>What kind of gear would you recommend? There will be plenty of practice wet >exits/re-entries (not that that is much of a mission with the Java :-)) but I >oathe paddling in a wetsuit. Would dry pants be overkill? And do dry pants >breathe? I will be wearing rubber booties. Hi Paul, What you should wear is going to depend a lot on your own body fat percentage and tolerance for cold and wet - and your tolerance for risk. I can tell you what I would wear though - perhaps you will find that helpful. At the temperatures you are describing, and given that you will be traveling with an experienced group (thus limiting expe ted time in the water), I would avoid a full dry suit. My (admittedly limited) experience with dry suits is that they can overheat very quickly and there is no easy way to make thermal adjustments on the water. Note that I have quite a lot of "built-in" insulation in my body (fat), rather like a walrus, and overheating is often an issue for me. The fabric tends to make noise with every paddle stroke and the tight clamping at the neck and wrists makes me claustrophobic. You also stand a good chance of tearing your expensive drysuit during all the rescue/reentry drills, particularly if you are working with boats with rudders or other sharp parts. My preference would be a wet-suit with an optional paddling jacket for breezy days Mark G.. *************************************************************************** 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 Wed Jun 22 2011 - 05:53:56 PDT
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