Six P.net locals paddling in winter
Two in wetsuits, four in drysuits
Wickerbut
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2213757590075003331ajCOKZ
Riverstrider and TommyC1
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2180360980075003331yffLdv
Daggermat
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2147614390075003331FeMzHb
Matt’s son Aaron
http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2546650500075003331TsvNuc
Erik
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2795971330094366337QMndYf
Just goes to show you that there isn’t one right answer. Personally, I’m definitely in the drysuit camp.
A safety line is a wrope tied to the
bow and stern. Its tied in such a way that pulling on one end causes it to unwrap. It takes practice to tie it correctly to unwrap. Just Google it.
thanks, may get a drysuit
– Last Updated: Sep-12-09 5:55 PM EST –
in So Cal I generally get by with wetsuit or less. But I may go to the Golden Gate Symposium in San Fran in February and hopefully other occasional trips to cold areas. I had been concerned that if I rarely need the drysuit and it took time to adjust to that it wasn't worth it. But you may have tipped the balance to getting one which I know will give me even more options on where/when to paddle.
My only experience so far was a dry top in a warm kayak shop -- I quickly fought to get the darn thing off it was so uncomfortable. But then it was warm and the neck not yet trimmed.
I hear talk of stretching (over coffee can or jar) and cutting. Is it best to pre-stretch then cut later if needed or just go straight to cutting (a bit at a time I assume until a good fit)?
If you don’t understand
it means your experience level in heavy waves is nill.
Sorry go argue with somebody else. Oh wait it looks like you are arguing that Sing does not know what he is talking about either.
Have fun.
I’ve been in plenty of rough water…
…and I do mean IN it. For rescue training, we often specifically sought out difficult surf and rocky areas to give students an idea of what it’s like to have to deal with them. What you said makes no sense relative to typical paddling.
Apparently you have perceptual problems anyway, as I didn’t argue with Sing, I AGREED with him. I know him personally and also know that he probably spends more time surfing kayaks in a month than I have in my life, so I gladly defer to his expertise on that subject. It also appears that he agreed with me regarding dry suits.
Don’t waste your time stretching
If the seal is really tight, you’re not going to be able to stretch it enough without damaging it. Moreover, stretching can take weeks. Trimming takes minutes. I don’t see any point in the hassle of stretching when you can be comfortable immediately with a properly trimmed seal. It’s standard practice in the dive industry, where dry suits and latex seals have been used far longer than they have in the paddling industry.
Just make sure you use a "wrope"
Only a “wrope” will wrap or un-wrap properly. A plain old “rope” will only rap or un-rap, and that’s not quite good enough when safety is on the line.
This advice is similar to that of Mike McCrea, who says to be sure to fasten your safety line with a “knot”. If you tie it to the boat with a “not”, as he has watched people do on several occasion, you and your boat will soon part ways.
I’m on bnystrom’s side this time
– Last Updated: Sep-12-09 10:35 PM EST –
When you are "in" the water, whether it be waves or whitewater, water doesn't "flow over you" any more so than it will flow over a piece of driftwood. You have to generate your own velocity relative to the water that supports you for water to flow across your body, other than that of local turbulence (which is why airplanes are streamlined but balloons don't need to be, among a thousand other examples of objects occupying some kind of fluid medium). Sure, if you actually need to swim somewhere, it pays to be streamlined, but even in whitewater you do less actual "swimming" and more body-position adjusting so your feet are the first thing to contact whatever the flow pushes you against as you are carried along, because the swimming velocity you can generate is so feeble relative to the current anyway. I haven't been in the water as much as a lot of folks, but I'm about as skinny as anyone and still don't find a drysuit to be flapping around loose in the water or hindering my motion. Instead, the water sort of squeezes it against me, especially along my legs if they are hanging deeper into the water than the rest of me. By the way, scuba divers wear drysuits which are made of much tougher fabric than what paddlers use, but still in pretty-much a one-size-fits all styling, as far having too much girth for thinner folks and the inevitable "extra fabric" that goes with it, but unlike us, they are NOT "along for the ride" following the flow of the water, but dealing with their own slipstream from their own motion relative to the water (meaning there really WOULD be a negative consequence of too much drag, unlike someone who's mostly just floating there).
Of course, there are several people here who believe that a canoe won't coast downstream with the flow if you simply align it with the current, and even more who still don't realize how their boat moves relative to the water supporting it when ferrying, so understanding the so-called "hydrodymics" of an object that doesn't even generate much velocity, relative to the water supporting it, is probably an exercise in futility.
All so true or is it also true?
wheather you not or knot its all about observing safety or not observing saftey. It’s up to you weather you will do it or knot.