Agree with Sing
Prior to me getting my Goretex drysuit, I woremy farmer John wetsuit with drytop and over that a non Goretex paddling jacket. Even with a mild work out, the paddling jacket would get saturated on the inside. The drysuit doesn’t get anywhere near as damp as the paddling jacket.
The paddling jacket is what drove me to get the goretex drysuit.
Andy
What smell?
Under my dry gear I get wet, but I don’t smell bad. Fresh as a daisy, this hermit!
what happened to the other thread
dry suit vs semi dry?
Paul
Humidity of your region’s air
I’ve never ended up 100% dry after paddling in any type of immersion clothing. The G-t drysuit is driest of all, for me.
One thing that makes a difference is that my insulation and the drysuit fabric itself do completely dry if I take a break on land and remove the PFD. Unzipping a bit hastens the process even more. Even if I keep the PFD on, just stopping the exertion allows moisture to pass through the drysuit and “catch up”. That doesn’t happen with nonbreathable materials.
Our climate typically has dry air. I suspect some of the complaints have as much to do with humid air as with exertion levels.
Oh, yeah, Baja is sounding really, really nice right now!
I too sweat copiously - something I never did before I donned a drysuit. The arms are the only body parts where there is some form of heat exchange. I usually wear an helmet, rock or surf environments are typical here, so that won’t help too. Water temp is 50-53 and I do not tolerate cold - little bodyfat. My questions is, how thermic is a drysuit if you are submerged in 51 degree water for a while and your underlayer is soaking wet? I actually do better with a 200 poly than a lighter layer, since it absorbed my sweat, and I feel less wet, even though I am soaked. Does anyone have an idea of insulation property if you are wet, but have good insulation under the drysuit?
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Wow! You resurrected an old one here. Went back to a time before Bowler posted in all CAPS. Anyway, I have a much wider comfort range wearing wool VS poly under my drysuit. A light layer of wool seems to me to be warmer than synthetic when warmth is what I need and cooler when over-heating is a concern. YMMV.
No actually this is well after my days of posting in all caps. I stopped that about 10 years ago probably!
Well I have yet to find a really good solution for this. I have tried all sorts of layers. I am not a big sweater in general, but wearing a dry suit is like wearing one of those sauna suits. I just don’t think there is any way around sweating in one, not matter how cold.
I have found that I tend to do a little bit better when i wear two lighter layers. Recently I have been having good luck with a Smartwool T shirt and a very light fleece over the top (Arc Teryx Delta LT). This tends to keep the dampness away from my skin better, and the wool insulates a little when wet.
But for insulation when in the water you are going to be cold quick if your were submerged for very much time.
I have not really done a huge amount of testing for warmth while in the water, but I think that the thickness of your layers is the most important factor–to put as much between you and the water as possible. Whatever you have on will be wet from sweat anyway. I believe that a powerstretch fleece is pretty efective in this regard or something like Mysterioso.
However, you slice it, a long submersion would require more warm layers than you could possible paddle with. I believe the dry suit is mostly for rolling and short submersions.
If you really got in a bad situation and were unable to get back in your boat for a long period of time you would really need to climb up on top of it in my opinion. I believe that any long period of submersion would probably result in getting hypothermic and that the drysuit is only a stop-gap solution.
Key is that you must roll effectively in my opinion. The dry suit just will help you for a short submersion or swim. If you can roll or quickly do a self or assisted rescue then you are in trouble. I like Hutchinson’s comment from an interview many years ago where he stated that “we didn’t dress for immersion, we dressed to roll!”
Note that I paddle year round and in below freezing conditions. Always solo and occasionally do long crossings on winter paddling trips. I think I would be screwed if I were not able to roll and were far away from help or unable to get quickly to land. I just don’t think there is any way around that unless you are far over dressed for what would be practical for paddling.
Matt
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Comes down to quality of your layering and proper combination IMHO. I paddle hard never had a problem say 3.5 mph+ average with some sprints. Layers are damp to touch no pools or wetness ever. Start wearing drysuit at 60°F water even 65° depending on risk assessment.
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When Goretex first came out, it was a gift. The earlier rain-wear was truly a plastic bag technology. Everyone that backpacked back in the day noticed the miracle.
The winter campers and cold weather hikers all knew that to sweat was a enemy and could easily lead to hypothermia . The technique of the day was to pace yourself and vent.
So that brings us to fitness paddling in cold. Venting is a problem when wearing immersion protection. The Goretex does some. But fitness paddling produces more than Gore can handle.
Staying dry inside a drysuit is very possible, but a lesson from backpackers and Arctic explorers needs to be heeded. And that is to control sweating by controlling activity level for the conditions.
Fitness paddling , in cold, is the problem. Bird watching or slower seeking of solitude or enjoying scenery can be an answer.
Since you can’t control environment, Control where you do what activity in order to be safe. Don’t blame the gear that works well when used within it’s parameters.
