Duane Strosaker wrote, "And by the way, a dry suit with only a thin layer of long underwear for insulation is barely immersion gear." Was getting ready to respond to Chuck's original post on swimming/not swimming after a capsize and this email nailed me. I'd take Duane's comment one click further: a thin layer of long underwear is not immersion gear. Chuck will remember about ten years ago -- my Navy colleague who I interested in sea kayaking was paddling alone on Lake Erie during Thanksgiving weekend -- alone, cold (40s?) water, in his brand new Kokatat (if memory serves, which it doesn't) dry suit. Oh, but it was hot, so he wore cotton shorts and a tee shirt under the drysuit, and, oh, it was really hot so he had the suit unzipped at the top. He had about two months experience in kayaks, and he didn't make it to the takeout that day. Two weeks later, a very impressive military funeral at Arlington -- caisson, mounted escort, the works. Cold water kills. Joq *************************************************************************** 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 Thu Nov 08 2007 - 23:44:18 PST
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