Given what it says in the article, it’s a wonder why he’s not already.
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I just re-read the specs for my kayaks - 25" and 25.75" wide. Oops! - I was reading the wrong number on the spec sheet.
- I hear you about speed, efficiency and range (those are extremely important to me in cycling!), but on the water I really love pulling down fishing line and lures, and I treasure a stable base.
- Your 14’ would be great in ILSRA. That makes a lot more sense to me.
For calm, flat water, I’ve fallen in:
Getting in at shore
Standing up
Nearly gone over:
Turning around to reach for something behind me
Running up on submerged logs
When the dog saw wildlife in his younger days, particularly when beavers pop up close to the boat unexpectedly
When my partner and I didn’t communicate that one of us was going to shift in their seat or something.
I’ll share a relevant story regarding wetsuits, though this is in moving water. My buddy and I were on a local swiftwater stream in spring looking for sweepers to clear ahead of him taking inexperienced paddlers out later in the season. Suburban setting, about a 2hr paddle, warm day, so I had a dry bag full of warm clothes but no wetsuit. He had a wetsuit. Because he had a wetsuit and I didn’t, in a few places, he waded in to about thigh deep to saw a couple sweepers. At some point he said that he was starting to get cold because he’d gotten back in the boat and now a breeze came up. While the wetsuit kept him warm IN the water, once out of the water it wasn’t helping. We’re both WFR trained and recognized that while he was fine, we were officially on a trajectory towards hypothermia. I pulled my puffer coat out of the dry bag and gave it to him to wear, he accepted, we sped up, got back to the take out, which we knew we were close to, and he changed and had the hot tea I’d brought in a thermos for just such an occasion. If it had gotten worse we could have climbed the banks to knock on a door or called 911 with fairly easy access to roads along the creek.
My point is not to avoid wetsuits for immersion, but rather to have a solid and realistic plan for after immersion if you’re wearing a wetsuit. We both felt little danger because we were prepared for the situation and had redudancies in place, but I’d never thought about how a wetsuit wouldn’t add enough warm after immersion once you’re back in the wind.
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Don’t know what neoprene wear you were using, but the appropriate thickness and design matter. Surfers (and surf paddlers) go out year round and are in and on the water for hours with the right wetsuit in water and air temps that most paddlers avoid. An appropriately thick and well fitting wetsuit keeps one warm whether in or out of the water.
My critique of the wetsuit is that one needs three, if not four wetsuits, to cover the four seasons. With a drysuit, you need enough space to fit 2-3 layers underneath and need to know how to compromise the appropriate underlying layers for in and out of the water so you have reasonable thermal protection in the water but not overheat and sweat while paddling. If you get wet underneath from sweating, the supposed advantage of of the "dry"suit is defeated. This happens a lot for those of us who sweat easily/copiously when we exercise/paddle strenuously.
FWIW.
-sing
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I’ve found that a wetsuit suitable for the water temperature is generally not enough for extended time out of the water if not actively paddling and a thicker wetsuit tends to lead to overheating when actively paddling. When using a wetsuit I used to carry or wear a fleece jacket or windbreaker, especially for shore breaks.
I’ve since gone to a Gore-Tex drysuit which I find more versatile, if initially expensive.
From my years of diving in the 54 degree Pacific Ocean I learned that a wetsuit was good up to a point but once out of the water the evaporation of water from the suit would chill the wearer a great deal. Divers, myself included, would put on a warm robe to minimize the wind chill effect. Later a great benefit from a drysuit is that the wind chill was not a factor. As a result my recovery time between dives was much improved.
A lot to be said for having a painter line to keep connected to the boat and to use at a dock or on shore. On my dive sit on top kayaks I used short leashes that were attached to the kayak and then clipped onto my gear so if the boat flipped the gear would stay with the boat.
A world of difference in being “prepared” and being able to handle a worst case situation out on the water without needing outside assistance.
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I appreciate the point about the evaporative cooling difference between a wetsuit and a drysuit after coming out of the water.
I’m a big fan of painters and I use them on bow and stern.
I capsized the first time I went out in a Kayak on what I thought would be flat water. There was a bit of a wind and the kayak was weather cocking so I was having a bit of nightmare trying to keep it going straight; every time I slowed down, it would turn sideways to the wind which meant I was also sideways to the waves. I was part way through doing a sweep stroke to correct my direction and I a wave unbalanced the kayak and I went over.
I had had enough by this point so when someone in a nearby boat asked if I needed any help, I asked if they’d mind giving me a lift back to the launch site. I had a wetsuit on so wasn’t cold when in the water, I was actually colder on the boat due to the wind and being wet.
I have taken the kayak to the local canal once since but was very wary of not overbalancing as I didn’t fancy ending up in the canal water.
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Over a couple of decades I have swum than 6 times. Three times were getting in or out of the boat. The other three times I was testing a new surfski- I was very fast, and then came to a sudden halt. Three times!
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The almost instant face in the water stop. I had forgotten 2 of those.
Paddle long enough, an “unexpected” swim is inevitable. If you are prepared (for the unexpected), it’s no big deal and just part of partaking in a wet sport.
