri Rivers wrote: > If the weather temp is in the seventies and the water temp is 42, what do you wear? I'm with the others - under those kind of conditions, I choose the FJ plus a light top for chafing and sun protection. I have some light-coloured, long-sleeve tops for summer that are reasonably comfortable. The sleeves are usually pretty wet after paddling for a while, so the arms stay cool. I prefer fabric to sunscreen chemicals. Having been in freezing and near-freezing water several times, I know that it can be incapacitating but is easy enough to deal with if the air temperature is high. You can swim for a while and with an FJ, that swim can be quite a few minutes duration. How I dress when solo is always more conservative than when I'm with a group (assuming a competent group). Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
There are obviously lots of clothing options ranging from core-temperature protecting shortie wet suits to alternative lighter-weight, fuzzy rubbers, back to normal weight farmer johns and even thicker diving wet suit weights. Having on-demand immersion apparel choices on a trip adds to gear load capacities and definitely impacts one's wallet to some degree, I suppose. Drysuit differences and personal comfort levels (Gore versus non-Gore, hot-bodied individuals versus cooler-bodied individuals, skilled "rotary-coolers" versus "at-risk" individuals - or those challenged by wide-bodied kayaks in the later case) leave a drysuit wearer at a fairly quickly obtainable knowledge level of what they can tolerate as days get warmer, to the point that drysuit wearers have an excellent sense of when and where too much is too much. What bothers me is the new paddle not yet geared up fully due to the time sequence and finances of gear acquisition that often necessitates adding immersion apparel basics later in the game than sooner. So, you get newbies out in cold water/warm airtemps ripe for disaster, and alternatively old has-beens like some of us, who are much more wily about staying out of the drink and/or quick at reentries under varying conditions if we do go over. I still don't find a regular-thickness wet suit farmer john to be that onerous to wear on cold water/hot days, as the hull stays cool in the water, legs are against the hull, and the deck retards some of the infrared radiation generated heat from direct warming of your lower half - leaving most of one's remaining choices with respect to what is worn on the torso to supplement the torso protection afforded by the upper half of the FJ. In many necks of the woods, kayaking is still an often cool, wet sport, though the practice of avoiding hyperthermia often requires more finesse than avoiding hypothermia, at least when one considers the normal status quo advice for cold-water aspects for the sport of sea kayaking. Doug Lloyd (hoping his logic isn't specious, or overly specious as the case may be) > Jeri Rivers wrote: >> If the weather temp is in the seventies and the water temp is 42, what do >> you wear? > > I'm with the others - under those kind of conditions, I choose the FJ plus > a light top for chafing and sun protection. I have some light-coloured, > long-sleeve tops for summer that are reasonably comfortable. The sleeves > are usually pretty wet after paddling for a while, so the arms stay cool. > I prefer fabric to sunscreen chemicals. > > Having been in freezing and near-freezing water several times, I know that > it can be incapacitating but is easy enough to deal with if the air > temperature is high. You can swim for a while and with an FJ, that swim > can be quite a few minutes duration. > > How I dress when solo is always more conservative than when I'm with a > group (assuming a competent group). > > Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
My rule of thumb is to wear my drysuit below 55 degrees and use rotary cooling or deep braces (to keep water droplets off my sunglasses) if I get too warm. I also carry a Fuzzy Rubber balaclava in my day hatch for paddling when there is a greater chance of capsize. From 55 to 65 degrees I wear Fuzzy Rubber pants and a Goretex paddle jacket over an insulating shirt. The jacket isn't a drytop, but can be snugged up to keep water ingress to a slow trickle -- good enough for a roll or a reentry and roll, and I can open the neck on calm water for ventilation. Above 65 degrees, it's shorts and T-shirt paddling. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Jack Martin reminded me offlist that I neglected to point out that I was referring to water temperatures in my reply, not air temperatures. Thanks, Jack. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** 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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