One of the fond memory aspects of my white water days in the mid- 70s was that you just were not going to have any fun on a big whitewater torrent without having some serious boat handling skills! Regarding cold water, as the fringe of hurricaine Noal blew through today, Bill Lozano, who owns and runs Atlantic Kayak Tours kayaking company on the Hudson River, ran his annual Cold Water Workshop today. We had 18 students and 6 staff. We started at about 11 am and finished up about 4 pm. For some years, Bill has been kind enough to have me give the opening lecture about the human physiology of cold water immersion. This is backed up by showing a 10 minute video of Dr. Micheal Tipton running dip tank tests on a trained British diver who is instrumented with a heart monitor and closed respiratory air system. Dr. Tipton's subject demonstrates the physiological effects we have covered in the lecture. Water in the dip tank is 50 o F. This is followed by e few minutes showing infrared images of a subject that has been dipped into the cold water tank for a minute. Our presentation includes many case studies that illustrate the specific points covered in the physiology presentation. After a short break, Bill gives a detailed talk about all the kinds of cold water gear now on the market for paddlers such as ourselves. After lunch, Bill provides students with drysuits, hoods etc. to try on and then test in the water off the dock outside his shop. A number of us have been running these workshops since about 1990. We have doubters come in and converts going out at the end of the day. Over years, we have found that a few paragraphs here or there just don't register with folks going out in small boats. It is only effective when you walk the folks through the whole story, then show them how to deal with the issue of swimming in cold water and then help actually do it in cold water. Even if only a few of the students actually go in the water and the others just watch, the matter is illuminated when the swimmers come out and comment on what they learned. We had a good day; everyone was happy! Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** 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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