“Shrinkage” is really the worst part
of it…I’ve dumped, rolled and swam
a number of times in my local icy
mountain creeks during Winter – And
when I get home, my wife thinks I’m
“Professor Popsicle.” (Gasp!)
I have gone through the ice once while
mountain biking. The thing I remember most is the searing pain. Felt like millions of needles.On the four mile ride back home I set an all time record for me.
Caps help.
We practice in this
Of course we are in wet suits and the likes.
I had a friend out and four of us had just finished a paddle around Middle Cove, Torbay and back to Outer Cove about 8 + Nautical Miles on a fairly exposed coast open to the Labrador Current.
Three of us were showing off, (rolls, rescues, re entries etc.
My friend (A BCU 4 star at the time) decided to show us her stuff: We were in dry suits, she had a paddling jacket over a very light wet suit and polypro. Water temperature may have been 4 C or less 38 F Air temp on shore 25 C 85 C with sunshine.
She asked me to spot her for a roll and I said “DON’T!”
Splash!
The boat stayed down and she came up next to it.
There were some gasps interrupted by words like F&^^Ing Buggery, Je#@!s, Ch%!$t is about as exact as I can remember the diatribe.
She never fails rolls, Guess what cold water can do.
When we got ashore she warmed up and I have photos I am not allowed to show. Actually I don’t she got them and insisted on the negatives.
She was then and remains a more skilled and qualified paddler than I.
Cold water can rip your skills away if you are not prepared for it.
seems like you should have been allowed
to keep one small token souvenir of the occasion
Surfing Year Round - Acclimation
surf year round, one just switch immersion gear accordingly with the water temps. We’re constantly getting hit on the face with waves and rolling in it. It becomes no big deal whatsoever…
When air temps drop below 20, I start slathering silicone grease on my face to avoid windchill induced frostbite.
sing
only problem with that
is the focus on 50 minutes for survival and not context for self-rescue. If you become dysfunctional due to vertigo by having your bare ear canals flushed with very cold water you might have 30 seconds to affect your own self-rescue before you can’t tell up from down. If your bare hands and forearms become ineffective to perform a self- rescue in five minutes of immersion you’ve got five minutes not 50 minutes,the extra 45minutes is simply time hoping for rescue and observing ones decline.
in a class
the instructor forgot to zip his pee zipper,went through demonstrating basic rescues,then had to swim onto shore and walk out with sausage legs as they’d filled up.