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My local waters rarely reach up to the mid '50s (Fahrenheit). The
air can be 100 degrees Fahrenheit, yet the water temperature will not
change significantly. And so, I still need to be dressed in a way
that will protect me against hypothermia. The layers of insulation I
might wear over a wetsuit or under a drysuit will change according,
to some degree (no pun intended), to the air temperature, but I
always have to think about the water temperature first and foremost.

- --
Melissa


I tend to agree with Melissa and Brian. You need to dress for the water
temperature, not the air temperature. The rationale, as Melissa points
out, is that in a capsize, you will end up with your body in the water
and the air temperature won't be a factor, whatsoever. An example of
this is when we had a canoe overturn on the Sacramento just out of Red
Bluff. The two boys were hung up near snags on the side of the river. I
paddled in and extracted one on the back of my boat while the other was
hauled out with a rope by one of the other canoes (by the way, a 150LB
boy scout on the back of a sea kayak creates some interesting stability
issues, but he was already shivering and turning blue in the 45F water).

We reached shore, but even though the outside temperature was 95F+, the
area was shaded and did little to let them warm up. As we extracted the
boat and gear, I had the boys climb the bank and sit in the sun on top.
This did wonders for them in a very short time.

On the ocean, however, getting warm would have been much more difficult.
It is likely that an ocean rescue would probably have been quicker
without since there would be no shoreline hazards or current to be
concerned about (though the conditions that caused the capsize would
still exist).

Rick

If you are dressed for the water temp, are you automatically dressed
for the air temp?

People die up here in Colorado every year from hypothermia, without
ever getting in the water. All they need to do is get a little wet from
rain or even sweat, and at 50F they can become hypothermic. Wind chill
is important and especially if you are wet, and setting still in a
kayak, unable to exercise enough to stay warm. Combine that with the
possibility of having become tired, hungry, and seriously chilled if
you did take a swim, recovery air temp could be real important! TnT