Just a thought…stay safe.
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Never had any problem and I do sweat in the summer working.
The older you get the harder it is for your body to control it’s temperature 
If your gortex suit is not clean it will not breathe as well also.
Roym nailed it and that is the issue for those of us who sweat in a dry suit. Some other factors that compound this are the fact that you have a PFD on which warms your core signficantly and makes the core portion of your suit completely non-breathable becuase it is encased in a foam PFD. Add to that a spray skirt tunnel, and then finally your lower body sealed inside the cockpit. These factors and any degree of exertion exceed the ability of the breathable fabric to vent water vapor. With backpacking and running it’s also different because you can vent by unzipping, etc. Not the case with a dry suit. Unless you moderate your activity level you will likely sweat.
So then the strategy with a dry suit is how to handle this situation and the excess sweat that has nowhere to go. It’s a dilemma because you can wear thinner layers to sweat less but once they become saturated it’s not good because they have no insulating properties and now you are cold. You can wear thicker layers and sweat more but have the sweat soak into something that is not right next to your skin. Then eventually you reach a thermal equilibrium and are comfortable. This is the better approach but balancing this without overheating is key.
I have tried medium thick powerstretch fleece and it does okay (mysterioso) or two layers like i talk about above: light base with very light fleece. i think that is the better system.
still experimenting.
The new drysuits are much better than my first drysuit, a helly hansen made out of nonbreathable plastic. I was so glad to have the suit, even if you did have to wring out your pile and polypro from sweat. A true vapor barrier. The odor on the polypro could kill a small child. Some of my older drysuits and semidrys breathe a little too well, meaning you get really damp. Much easier to dress when the water and air temp are close, Difficult to dress when the water is frigid and the air is warm.
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I sweat BUCKETS in my Gore-Tex dry suit, even in the 30’s or 40’s. It’ll collect a bit in the elbows & quite a bit in the foot socks.
After taking the suit off, I can literally drip/drain/pour the sweat out.
FWIW, I’m paddling non-stop for a continuous 60 minute workout.
Same here. I will paddle down to high 20s and will still sweat. In 40s or above with minimal layers I will soak everything. Water pool in the but and then when you stand up goes down to the socks. I can usually wring a significant amount of sweat out of my socks and the rest of my layers are soaked after a 90 minute paddle. Really no avoiding it. Reference lower exertion: I did a two day overnighter recently and temps were actually fairly warm in the 50s, but I tried to keep a bit lower intensity level so I did sweat less and over the course of the day some of it was able to evaporate, but with any degree of intensity sweating is unavoidable. Goretex is breathable but think of throwing on a goretex drysuit and PFD and then going on a 6 mile run. Think you can do that without sweating? Probably not. Again with backpacking, running, cycling you have some degree of ventilation. A dry suit is air tight minus whatever small amount of water vapor can evaporate which is really limited to what your body naturally emits at rest or at low exertion.
Matt
Many times a change is advised. since you cant vent a drysuit. A set of Goretex Bibs coupled with a Goretex Paddling Cag with a neck that can be opened …and vented …just a thought. it makes a very viable vent-able semi dry system…YMMV
Best Wishes
Roy
When conditions warrant…tighten it up. I have this system too, besides having a drysuit…works for many situations. {and the bibs can also be coupled with a {semi dry }short sleeve top…for other times.
No doubt that roym’s suggestion is a good one. I have thought of this setup before for that very reason. I just can’t justify the expense of that system in addition to a dry suit which i must have for ocean surfing, etc. I think Roy’s setup would be ideal for cold weather paddling when there is not a chance of swimming and if you don’t like to roll a lot. I like to roll even in the winter. Not sure that set up would keep water out at the neck unless it were a dry top with gasket. that would then minimize venting opportunities.
Wearing a suit and running in 30° F temps I doubt I’ll sweat. I think you have to much on if you’re getting pooling in a suit or the wrong layers.
I’ve been reading up on sweating (excessive sweat) this morning and one of the things that comes up states that really fit athletes often begin to sweat at lower temperatures which leads to what can be viewed as excessive sweating. I’m thinking that you put that athlete inside of a membrane that is breathable but still severely limiting their need for ventilation and moisture builds up at levels that most others, me included, never experience.
Example: I can paddle steadily for an hour or three in 60-70 degree temps wearing mid to light- weight wool longjohns and work up a sweat but nothing dramatic. BriGuy paddles at a workout pace for an hour at 30 - 40 degree temps and “pours” moisture out of his suit.
I believe that for some folks any layer that restricts circulation by reducing breathability is a problem. It’s easy for me to say that someone should wear lighter layers, layers made of something else, keep their suit clean and fresh with DWR on the shell, etc. but really, I believe that what is viewed by many to be the right answer is simply incompatible with others and no matter how they dress they will struggle with comfort. I don’t know if there is one answer out there.
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