riverman wrote:
"Wilko" wrote in message
...
riverman wrote:

Moving water doesn't 'pull you down', it only moves you around. The
increased mass would equally tend to keep you from being submerged by a
swirly as it would prohibit you swimming to the surface when you were
under. The primary deleterious effect of having water in your drysuit is
that you cannot get out of the water, and that you are a large mass on
the end of a throwline.

Wasn't it Larry Cable who had a bad swim a couple of years ago when his
drysuit filled with water?

Possibly, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that the problem wasn't in being
'pulled under' as much as it was with being unable to change direction. And
being unable to pull himself out of the water.


I was thinking that since, as a kayaker, I have a tight fitting neoprene
seal (in the form of a spraydeck) around my waste, that should keep the
water out of the lower part of my suit.


Yep, that should do it. Good thing, too. As a rafter, I never appreciated
the importance of having some sort of waistband; but now that I know the
impact of having a leak in a drysuit, I'd strongly encourage any rafters who
wear drysuits to also include a wading belt to seal off the lower half.
Imagine trying to get pulled into a boat when you weigh over 500 pounds.
Hmmm, that makes me think of another good use for a relief zipper....its one
way to let out all the water down to your crotch!

--riverman

I did read some acct where a kayaker had a real dangerous incident
occur with a dry suit, where it had torn, and he could not recover from
a wet exit.

Your correct riverman, when you say you are equal mass with the
surrounding water, but that could put you on the bottom of the river,
bouncing along downstream and no way to resist the force of the water,
or swim to the surface. You have become a part of the river, and where
the river goes, so go you. Not a problem for the rest of the water,
just for you if you still feel the need to breathe.

The problem with the open top waders, is that the waders act like a
drift anchor, and forms a resistant force equal to the amount of water
displaced, and the velocity of the water, and I believe this force
would increase logrithmically. In other words it would get very large,
very fast. No one holding on to a throw line would be able to pull you
out. You would eventually reach some sort of terminal velocity, that
would however be going alot faster than you would feel comfortable
with, and probably taking you where you did not intend to go. At least
not quite yet.

I corresponded with various Dry suit designers, and ended up with a two
piece Palm for the exact reasons you are discussing. The wide waist
seal compartmentalizes the suit like a bulkhead. Also the suit can be
cut to a closer fit to minimalize the amount of volume inside the suit,
ie less water volume. You can vent water out of the suit if necessary,
and with ankle seals and booties. Cold wet feet can be a problem, not
being able to breathe a bigger problem!

With the two piece design, there are also no zippers to leak and need
replacing. And most important, You can go # 1 and # 2 without being
Houdini!

Now as far as the suit that Wilko has, it still sounds like an
excellent find. I would just have a strategy, like keeping a knife
handy if you had to cut some vent holes...HYY