Moby Dick wrote:
From my previous posts regarding kayaking near Stockholm, Sweden, some
of you have suggested I may need to get a wet suit or a dry suit. What
are the tradeoffs of each? I suppose I could have done a google search
on the topic but thought I'd ask this group first.....

While Pete's explanation is good, it sounds like it's coming from the
perspective of a whitewater paddler. If your interest is primarily in
sea kayaking - IIRC, that's the case - the issues are somewhat different.

First off, below 50 degree water temp, no wetsuit that you can actually
paddle in comfortably is going to provide adequate protection. In
anything more than a momentary swim, you need a dry suit. Personally, I
think 55-60 degrees is a more realistic lower limit for the 3mm wetsuits
that paddlers typically wear for sea kayaking. I've spent substantial
amounts of time in 40 degree water in a dry suit when teaching rescues
and have swam in water as cold as 30 degrees (sal****er, of course)
comfortably.

The padding/protection factor of neoprene is irrelevant for sea kayaking
unless you intend to be thrashing around in surf or rock gardens. Even
then, I've never found any drawbacks to dry suits. The same is true of
the issue of insulating even when damaged. These things are simply not
significant factors for most sea kayaking.

In my experience, dry suits are DRAMATICALLY more comfortable than
neoprene for the following reasons:

- You stay much drier, though not bone dry. You still have to deal with
perspiration, but with a breathable dry suit (don't even bother with
non-breathable suits), perspiration that may accumulate will dissipate
when your effort level drops. FWIW, I don't know of anyone who paddles
in a neoprene dry suit. IMO, those and non-breathable fabric suits are
not really "dry" suits. Sure, the keep water from the outside away, but
you end up soaked with sweat, so what's the point?

- You have more freedom of movement, unless you buy a suit that's too
small. Speaking of sizing, many companies offer custom sizing if your
body proportions fall significantly outside the general norm.

- For a wetsuit to function optimally, it must fit skin-tight and allow
as little water as possible to intrude (don't buy into the BS that water
in a wetsuit acts as insulation, it's a heatsink). Getting the right fit
can be difficult. Additionally, wetsuits are typically designed for
activities where one is standing or swimming, not sitting, so the fit
changes in a kayak. Custom wetsuits are available, but they cost as much
as a dry suit. The loose fit of a dry suit eliminates these fit issues.

- You can easily vary your insulation in a dry suit for the prevailing
conditions. This is huge factor in both comfort and safety.

- When you take a dry suit off on a cold day, you're not exposing wet,
bare skin to the icy breeze. Slip off the suit, jump in your car and
you're good to go. Worst case, throw on shell gear over your insulating
layers.

- Warnings about seal failures are largely a red herring. Yes, they
definitely do happen, but I have never seen a seal fail while the suit
was being worn. They invariably fail when donning or doffing the suit,
so you KNOW that the seal has failed before you try to use the suit.
Yes, it can stop a trip in it's tracks, but so can a lot of other
things. Seal replacement is a pretty simple DIY job if you're reasonably
handy.

- Ditto the warnings about leaving zippers open. I don't know anyone
who's done that more than once. ;-) And no, it's not because they died.
It's simply a matter of getting into a routine of donning the suit and
closing the zippers, then checking again before you hit the water.