The Drysuit Chronicles - Dry as a Duck

The other instructors have finally wised up and caught on to me. In the early season here in Michigan the waters can be ice cold up into May. But even so we teach a class that requires the instructor to capsize and climb back into their kayak while demonstrating the various techniques to use. I've somehow managed to avoid these early season swims in the past but foresaw several unavoidable dates with the frigid waters in the next several weeks. I've always been a neoprene wetsuit guy with a good dry jacket on top but after one dip in Lake Michigan last summer I found that the lengthy immersion left my muscles really tight and on the border of cramping by the end of the class. I surmised that it was due to the compression of cold neoprene against muscles that weren't at mid season shape and perhaps taxed out. And if you've ever paddled in a neoprene suit you know that the damn things put up a pretty good fight against your paddling motions no matter what kind of fit.

So I ordered up a new one-piece drysuit from Stohlquist and also their one piece fleece "bunny suit" to go under it for warmth and wicking. My previous experience with dry suits was horrible as I sweated so darn bad that I was totally drenched from the inside. And the neck gasket was trying to squeeze my last breath out of me all the while. So I decided to buy into the hype about the new waterproof/breathable fabrics and waterproof zippers and ponied up for the Stohlqiust b-POD Men's (#5650). It was one helluva fight getting my 190 lbs into the suit since the zipper only opens up about 25% of the suit for you to slide your body into. But with a few practice "try ons" (which I was really glad no one witnessed) I could manage to get in and out without someone helping me and also without tearing my ears off via the neck gasket. They simply must fit tight since if they don't the trickle of water coming down your neck and pooling in your crotch will end up being a torrent. The wrist gaskets must fit equally tight and the trick is to get a watertight fit without cutting the blood flow to the hands and creating numbness.

Well the Stohlquist fit me perfectly requiring no trimming of the gaskets and only lubing of the tenacious waterproof zipper with some special goop they generously provided. Easter Sunday was the first chance I had to test paddle the suit before classes but we had a full slate of family activities on tap so I would have to get out to the lake and back in 60 minutes and be home for a conference call with my daughter from Korea. Go for it! I pride myself on my paddling preparation and safety steps. In 16 years of kayaking I have only once paddled without a PFD and even that was only for 15 minutes before I realized I had to return to the car and get it. And even on small lakes near my home I have enough safety gear on board to impress any Navy Seal. With time so short I grabbed the first and easiest kayak to load from the barn and sped off to the lake. The kayak was my first ever purchase; a 16.5 foot composite shell with no hatches or bulkheads. I guess I was smitten with the smooth and sleek lines and didn't know enough to understand how important the front and rear compartments were for buoyancy. But I bought the proper inflatable bags for the bow and stern and worked hard at becoming a better paddler.

Off onto the lake into a stiff wind I went with air temps about 45 and the water about 40 degrees. I decided to test the drysuit by doing a layout scull to one side to keep my head out of water and protect my sinuses which were pretty stuffed to begin with from a recent cold. My right shoulder was very tender from some strenuous work in the yard the day before so I decided to use my paddle float to give me max buoyancy while still allowing me to get my full torso in the cold water to test the drysuit. So over I went and was bobbing on the surface when all of a sudden the kayak began to turtle no matter how much I sculled and tried to snap up. I could feel water sloshing all over the inside of the kayak! As my head lowered under the ice water and before the inevitable brain freeze I thought "well what the hell…guess I'll have to set up and roll back up". I was confident I could get back up since even with a cockpit flooded the air bags would provide the necessary displacement. And with the paddle float still in place it would be a cinch to keep the paddle blade on the surface and ready for the hip snap and roll back up.

But when I tried to initiate the paddle sweep I found that the kayak acted like it was anchored somehow to the bottom and my roll failed miserably. Stunned, I set up and tried it again and realized the boat would simply not turn back up on edge. So a hasty wet exit brought me to the surface wondering if indeed there was some fishing line or something tethering me to the bottom of the lake. Floating next to my boat I discovered that the entire bow area and cockpit were flooded with hundreds of pounds of water and it was no wonder my roll went south. I tried lifting the bow but it was way too heavy for me to try dumping the water and I had no choice but to unsnap my tow rope and clip onto the kayak and swim to shore. Lucky for me the wind was blowing pretty strong and was already pushing me towards shore so within minutes I was standing in waist deep ice water emptying the kayak out. I found that the bow air bag was completely deflated which explained the flooding but why didn't the sprayskirt do its job in the first place? I sponged out the boat and inflated the front air bag and found the valve was sticking open and needed an aggressive twist to close it. Ok…..but what about the sprayskirt not keeping water out? I checked the waist seal closures and they were plenty tight. I climbed back in and reached back to snap the back of the skirt onto the coaming and all mysteries were answered. The first thing I grabbed was my tow tether which is a bungee covered with fabric that feels exactly like a skirt rand to cold hands. I remembered I had moved my tow rig to a lower position than normal to make it easier to deploy with my sore shoulder. This let the bungee drop down to the same exact area that the rear skirt rand was at and that is what I snapped under the rear coaming the first time thinking it was the rear of the skirt. The front fit so well I had no clue that whole area behind my back was open wide and of course when I capsized water flooded in fast. With no air in the front bag, the entire cockpit and bow area filled while I was sculling like a happy idiot. By the time I reached critical mass I had too much water to overcome no matter how many paddle floats I had used.

It was only then that I realized that I was in fact warm and DRY! The Stohlquist drysuit had done exactly what it was designed to do and the full fleece bunny suit underneath had provided enough insulation to keep me from feeling any chill whatsoever. Only my paws were numb and even my head was ok due to the hat that had remained on during the whole ordeal. Chuckling to myself I figured that since my head was wet I might as well make sure I went the full nine yards and went back out to the middle and snapped off a few rolls and then did a paddle float re-enter to see how that went. The new suit let me slide back into the boat smooth as silk. So I paddled as hard as I could and set a new record getting loaded and out of the parking lot. I made it home just in time to catch my international phone date with my daughter and all was well. Later in the day I mentally re-hashed the mornings come-uppance and thought of how the drysuit sure made up for my miscues. And how I never really realized how well it worked until late into the game. Good gear is like that; kinda out of sight and mind until you put it to the test. And while I had made a real blunder with the tow tether section I had tried to use as a spray skirt, I now had solid evidence why I ALWAYS have one on my PFD since without it I would have had a real rough time getting the boat to shore. With it firmly clipped in behind me I could use both arms and legs to get a good swim stroke going instead of having to hold onto the kayak.

Learning never really stops if you try new things and my morning was chock full of some good lessons and corrections. But the best part is that none of the other instructors got to see the whole thing. Especially Lazlo who has a knack for embellishing my little "spastic episodes" into epic tales of ship wrecks and lost treasures. Ok….so I'll admit it…I have several pairs of glasses, a few hats and other gear at the bottom of local lakes. But it's all in the name of research I tell you!!