"Hanta-Yo-Yo" wrote in message
oups.com...

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,

Why is that? The river water isn't all on the bottom. I didn't say you'd
have equal mass with the water (although that's basically correct), I said
you'd have neutral buoyancy...which is technically incorrect as you still
have your PFD on which provides positive buoyancy. The effect of a full
drysuit would be that you have more inertia: it would be hard to change
directions (so yes, when you are under the surface, it would be hard to get
to the top), but you would also find that once you were on the top, it would
take a slight bit longer to get dragged down under. Its like swimming in
molasses. Unfortunately, you still have the same amount of breath when you
DO go under, so the longer time spent below the surface would be very
serious. But there wouldn't be any special forces holding you to the
*bottom* of the river.

The problem with the open top waders, is that the waders act like a
drift anchor,

Only if there is a velocity differential between you and the current. If you
are free-floating, they don't act as a drift anchor at all. But once you try
to stop yourself, THEN they act like a drift anchor. Additionally, like a
drift anchor, they will tend to keep you in the faster current.

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.

Umm, actually a log curve flattens out pretty quickly. You may be thinking
that it increases exponentially, which does get very large, very fast.
Remember, you're talking to a HS math teacher here...and I'd have to give
you pretty low marks on your armwaving. g

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.

You'd end up going at the velocity of the river, which is the same velocity
you'd be going if you were nude. The difference is that you (or other
people) would find it extremely difficult to change your velocity, because
you'd basically have a mass three or four times your normal mass. When that
mass is multiplied by the velocity of the river, it'd be like trying to stop
the Queen Mary.

--riverman