Ulli wrote:

How thick is the neoprene of those wetsuits? 3, 4, 6 mm ?
I don't think that I would want to wear one out of 3mm neoprene for
paddling, 3mm is sometimes to restrictive. And a full wetsuit? I think I
would be very uncomfortable in it, thus likely tempted not to wear it.


My own wetsuit from my whitewater paddling/spelunking days was 3mm. I
don't recall it being too constricting. Typical use was probably 6 hrs
for paddling, but have worn the wetsuit for up to 28 hrs. on caving
trips with semi-continuous immersion, much exersion, and the need to
reach in very awkward positions, handle rapelling gear, ascenders, gear
bags, etc. in tight quarters. Did use the wetsuit on a 10 day river
trip in May in the Rockies with snowmelt (Yampa and Green Rivers). Here
the use was again about 6 hrs. per day, but for several days running.
This said, yeah, my drysuit is more comfortable, but I never found the
wetsuit truely uncomfortable.

As we all know you need immersion protection in case you tip over. Most of
the time this doesn't happen on a seakayaking trip. Surfers and WW paddlers
get wet by nature of the sport, and cool of that way, seakayakers not
necessarily.

Wearing drysuit, I often dip my hand in the water or splash some water
on the sleeve to temperature regulate. Overdressing in a drysuit
(wearing too thick an underlayer) is difficult to correct on the water,
easily corrected on land. With the wetsuit, it was usually simply
zipping down the chest zipper for a while to cool down.

So we need to find a compromise between being comfortable while
high and dry, and increased survival time in case we find ourselves swimming
next to our boat. Both, wet and drysuit just buy you more time to get out of
the water, but the time window will not last for ever.


Agreed. The question is "does the wetsuit provide adequate time for
self rescue if required." Clearly, before the ready availability of
drysuits, we all paddled with wetsuits or (I know this is hard to
believe) many layers of wool clothes (a practice I don't recommend to
anyone as a substitute). I cannot recall hearing of or reading any
cases in which someone wearing a wetsuit was lost. I have read one case
of misuse of a dry suit (zipper apparently open for ventilation leading
to flooding of suit on capsize) where death resulted. Clearly this was
not the fault of the drysuit.


I rate the wearing comfort of a breathable drysuit much higher than the one
of a farmer john wet suit, espcl. on those days when the air is warm and the
water is cold -like all summer in Nova Scotia.


So does your bottom line become comfort? While I agree this is
important on extended paddles, as I stated earlier, I don't recall
feeling tortured in my wetsuit.

I still find it hard to conclusively state that a drysuit is "mandatory"
for cold water protection, and that a wetsuit is "inadequate."

good paddling
doug m