hyprothemia

i have been reading allot of pots lately about the gear and what to were in a invasion and natural disasters /nwo.
But i haven't seen anyone menchion the swim suits divers use
everyone in my family has one because we own a jet ski and i ushaly go out pretty far into the waves and if i do fall the suit helps keep your body temp in check.
i was wondering how many of you would pack this under there ponchos and camo gear and do you all think its worth putting is a number one priority .

Hypothermia is something to be cautious about in cold weather climates. Using a neoprene wet suit is a bad idea if you are on land. Wet suits are just that, Wet. The idea is that when you first enter the water the suit will fill with a small amount of water. Your body then heats that water up creating a small warm water zone around the body. This will help in keeping the body warm longer but will NOT prevent hypothermia if you are in cold water for too long. Divers that go into severely cold water use dry suits which are very different.

On land a wet suit would be worthless. They are not designed for land activities. They would chafe like crazy and would trap sweat inside. Your sweat can actually lower your body temp or even freeze in severe cold. The best thing do to is to dress in layers. You should use a wicking layer first such as polypropylene and then follow with an over layer of perhaps wool. A water resistant shell or even Gortex should be the final layer to keep your clothing dry. Wet clothing is your worst enemy in cold weather.

Finally, I would just like to add....Ouch ... learn to use a spell checker. You will get more replies if your post is presented better. Just like Ford motor cars.... Quality is job one.

[edit on 28-1-2007 by Terapin]

First weapon to fight cold is good thermal underwear, no neoprene, but twin layered or microfiber/microtube underwear sets that transport sweat from your skin to the middle clothing layer. This way you stay dry and keep your bodyheat up longer. And they are very comfortable too. At least Craft, Rukka and Etirel manufacture good underwear sets. There are other bands too, but these are the ones i like and i've tested them in tough conditions inluding alpine skiing at -25C and 9 day recce ops at -22C

Yes that underwear sounds like a good idea. But overall a dry suit like mentioned before to fight the water sounds like the way to go.
Reason i wanted to know what people would use is i would think people would want to dive in the ocean water as far as humanly possible without any sort of breathing aids to possibly hunt crab and possibly spear fish.
This are very good foods and not to hard to hunt if there is no fishing line for the fish and to keep you warm in the water would be a plus because i can imagine hunting a crab will take a while.

syress
Dry suit is no good if you have to walk or run, you'll sweat like a pig

And fishingline should be included to your BOB if you plan a dry suit too. And in a survival scenario you'll want to stay as dry as possible.

Crabbing is very easy to do with simple traps. Heck if you tie a piece of chicken to a string and lower it into the ocean, you can actually pull up crabs as they won't let go. I have done this often. A dry suit, or wet suit, requires a weight belt if you wish to go diving. I am not about to carry around a bunch of lead weights in a survival situation when I could better use the space to carry gear.

Here is a great experiment for you. Go put on your neoprene wet suit then go outside for a 5 mile rigorous hike this winter. Carry a small back pack with you full of water, some food and some small gear. Stay outside and active for three or four hours. Let me know how comfortable it was when you get back.