-sing
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Last Saturday June 21 eight people drowned in Lake Tahoe. They were on a 27 foot power boat taking a tour. The weather got much rougher than predicted. They were capsized by a microburst and reported 8 foot waves. The weather was cold for June with occasional snow. The water temp was 58 degrees F. Two people survived, the only two wearing life jackets.
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We had a similar tragedy about 26 years ago on Boysen Reservoir, very shortly after the High School Graduation of that year. One of the grads was from a family who owned a 24 foot power boat with 3 outboard engines. Lots of power. But we had a wind shear come off the mountains and pitch up waves the likes of which few around here had seen very often. The lake was extremely full that year and those winds hit 85 MPH in less then 4 minutes. The boat was not turned into the wind despite the fact it had enough power to do so, and the kid at the helm tried to run for the boat launch site and got sideways to the waves. The boat was flipped over and all 8the kids were thrown in. 3 wore life vests and 5 didn’t. All 5 that had no PFDs were drowned.
I was not a kayaker back then but I still remember those waves. There are cliffs that form some of the water lines on Boysen and some are quite high, but the waves were hitting so hard they sprayed up over the tops and were washing down brown streams of water from the land on the cliff tops. Later that day I heard about the boat wreck and the next morning we had all heard about the 5 kids that were killed. It was a sad start to summer.
Having a vest and not wearing it is like having seat belts and not buckling them. Trying to put on a seat belt as you crash is the same as trying to put on a life vest as you capsize.
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The second part is to dress for immersion. For kayakers and canoeists you have to b ready for water contact.
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When I was young I paddled flat water in a Grumman. I went for probably 25 years without going for an unexpected swim. Thought I was pretty darned good. In those days I wasn’t above going a boat length or two off shore on lunch stops on hot summer days and intentionally trying to flip the boat. Usually I fell out before the boat actually flipped and just swam the boat to shore - but a word of warning to Grumman paddlers: If you do actually capsize one, it reaches a point where secondary stability fails quickly and entirely. Don’t let the upside gunwale thump your noggin on the way down.
As sing says though, paddle enough and there will be an unexpected swim or two. I’ve gotten wet in mostly flat water while trying to go from kneeling to sitting, getting in or out on awkward or slippery banks, my butt sliding on a newly oiled kneeling thwart while healing, hitting submerged stumps while trying to take a picture or concentrating on possible downstream obstacles… All part of the game. And it really doesn’t count as a swim unless your head gets wet. 
There was one occasion though - paddling in cold water maybe three boat lengths off a bluff when a strong gust of wind knocked me off course. I tried to correct with a strong off side bow pry and put my torso into the stroke. It twisted the adjustable seat of my boat out of the rails it rode on.
I never knew what hit me. One minute I was paddling and the next I was looking up at green lake water. Very cold green lake water. With the seat floating next to me.
There was ice clinging to spots in water in the shade of the bluff and snow in the shady spots along the shore. The air temp was probably in the 40s. I didn’t have a gasp response and was able to side stroke the boat to a small (snowy) ledge, climb out, and disrobe. I wrung out all my synthetic clothes, heavy duty long johns and all, but was foolish enough to be wearing cotton underwear.
I got redressed and paddled about a half mile back to the put-in, but it was a darned cold paddle. My fingers were definitely not working well when I had to get the boat tied down. Heated truck cabs, hot coffee, and any high calorie thing in a small town diner are all wonderful things.
I bought a wet suit before the week was out. I now, as a retired guy no longer living pay check to pay check, wear a used drysuit as needed.
BTW. a painter would have helped the situation A LOT. It would have been much faster if I could have swum fifteen or twenty feet, pulled the boat to me with the painter, and repeated as needed, rather than side stroking the whole waterlogged shebang in.
I did this so youse guys don’t have to.
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I capsized once talking to a pretty girl in another boat on moving water and ran up on an underwater rock. Only my pride was hurt. Another time on moving water I was looking back while taking pictures and ran up on a submerged log. There goes the pride thing again. It was lack of attention caused by distraction both times. I have come very close to capsizing when I paddled over a manatee, and it exploded out from under the boat. Paddle cavitation has also scared the bejeezeus out of me a time or two. Running up on something unseen underwater has come close to me swimming several times on flat water. The other person or dog in a tandem can be the cause the two together turned a canoe over on moving water when running up on a log in a turn. A fool who needed to pee and wanted to stand up in the canoe to pee over the side with me saying noooo! He then started screaming because we had seen a big gator near the spot earlier in the day. I had to calm him down to empty the canoe and get back in. We were in waist deep swamp water at the time with no easy land to takeout. My sister dropped her water bottle and instinctively reach over for it. Over she went. There is a common response when someone says they have never tipped over. The reply is yet. That’s not to say that someone might beat the odds, but you are not always the reason that it might happen to you. Yes, treat cold water as if it is a big cat lying in wait.
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It can be a cold cat as I discovered in my more risk prone days.
Most of my swims in canoes have been on windy rivers lined with willows. The outside of bends can be hazardous. Once your paddle gets stuck in the willows or under your boat you can get in trouble.