myiW Current Conditions and Forecasts Community Forums Buy and Sell Services
 
Hi guest · myAccount · Log in
 SearchSearch   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   RegisterRegister 
Gorge Water Temps
Goto page Previous  1, 2
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    iWindsurf Community Forum Index -> Northwest USA & Canada
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Sun Jul 23, 2006 8:45 pm    Post subject: RE: Gorge Water Temps Reply with quote

1. My early summertime full suit, at 2mm, loose, and fully Nylon II, is not nearly as warm as a normal shorty, especially in the air. Its insurance against long immersions.
2. Im also over 30, and thus smart enough to consider my safety more valuable than my cool factor. Ive often ridden dirt bikes and skiied at 20 degrees -- below zero -- but water at 65 degrees in a shorty or 70 in trunks can be far more dangerous. I prefer to control the risks I CAN control so I can TAKE risks I CANT control.
3. Ive encountered far too many hypothermic people in shortys -- even in July -- to ignore physics and physiology. Trunks in 65-degree water (early July) can be -- and have been -- deadly. Your nippy transitions often make the newspapers as tragedies when something goes wrong.
4. I very often sail until way past 9RazzM, at which point air temps can drop fairly quickly.
5. And its then that I incur many of my longer swims and butt-sails, because the wind often dies with the light.
6. A two-mile reach is not a generous estimate; its a measurement.
7. And in many places, the nearest shore is not an option, for many reasons, leaving only the launch ya parked at.
8. Ive never swum for two hours in the gorge (big lakes, a different story), but it happens to people who arent willing to abandon broken gear, tow it through a mile of big chopswell, get their shivering butts ashore any place they can, and THEN worry about how to get up the cliff, across the desert, and down 20-60 highway miles back to their dog. We dont all sail in the kiddie pool. (Youve SEEN overhead Columbia swell? Jeez, we SAIL in it MANY days a year.)

Im not advocating sailing hot (unless the water is cold and big). But intelligent selection of materials and design can safely and comfortably accommodate a wider range of air and water temps than limiting ones sailing wear choices to a couple of options.

Mike \m/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
carl



Joined: 25 Feb 1997
Posts: 2674
Location: SF bay area

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:57 am    Post subject: RE: Gorge Water Temps Reply with quote

Quickrig, et al:
Youre not going to be swimming a race, youre going to be swimming while towing your equip.
which means youll be in the water a long time
(are you really going to ditch that expensive stuff???).
You can get easily get hypothermic in 70deg water if youre emersed it for an hour or more. The water is also colder out in the current of the channel.
Im a veteran of several long 2 or 3 mile swims, with equip. A warm wetsuit is your best friend.
You guys are just babes in the woods.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Windlover



Joined: 06 Oct 2015
Posts: 623

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 7:32 pm    Post subject: RE: Gorge Water Temps Reply with quote

Due to current, water conditions (ie; swell/chop), wind speed, and towing an expensive rig, any swim in the Gorge is twice to three times the distance of just a straight on swim.
Thus the need for some heat conservation to prevent hypothermia. Ill stick to wearing at least a shortie in the summer and full suits any other time. Please dont become a statistic just because you think you are okay without a wetsuit.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pacspeed



Joined: 14 Sep 2000
Posts: 627

PostPosted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:02 pm    Post subject: RE: Gorge Water Temps Reply with quote

WOW! With such a wealth of experience and knowledge, you should just be declared King of the gorge and put an end to all these discussions with us people who are so clearly, flagrantly WRONG.
Lets review:
1: Over 30, what an amazing accomplishment! I just reached it myself, so I can verify that it takes a lot of effort and commitment to get older.
2: You dont sail in the kiddie pool. You must be a real stud, since the slow moving polluted water behind one dam is so different than another. Get real, get over yourself. Weve all sailed 3 Mile and Roosevelt. Its the same damn river.
3: Hypothermic in 70 degree water? If you are in poor health or physical fitness, maybe. Anyone with good circulation, metabolism, and nutrition should be able to swim several miles in 70 deg. water with no problems at all. I personally have swam across the river and back, in trunks, just for fun. Took about an hour. BFD.
The bottom line, Mike, is that not everyone likes the pressure cooker effect of wearing a wetsuit in August. Its not a coolness contest, a fashion show, or misplaced bravado. I Just. Dont. Feel. Cold. in 70 degree water. At all. Even after several hours. And, the lack of wetsuits at many popular spots apparently means, many others dont either.
If you want to wear a 5/4 steamer in the middle of summer, go right ahead, but the OP might appreciate differing viewpoints from your absolutist, alarmist manifestos declaring those that eschew neoprene to be immature, foolhardy, fashion victims.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
wsmike



