A wet suit is better than nothing but a wet suit gets its insulation from getting wet. They work better when you are in the water. Out of the water the thin layer of insulating water pools at the lowest point (your butt if sitting/ feet if standing) so your body will get cold fast due to evaporation and windchill.
A special note to paddle boarders. This is a group that seems to flaunt logic and safety more than any other. I have seen people paddle board on Lake Tahoe in nearly all months in street clothes. Many have no PFD far from shore. Donāt do it. When you see someone doing something stupid, I think it is okay to let them know. They may not like the advice but you could be saving a life.
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The thin film of water in a tight fitting wetsuit is not an insulator of any kind. The insulation is provided by the microscopic air pockets in the neoprene. This is a an oft repeated myth. If your pee water is collecting at your butt, your suit doesnāt fit right.
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The time a wet suit will give you varies greatly on the suit. Any suit is a large safety measure against a quick swim and should help you keep your limbs mobile while you get out of the water. I went diving with a couple friends in Florida during January and we were wearing vastly different suits. They had one piece 3mm suits and were freezing by the time we got done. I had a 5 or 7mm (canāt remember) farmer John style and was actually sweating, and stayed totally warm. So you need to match the suit to the conditions. I would recommend a farmer John style for sure, that way you can wear either the overalls or jacket separately if you want. I would also recommend booties that can go under hiking/wading boots, gloves, and a balaclava. The booties and gloves can be a little thinner than the suit but I would get a balaclava that is at least as thick as your suit. Probably a 3mm for summer, 5mm for spring/fall, or a 7mm for cold weather/cold water. These thickness depend on your specific conditions though.
It is not a myth. I guess I may have worded that a little to vaguely. The neoprene is the insulator but the thin water layer is important for heat transfer. Thicker the suit the warmer you will be.
The water does pool at the lowest points out of the water, because gravity, so fit has nothing to do with it. A loose fit will allow more water to flow into the suit when submerged, so you will get colder faster, which is bad. I am not a fan of wearing wetsuits when they are dry or wearing them wet above the waterline. I also never pee in a wetsuit. lol
Donāt bother with my wetsuit much anymore. I rather be in the drysuit until water is 65Ā°. I donāt even bother to think about air temps at all. After 65Ā° water I may wear Tropos kokatat pants with feet. Paddling jacket underlayers. Balaclava is on from water 60Ā° and below. Usually pogies but always have neo glove on ME to switch in case of extended water visit. Usually alone till water is near 70Ā°. She doesnāt like the cold and wearing gear. Rather come back little moist than a wetsuit.
I was building floating docks in the back yard. I stuck my hand in 45Ā°F water for few minutes. 
No joke at all. Canāt imagine my whole body in it. Iām 6ā 230 so not a string bean still HORRIBLY cold.
Wet suits obviously provide insulation from the cold water. What seems to be missed here is that the small amount of water between you and the neoprene that also gets warmed up by your body heat.
I used to have a ski boat, an old Ski Centurion. We water skied starting in April, and learned a lot about wet suits. Later we went to wake boards. Most of the reservoirs in the West have some elevation and are in the mountains. The water is cold. I used to go skiing and wake boarding and then open the drain valves on my Ford inboard engine to allow for freezing at night.
A full wet suit, even 3mm works fine for water skiing and wakeboarding. It will work for canoeing and kayaking. Even a farmer john with a dry top. For longer periods of immersion, a 5mm suit or a dry suit is worth considering. It is pretty easy to find used wet suits for not much money. A dry suit is a good idea but typically involves a much larger investment.
Iāve currently got 3 drysuits, 2 semi dry suits, a farmer john wet suit, neoprene pants, and a leaky dry top. Iāve currently got stuff from Stohlquist, Kokatat, Level Six, Gul, Mythic, Wetsuitwarehouse and Typhoon. My āgo toā suits are the cheapo semi dry suits from Gul and Typhoon. The suits were less than 400 a piece and came with fleece (watersportsoutlet.com). So this idea that you have to spend a ton more money to get a drysuit isnāt necessarily true. It depends on when and where you buy and if you are willing to wear a suit marketed for sailing or kiteboarding (without a tunnel and pee zipper). The cuffs are neoprene rather than latex which I actually prefer. My immersion times tend to be short as a river kayaker. If your immersion times are longer than you will want something drier. Anything is better than the Full Monty.
Just to ride along with those who recommend testing your gear in the water.
I have a fleece lined 5mm farmer john and a dry top that I wear with it. Iāve never liked cold water much so as an experiment I made a point of getting in the water each paddle as the summer waned and fall came in. I wanted to find out where my personal tolerance threshold was and how the gear worked.
It was much lower than I expected and I discovered that I was uncomfortable enough below 50F that I became a fair weather paddler.
Right now I havenāt been paddling in a number of years and Iām all set to get going again, but I know my tolerances and now living in NH the water here is frigid, so Iāll be waiting it out before I go through the learning curve and falling out again :-).
