For many years I used a combination of a dry top and dry pants to paddle
whitewater. I always stayed dry even when I took a swim. One day I
switched to a dry top and neoprene pants instead and have been paddling like
that for about the last 5 years. With whitewater I still don't get all that
wet on a swim but then I don't swim much anymore so I don't have extensive
research on that. I've noticed that only the fleece under my top gets damp
up to about my lower rib level along with my polypro. I stay warm enough
that that I don't notice it unless I look. When I took an instructor sea
kayak coarse a few years ago we had to stay in the water in the ocean for a
while (I was in it for about 45 minutes in Washington State) and even with
doing all of the re-entries nothing under my dry top got wet and I stayed
very warm. I was actually impressed after being in the water for so long.
I have a Patagonia Gortex dry top but I used to have a Kokatat Gortex and
loved it just as much. The neoprene pants that I've been using are by Deep
See. I have also used NRS and they too are very good too. It's all a
personal choice but I hope this helps with some extra info and leads on
gear.

Courtney



Dunno how "dry" it would remain during prolonged immersion though. If the
arms/torso wind up getting flushed, that would be an extremely bad thing
if all
that was underneath was something like PolarTec.