Joined: 07 Jun 2003
Posts: 412

PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a pretty old post but still relative since the new season for 07 is just starting up.

I can say that for sure you can lose a hold on your core temp if you are in the water too long, even in the middle of August with a wetsuit. OTOH, with 70 degree water and a 3/2 you should be just peachy. The neet thing about wetsuits is that they provide a buffer from your 98 degree body and the 70 degree water. Call it a layer of insulation, if you will. Your body will heat the water that gets absorbed in the wetsuit and once full of water it doesnt provide a fast exchange for newer, colder water very quickly so that heat tends to stay with you. Also, while swimming, as with any aerobic exercise (and swimming is supposed to be one of the best), you build body heat.

Last year I swam from Oregon to Washington in front of the Event Site and got out at the White Salmon bridge. I was exhausted but no where near cold.

If you're going to swim with your rig and you find yourself getting cold, there's always the option of sitting on your board to catch your breath and/or warm up. I think panic is the biggest threat to hypothermia in that situation. It takes a while to swim but it can be kind of enjoyable if you relax and remember to keep your head, go slow, and stay calm.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:39 pm    Post subject: Re: RE: Gorge Water Temps Reply with quote

pacspeed wrote:
WOW! With such a wealth of experience and knowledge, you should just be declared King of the gorge and put an end to all these discussions with us people who are so clearly, flagrantly WRONG.
Lets review:
1: Over 30, what an amazing accomplishment! I just reached it myself, so I can verify that it takes a lot of effort and commitment to get older.
2: You dont sail in the kiddie pool. You must be a real stud, since the slow moving polluted water behind one dam is so different than another. Get real, get over yourself. Weve all sailed 3 Mile and Roosevelt. Its the same damn river.
3: Hypothermic in 70 degree water? If you are in poor health or physical fitness, maybe. Anyone with good circulation, metabolism, and nutrition should be able to swim several miles in 70 deg. water with no problems at all. I personally have swam across the river and back, in trunks, just for fun. Took about an hour. BFD.
The bottom line, Mike, is that not everyone likes the pressure cooker effect of wearing a wetsuit in August. Its not a coolness contest, a fashion show, or misplaced bravado. I Just. Dont. Feel. Cold. in 70 degree water. At all. Even after several hours. And, the lack of wetsuits at many popular spots apparently means, many others dont either.
If you want to wear a 5/4 steamer in the middle of summer, go right ahead, but the OP might appreciate differing viewpoints from your absolutist, alarmist manifestos declaring those that eschew neoprene to be immature, foolhardy, fashion victims.


1. I can't take credit for that. The calendar does all the work while I go along for the ride.
2. Same river, all right, but "the swim" out east can beat the corridor swim by a mile or two, raising the threat of hypothermia.
3. What you or I can do or feel in 70 degree water is anecdotal, i.e., meaningless to the next guy. I stayed comfortable riding dirt bikes at 20 degrees . . . Fahrenheit . . . below zero . . . in upstate NY while my buds froze their butts off in the 30s above. So I base my comments on researched facts, not the world's most abused oxymoron, "anecdotal evidence". We've had numerous guys get hypothermia out east in the summer; one was in a shorty in very comfortable near-summer conditions and is an expert level Great Lakes sailor.

The bottom line, according to the world's hypothermia experts, is that 70 degree water kills, even though we Just. Don't. Feel. Cold. until hypothermia starts.

\m/
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    iWindsurf Community Forum Index -> Northwest USA & Canada All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You can attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum

myiW | Weather | Community | Membership | Support | Log in
like us on facebook
© Copyright 1999-2007 WeatherFlow, Inc Contact Us Ad Marketplace

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group