VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

KUS wrote:......yes, I do know.

Fair enough - was thinking about

Kevin B wrote:You Drown.

when I made my comment.
Stay safe this winter, rig small, and don't trust the fcast.

I had a latex neck seal failure many years ago on lake Ontario on a helly Hansen drysuit, the suit filled up with water and I was hard pressed to reach up from under water to grab a hold of my equipment to pull myself up onto it, we called them death bags after that. However technology has improved much since then, I loved my neil pryde dryzipper wetsuits, but still, there are always issues with the zip, apiece of what ever you are wearing underneath get's snagged in the zipper, you do a good spat on your back from 10 feet in in the air and voila an open zipper. So to make a long story short, with new 6/4 wetsuit technology I see no real reason to use a drysuit anymore, my 6/4 npx zealots are toasty warm and safe and you can zip them up by yourself with no worries about a zipper popping open or a seal failing. And yes! I think helmets are mandatory in those kind of conditions, I wear one even if I am wearing shorts especially here on the island with all the crap in the water, what you think is a piece of kelp can easily become ..Oh shit! and over the handlebars you go. And like Kuz, I worry that someone will bite it. Soo, let's play as safe as possible and have fun out there.

Nice to see concern for others and a sober understanding of conditions. I believe only Nimpkish Bill has mentioned a life jacket. Yes, it may slow your swimming speed and restrict your movement and look totally uncool, but you will not drown (as in dead).

This thread motivated me to buy a waterproof, floating, led light, and a whistle. I have a pull over kite vest from Pro Motion in the Gorge. The vest is extremely comfortable and I don't notice it on. I get slack and don't wear it in the summer. It does provide a bit of extra warmth in the winter too. The light is a Navi Light Sport www.navisafe.no I figure I can keep it in the car so it doubles as a car safety light. I had the Pyro surf dry and found I sweat too much if I had too much insulation. I then got cold from being damp. If I lightened up on the insulation and had to swim I then was cold from the ocean. You definitely have to be able to swim in any suit. Don't go out any further than you want to swim in. Keep an eye on each other and check if any one is swimming around or hasn't got up for awhile or there is an extra car in the parking lot. Downwind Dave and Windsurfish kindly waited until I got in before they went home last Sunday at CB. I certainly appreciated them doing that even if sailing at dusk is not that smart an activity. I did snag a couple of extra wave rides though.

Added comment to an excellent thread - also do not be fooled by distance offshore in big winter winds, three to four rinsings in waves can easily disorient you (me, twice!) and turn a simple swim into a long scary evening. There's a couple videos the search and rescue/coast guard have of winter drownings caught on camera and the evident disorientation factor is absolutely scary. Cold water safety is so different to anything else we can imagine.

Even a wetsuit leg can fill with water and seriously impact swimming after being tumbled, be prepared for it and good on the folks who helped educate those kiters thinking of going out when they obviously should not have been. Good thread Kus ...

pre trip planning with the coast guard last year before we crossed the strait and back, they said that PFD's were mandatory with dry suits since they do not have any floatation.

I like this hybrid design: http://www.oceanrodeo.com/products/surfdry

http://www.ion-products.com/uploads/tx_ ... ein_01.png

I just picked up an Ion "Fuse" drysuit from the Gorge Surf Shop. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I've been told Rob Warwick has given them the thumbs-up. It's a 4mm, loose-fit neoprene drysuit with latex seals and a dry zipper. The best feature may be the "P-Zip", no need to expose your torso just to answer nature's call... Also has big, zippered pockets (chest, leg).

I like the alien look

Thanks for the tips on dry suits... will stick with wet suits after reading this forum.

Couple of years ago, OZY lost his whole rig, windsurfing. All new gear.
Ya he had a dry suit on. Problem was the swells were big and the suit was so loose that he couldn't swim fast enough to catch the rig. That was the end of that suit

Probably just going to start with a decent full wet suit and see where that takes me then. Thanks for the advice.

back to the original message of the thread...

please wear a life jacket in conditions that warranty it. if you decide to wear just a wetsuit you should still wear a PFD. If shit hits the fan you will at least have your body found. hopefully

bring extra safety gear with you during crazy conditions like a whistle, strobe light, or an extra rope (perhaps to leash your board when self rescuing), a SPOT tracker or similar GPS unit and SOS button abilities.

If its way to windy for your smallest kite or rig get off the water or don't even try to launch. know the beaufont scale etc...

you'll give us all peace of mind when we help you launch.

we do have some great people in the community and hopefully everyone new or foolish respects their knowledge and continues to heed to the warnings.

hope to be at COOK St tonight.

Gord Baines wrote:http://www.ion-products.com...Ion "Fuse" drysuit

looks good, report out on this one dood, like the whistle and colors of sleeves and hood, as well as the buoyancy claims.

Typical winter scenario you wouldn't think about: Branch posing as kelp ....got to the beach from a ways out at JR to realize both fin tabs got stripped. Pays to have brass tabs for the stainless screws tho or there would have been way more damage...and if the fins had popped into the water body dragging in in light winds with just twinzers at this place might have put me off the endangered species list I wore my floater impact vest today, helped a lot with warmth and float!
Check your fins screw tabs for breakage of thread or corrosion. Upon swapping out one of my other ones from another board, that one was also done, one thread left and it let go right away. Time for new tabs all around!

I tried the Navi Light after I got worked at LB and it had stopped working too. It revived itself later but by then I would have been crab bait. I wanted an LED safety light but may have to go back to a regular one. Anybody have any good ideas.