It's something that's been discussed numerous times and the upshot is that it will leak and the waders will fill with water. If they fit snug enough, that may not be a huge issue other than you will get chilled, but if they're loose, the amount of water they take in can seriously hamper attempts at self or assisted rescue. Bottom line, it's not a good idea and you'd be better off with a wetsuit for the same kind of money you'd spend on waders.
I agree no disagreement here. It kind of worked until I could afford a dry suit. Now I only wear a drysuit. I wore it today during a nice paddle to Little Chebeague and Basket Island.
comfort If I dry suit and insulation is uncomfortable, then something isnt right. Once a neck seal is broken in, as long as you size everything correctly, you should hardly notice the suit
I’d sooner wear a wetsuit in the ocean than I would running a river in the winter. Aren’t rivers in winter cold? Like, winter run-off cold? Whereas the ocean maintains a fairly constant temperature (it’s even WARMER where I live in the winter due to seasonal upwelling in the summer). With all that moving cold water in a river (= hypothermia faster), I’d be in a drysuit for sure.
Refreshing Dec Swims Date: Saturday, 5 December 2009, at 4:25 p.m.
This article is from “The Advocate”, Stamford, CT
Westport kayaker saved by passing vessel
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
Posted: 12/04/2009 10:12:53 PM EST
Updated: 12/05/2009 09:04:25 AM EST
NORWALK – A waterfront construction company owner on Friday afternoon discovered a 68-year-old Westport woman barely clinging to a small overturned kayak, Norwalk police said.
The unidentified woman told G&C Marine Services owner Gary Wetmore that she had been overturned in the 48 to 50 degree water between Saugatuck Shores and Cockenoe Island for about an hour, Norwalk Marine Patrol Sgt. Peter Lapak said.
The woman, wearing a life vest and a sheer running suit, was hypothermic and Wetmore pulled her aboard his barge and called for help.
“I was very surprised. In December, you don’t expect to pull a live person out of the water,” he said.
The woman’s kayak was the same color as the piece of blue dock Styrofoam Wetmore was looking for. He said the woman capsized near Saugatuck Shores and drifted more than a mile east before he and his barge deckhand Mike Harden spotted her.
Lapak said he and officer John Taranto met Wetmore, who was on his way to Norwalk Harbor, and transferred the woman to the high-speed inflatable police boat. After wrapping her in a half-dozen hospital blankets and a windproof foam space blanket, they brought her to Norwalk Cove Marina, where she was transferred to an ambulance and taken to Norwalk Hospital.
“How lucky is she to have Gary motor by in a barge and spot her. About as lucky as you can get,” Lapak said.
since we’re swapping news stories . . . A woman died in Southwest Harbor (on Mount Desert Island) last Sunday, when she went out in her Otter rec kayak on a day with 10 knot winds. The boat was found on Monday, and her body washed up on shore a couple days later. PFD was in the boat, and it does not appear that she was wearing any immersion gear.
The article in the paper quoted a number of people who described her as an “experienced” and “careful” kayaker (???). An water safety expert stated that hypothermia sets in after 30 minutes in our water temps (high 40s right now), but I think it’s misleading to tell people that, since swimming failure will probably occur in less than 10 minutes.
Bottom line - wear PFDs, dress for the water, and choose a boat appropriate for the water you’re on. (ie, leave the Otter on the pond)
not one answer Depends on what’s the purpose of the suit…
Yes, river runoff is really, really cold. So a wet suit (or even dry suit) is going to be quite uncomfortable. Just different degree of discomfort! WW enthusiast do spring runoff because that’s the only time we get such flow. Otherwise, I’d much rather do it in summer instead, if I have such a choice.
But, except in some cases where the shore is remote and un-landable, you can generally swim ashore quickly. So the discomfort, extreme it may be, more or less ends there.
