Ice rescue

[captain806]

I have a stearns Dry suit,what do you suggest for wearing under my dry suit. We had a ice rescue the other night (a drill) and was wearing underarmor shirt and pants and over that, sweat pants and sweat shirt I was in the water 40 minutes water temp was below freezing, Iced lake, open water due to bubblers, air temp was 10 deg. Upon rescue I was close to hypothermia, uncontrolled shivering, no other symptoms. Any suggestions to keep warm. I am allergic to neopreene, so I can not wher gummby suit. Thanks

 

[rongoodman]

Ditch the sweat pants and shirt, wet cotton is only going to make things worse. Pile or fleece jacket and pants will be warmer and not collapse when wet. Heavy wool socks would probably help too. That's a long time to be in the water, especially if you're not moving around a lot. An actual rescue will probably have you moving around a lot more, generating more heat. I have one to my credit--she was a Lab, and was very glad to see me.

 

[elan]

Just get normal dry suit undergarment. I will be the optimal solution. My friend recently switched from regular sport stuff to the specialized undergarment and he said dropped 10 lb of lead.

I wear 200g thinsulate full undergarment + 200g vest + under armor pants and long sleeve. I can stay in 36F water for 60+ minutes. Just keep in mind in case of flood Thinsulate and wool will keep you warm.

 

[rongoodman]

FWIW, it sounds like the OP isn't talking about a diving dry suit, but one used for surface rescue. I agree that a Thinsulate dry suit undergarment would be the warmest solution, although expensive for that application.

 

[hypertech]

There is a guy on eBay that sells drysuit undergarments. That's what I bought for my wife and she really likes it. His logo is a big RB or something like that. You'll probably need to cut out the pockets as they are quite bulky. His warmest one was about $100 in her size.

Also check out leisure pro and scuba.com's clearance section. One of them had Bare Super Loft undergarments on clearance. That's what came with my suit and it is extremely warm.

Oh, and I'm sure the water was cold, but I doubt it was below freezing Then it would have been ice.

 

[Rhone Man]

Oh, and I'm sure the water was cold, but I doubt it was below freezing Then it would have been ice.

I was going to say that, but I figured there can't be too many divers in Nebraska, so I would be nice and let it slide!

 

[elan]

FWIW, it sounds like the OP isn't talking about a diving dry suit, but one used for surface rescue. I agree that a Thinsulate dry suit undergarment would be the warmest solution, although expensive for that application.

Oh yeah, my bad Then woolen stuff cannot do the job wrong

 

[tmi116]

I have been in the stearns gumby suit very bulky and hard to Don. I think a drysuit undergarmet would be close to impossible. I use duo fold thermals and then wool sweat pants and a fleece. Good socks with the pant legs tucked into the socks.

 

[Crush]

I have a number of undergarments, all PolarTec (Polar Fleece) that I mix and match for the circumstances. You can often pick up PolarTec 100 and 200 garments, uppers and lowers separately, at a good price if you don't mind funny colours (I don't - my drysuit is not transparent). Rather than buying one full-body undergarment, I have bought a T-shirt and long-johns designed to wick perspiration (a camping store might call this a "base layer") and then piled on the PolarTec - can't beat the combination. Since the PolarTec numbers refer to the "weight" of the insulation, I layer the cloths to a total of 400 (say, 200+100+100) in water that is just above freezing and 500 (say, 200+200+100) in water which is at freezing if I will be inactive for a period of time.

Hope that helps.