: Thanks for the good advice, Sean. That said, I have already had a
: few decent dips in freezing water...I do not have a gasp
: response and my body has this really nice response...it turns on
: the furnace immediately and I can stay in the water for a long
: time before I feel the cold...tested to at least 20 minutes
: without any negative effects. That said, I wear at least my
: fingerless gloves under the pogies.

: Robert N Pruden

Good to hear because a lot of people don't "appreciate" how quickly cold water can kill - or at least debilitate. Around here, even in the summer the salt water rarely gets above 12 celsius, so a drysuit is pretty much all 'round standard equipment!

20 minutes? That's pretty good. We did some cold water testing of our gear a few years back. Water temps were at 0 (freezing at least) and air was at -15. After about 5 minutes in, our test guy started to feel the cold. This was a session where we decided to test our equipment at one of the coldest. Rolling at that temp was pretty bad - not so much the underwater temp but the cold when your face hit the cold air!!

Here's a blog entry. That's me in my plastic boat and newly minted GP: http://kayakingdreamin.blogspot.ca/2010/01/whod-know.html