I highly recommend gloves with a suit if one chooses to paddle frigid water. Losing the use and dexterity of your hands can do you in. Putting oneās hands in a bucket of ice water is a basic thing anyone should try to see what Iām talking about. Try unzipping something or tying or untying a line or even opening a Velcro pocket. You may be surprised at the results of the lesson.
How long is your comfort stint in the water? How deep? Do you move or swim in it?
Well another heavy wet couple more inches of snow over night with some cold temps.
As a future boater / canoeist I have been watching our river water temps in French Creek. It happens the town I live in is one of the measuring points and they give water temp, rainfall or snow and water depth. Those 3 give a good indication of where and when I will want to be on the river.
Over the last week the water temp was up to 59F on Apr 15 and now on Apr 22 is 45F. Having been a swimmer in Lake Erie my whole life and as a kid getting wet early every year I know I donāt want to be in 59F water and really not 45F water as that could be life threatening.
Mid week when the air temp was about 70F I see the water was below 50F and I saw two girls go past in cheap sit in kayaks having a good old time sunbathing and paddling along. This time of year they could easily be the only 2 on the water for miles.
Iām sure in their minds they didnāt have a thing to worry about and the likelihood of flipping is pretty slim with the gentle flow, but all the same I thought it risky.
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Didnāt spend a lot of time in the water, did move around, submerged myself. I was mostly testing for gasp threshold when my head hit the water and how my hands were affected.
When I first got wet suits and paddle jackets and pants, I wanted to test them. There nothing like getting in the water to see what it feels like. I got a pool thermometer and stopped guessing.
It is your life we are talking about. Everyone is a bad swimmer in cold water. Dress for immersion. Practice rescues in your local conditions and try out the various combinations of clothing for swimming in cold water.
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ppine has the wisest single sentence Iāve seen in months, " Everyone is a bad swimmer in cold water." Heed his advice in his next two sentences.
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I kayak a lot in the spring, summer and fallāin the Tred Avon River in Easton, MD. This year is the first time Iāve ever done any winter kayaking and Iām doing it sans wet suit or dry suit. The possibility of capsizing or falling out of the boat is remote at best. In fact, itās never happened ever. In the interest of safety I do stay close to shore. But maybe I should invest in a wetsuit? Can you guys recommend a particular brand?
The water temperature in Oxford on the Tred Avon today is 39Ā°F. It doesnāt get much more deadly than this. If you were to capsize, assuming the gasp reflex didnāt immediately cause your death, which is a serious probability, swim failure would occur in minutes, likely less than 15 minutes and possibly in ten.
The excurse that āI donāt plan on capsizing or never capsizeā is one of the oldest ones and the cause of many fatalities. Nobody goes out with the intention of capsizing, but it happens all the time. The excurse that āI plan on staying close to shoreā is equally near worthless. The Tred Avon is a big river and much of the shoreline bulkheaded. In those water temperatures you would be very lucky to swim 100ā before swim failure occurred.
Do you plan on just leaving your boat and trying to swim to shore, hopefully to where you can get out immediately? Can you do a self rescue fast enough as you lose the strength and feeling in your hands and arms while keeping hold of the boat, paddle, and any other loose gear?
A close friend of mine at the Solomons Island Yacht Club fell off the dock as he was tending to his boat in January. He managed to swim 50ā and haul himself onto a swim platform on a nearby boat. He was able to get out of the water and into the back of the boat but could go no further. He only survived because the Yacht Club had a dinner that day and someone walked out onto the dock and found him minutes later.
I would not be out on the water, even in temperatures much higher than that without a full drysuit and insulating layers underneath. As a personal choice, I would not be on the water solo in those temperatures although some do it.
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Thanks, RStevens. You make your point very convincingly. Iāll wait until the water warms up. Even in the spring I should probably have a wet suit or something. Iāll have to do some research.
I am of the understanding that this would now make it not qualify for the lifetime warranty. True or false? Not that itās unreasonable on Kokatatās part but important to understand the terms of the warranty these days.
There are more than one warranty to talk about when talking Kokatat Gortex drysuits. Gore, the company that makes Gortex , deals the warranty for the Gortex If the Gortex is de-laminating, then Gore buys you a new Kokatat drysuit. {Kokatat is their agent}
If it is workmanship {not a Gortex problem}ā¦then itās whatever Kokatat will do to get things right.
If itās worn out past the point of just patching {honest wear } Then your suit is just plain become a worn out suit. It then is up to Kokatat to determine if they will offer a discount on a new suit or not. {I donāt know current policy}
This is my understanding, If anybody knows different, feel free to correct as to how you understand it.
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This is why , if you had a drysuit made with Gortex, but made by a different company than Kokatatā¦but that other suit maker is no longer in business. If you sent your drysuit to Kokatat for evaluation and they found de-lamination in the Gortexā¦Gore bought you a comparable suit but it was supplied by Kokatat. {only tlking about Gortex de-lamination, not other issues with the other suit}