Using air and/or water temperature to relate to river grades perverts the
river grading system. Dress for the water temperature on rivers. On the west
coast of Canada you can almost always see the snow that the river is coming
from. It isn't hard to figure the water temperature.

--
Sincerely,
Carey Robson -- www.CanoeBC.ca


"Grip" wrote in message
...
Hey Richard,

When I started boating the rule was water+air temp should equal 100
degrees before needing extra protective gear. Some in our club claim 120
respectfully. Another thing I consider with winter boating is adding a
class
number to a normal warm weather run. Ex: I consider a Class II a calss III
in winter.
Mike
"Richard Ferguson" wrote in
message
...
I have read somewhere that you can add up the air and water temperature
to determine the degree of hypothermia hazard. What I don't remember is
the range of total temperature that was relatively safe vs. unsafe. I
did some google searching without finding what I was looking for. I did
find some survival time tables as a function of water temperature, and
one reference that said you should wear a wet suit if either the air or
water temperature is under 65 degrees F.

I am mostly a river canoe person, but I do get out on lakes from time to
time.

Yes, I know quite a bit about hypothermia, have read a lot about it,
experienced it, pulled a hypothermic swimmer out of the water (I still
tell that story 30 years later), etc. I wear a farmer john wetsuit when
I think I might swim. I do not paddle in the wintertime.

Anybody have a pointer to an article with rules of thumb?

Richard