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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