T H E   G R E E N L A K E   P A D D L E R D R Y S U I T , K E E P I N G  T H E  W A T E R  A T  B A Y

TRYING TO STAY DRY IN A '' SCOTTISH " DRYSUIT The first ever Drysuit voyage I undertook, was done in the '' use your body as a boat '' fashion. I wanted to find out how much buoyancy I would gain, and to experience how long it would take, to reach the point of getting uncomfortably cold, wearing an outfit like this. As a drysuit is only a barrier for the wet,  I wore two fleece undersuits as a precaution not to get cold too fast. Water temperature was about 5 degrees celcius that day, a Greenland paddle was my means of propulsion. I managed to potter around in the lake for about 20 minutes and realized that my body temperature was beginning to go down. Cold was creaping in slowly but steadily. This was an eye opener as I expected to remain cosy a lot longer. On inspection the suit was dry on the inside, so that was a good beginning to start with. Water temperature 5 degrees and wearing no hood, Bad idea! As you can see I gained some speed, by judging the wake that's being produced. It's pretty difficult to keep course paddling like this, but an interesting excercise. I guess a skeg mounted on the back of my heels would have helped a great deal to keep track! Something for later. BUT AFTER SOME TIME The Inner mesh and membrane started a life on their own. But, there is always a but.  Pretty soon after taking this suit into service it started to develop these wobbly bobbly areas, delaminations. The suit is made of a real strong outer layer, I am not sure what type of fabric, followed by a membrane ( one way traffic for moist created by the wearer ) and finally some sort of wear protecting mesh on the inside. The first layer that began a life on its own was the inner mesh. It came loose from the membrane in the armpit areas. I decided to leave things as they where and paddle. Water was still kept where it was supposed to be, on the outside. THE BRUSH AND THE GUNK Next where the tapings coming loose here and there, I am talking about 4 months of light use. The delaminating mesh occurred a lot earlier. I decided to gunk this thing up on the inside, ( I've used an EPDM rubber glue ) so I started to smear and treated every doubtful spot that appeared. The brush had a great time. WHAT ABOUT SOME ASSISTANCE FROM HE OUTSIDE? Textile glue, can be washed at 40 degrees C so must be fairly resillient stuff. Worth a try, there is nothing much to lose. To help the seam tape in keeping water out, I went for the " seal it on the outside as well routine ".  I've glued up all seams as you can see here, not the neatest of solutions, but functional. In the image a freshly sealed seam, becomes transparent after setting. When cured it looks like this, and hurray ... it does the job alright! The suit became a little drier to paddle again, for a while ... As you know the Dutch are experts in keeping water out! Not so for the Scotts... During the years following the gunk brush went wild, I wanted to stay dry and this method seemed to work. The roofers gunk stuff is pretty hardwearing, but over time it looses elasticity and starts to crack and the whole story repeats itself. As the outer layer is still holding up and doesn't show any wear at all, I will keep the brush busy, but the end is in sight that's for sure. The latex seals where replaced after 6 years of use, or counted in actual paddling time: every week 5 hours October till May. On this particular suit the original seals where protected by cuffs, preventing UV light from doing bad things. I removed the cuffs to have better access for the seal swap, as a result  the replacement seals now just lasted for just a few years only. WITH  '' A LITTLE WORK " NOT A BAD SCORE AFTERALL All in all I managed to get almost nine years out of this cheap suit, but now it needs to be replaced. What did surprise me where the (T) zippers, never had a problem with 'm.  I've expected these to be the end of the suit sooner or later, but no they survived. I've lubricated the zippers after each use and that seems to have paid of. Back to intro