elmer fudd
Contributor
I'm going to have to nominate myself for this one.
I went ahead and did a dive wet this afternoon. In order to deal with the cold, I wore a little extra neoprene and I took along 3 sodium acetate heat packs to stuff in my suit. Now, normally the way these things work is when you activate them, it triggers a chemical reaction and they give off heat in the 105 degree range for about 1/2 hour. I've used these things several times before and never had a problem. I'd always heated them up and allowed them to cool the night before though. This time I just nuked them in the microwave. When I got to the dive site they were still around 110-120 degrees. Being the dips--t that I sometimes am though, I activated them and stuffed one in below each armpit and one in my crotch, (there was another great decision).
I noticed almost immediately, "hey, these things are hotter than usual!" Now, anyone with a lick of sense would have pulled them back out and just dove without them, but that wasn't me. Instead I thought, "Gee, I better get in the water quick. That cold water will make all the difference."
Suffice it to say, after getting in the water, I ended up swimming back in, stripping off my gear on the beach and pulling heat packs out of my wetsuit, (this was on a busy road and a few people stopped to observe my foolishness). It also looks like I've got three rectangular patches of sunburn in various parts of my body.
I went ahead and did a dive wet this afternoon. In order to deal with the cold, I wore a little extra neoprene and I took along 3 sodium acetate heat packs to stuff in my suit. Now, normally the way these things work is when you activate them, it triggers a chemical reaction and they give off heat in the 105 degree range for about 1/2 hour. I've used these things several times before and never had a problem. I'd always heated them up and allowed them to cool the night before though. This time I just nuked them in the microwave. When I got to the dive site they were still around 110-120 degrees. Being the dips--t that I sometimes am though, I activated them and stuffed one in below each armpit and one in my crotch, (there was another great decision).
I noticed almost immediately, "hey, these things are hotter than usual!" Now, anyone with a lick of sense would have pulled them back out and just dove without them, but that wasn't me. Instead I thought, "Gee, I better get in the water quick. That cold water will make all the difference."
Suffice it to say, after getting in the water, I ended up swimming back in, stripping off my gear on the beach and pulling heat packs out of my wetsuit, (this was on a busy road and a few people stopped to observe my foolishness). It also looks like I've got three rectangular patches of sunburn in various parts of my body.