Formal Wear for Pitchpoling in the Surf
When paddling through the Kuril Islands, my partner Franz and I wore dry suits. They were snug and warm for the first few weeks. We spent nine nights in our boats and then one morning, before dawn, Franz complained that the fabric on his suit was leaking and cold water was seeping down to his butt. The next night water oozed into my dry suit, and collected in a pool, right where I didn't want it to be. A little water in my undies is no big deal, but a week later the main waterproof zipper blew out, leaving a two-foot hole slanting from my appendix to my neck. A few days after that, I tore my neck gasket. For the next month, the suit routinely filled with water in snotty weather. Every few hours, I'd wring out my fleece undergarments, and pull back my sprayskirt so I could reach down to drain the excess water through my ankle gaskets. Needless to say, I was cold and shivery.

Dry suits are great, but when they fail, they fail catastrophically. Maybe, God forbid, you're swimming in shoal water and you rip your dry suit on a sharp rock. Then, all of a sudden, you're weighed down with an extra 20 to 30 pounds of water. On an expedition, it's the catastrophic failures-not the discomforts-that I worry about.

On my most recent Bering Sea expedition, I wore a Farmer John neoprene wetsuit. Yes, I got wet when pushing my partners out through the surf. Yes, it was horrible to dust the ice out of the pant legs and then slip into the stiff garment on frosty mornings. Yes, it had a strong smell after a four-month expedition. But neoprene is warmer when wet than anything I know of. The vest portion of the Farmer John generally stayed dry and kept my core warm. In addition neoprene provides flotation if you're swimming and it's the most shock-absorbent fabric if a big wave tosses you into a rock. If it rips, the hole isn't catastrophic because the suit is designed to let a little water in anyway. And a little dab of glue will patch that tear in a jiffy. Call me old fashioned, but I intend to stay that way until they come up with something better.

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