50 degree ocean water doesn’t feel all that cold. But in that water long enough, you’ll die of hyperthermia. In the winter, the problem is more about the availability of rescue (since there’re few boaters out there) leading to lengthy immersion. That’s when dry suit is better in keeping the swimmer warm (and alive) longer till rescue eventually arrive.
I found people tend to correctly estimate the danger of white water, but vastly under-estimate the danger of ocean paddling. Having done both myself, most vast majority of ocean paddling tend to be uneventful. But when “stuff” do happen in the ocean, it tend to go seriously wrong really quickly! And being far from shore, options are much more limited.
“Careful” kayakers I read the story on the Mt Desert wire. Sadly, this is one of those frustrating situations all around. She likely took off from where her van was parked, at the Manset Town Dock which lies on on the mainland-facing side of an island a bit out into Southwest Harbor. The wind was out of the northwest, as Nate says up to 10 mph, on Dec 8, and there is a possibility that there was enough fetch to create some real problems for her on the inland side.
People with limited open water experience would tend to regard that as the “safe” side. But the wind and maybe whatever was going on with the tide (may have been opposing for a part of that day) could have created a quite different situation.
The rest of it is why the Coast Guard must so frustrated at times. The lost kayaker as well as her friends regarded her actions as careful even though they ran completely counter to advice from the CG (and other entities). This isn’t about slamming the individual. She acted as she knew, or at least as she had gotten away with to that point. But I find it striking that the newspaper can find friends who are so unaware of the basic risk level even after their friend’s death. My first reaction is that this should have made them think again, especially in an area like Bar Harbor where paddlers and fishermen must regularly get into trouble with water that never exceeds the 50’s. Apparently I have that all wrong…
Things that LOOK safe often are not Sometimes you have to think about what the wind and the tide is doing.
I remember some years back a guy jumped in his kayak and went out in Long Island Sound. There was a wind behind him . He could not see that the sea was a mass of whitecaps as the waves were breaking downwind. When he found that out…it was too late as the tide was going out at a full run. He could not get back… He was lucky enough to stay upright until arriving on Long Island.
When I guided trips in Connecticut a couple of times I cancelled trips due to the same tide and wind circumstances… I didnt want the group scattered and unable to get back. People did not all understand.
yep, complacency from experience I think people like this get into trouble precisely because they are “experienced” without being knowledgeable. They have been out many many times and survived. That leads them to the conclusion that they are properly prepared.
Manset is in a fairly protected area, within Southwest Harbor. It faces NW towards the other side of SW harbor (and the CG station), and a small island not far off. A NW wind would have been in her face at the ramp.
If she had no skirt, it wouldn’t take much to get her in trouble. One properly placed 1’ wave could partially swamp the boat, and then a swim is inevitable. She was in one of the more protected areas on MDI, and this still happened. Just more evidence (to me) that these boats don’t have a place in these waters.
Very sad indeed. Sounds like she was a nice and unique person.
kayak/canoe not sure if anyone brought this up yet or not but the numbers from the coast guard indicate that drownings were proportionally equal when comparing canoe/kayak fatalities. Three times as many people die in canoes but three times as many people were paddling them. Canoes or kayaks, no pfd was a common recurring theme in 9 out 0f ten deaths. Alcohol seemed to show up a lot in paddle related drownings as well with virtually no difference between canoes and kayaks.
I remember reading there were 5 million kayakers and 20 million canoeist. Not sure how they could come up with those numbers but I remember looking at fatality stats showing a proportionally equal death count. I thouight it was interesting because I was thinking that many more canoeist were dieing at the time. Must have been around 2003-04?
south side of MDI can get pretty rough in spots with unlimited fetch once you get out of the shelter of the islands–and even if youre inside of the islands (Cranberries) it can still kick up a bit in a southerly breeze—late November no drysuit or even a wet suit, not wearing a pfd and in an otter(and more than likly without a spray deck) could be a real problem
WW enthusiast do spring runoff because that’s the only time we get such flow. Otherwise, I’d much rather do it in summer instead, if I have such a choice.