Cold weather kayak fishing clothes

After watching the Cold Water Boot Camp video, I'm surprised I was able to do that swim at all.  This happened in Paramanoff Bay, Afognak Island, Alaska.  I was alone at the time and it appears I was very lucky.  I expected to be cold but didn't understand the possible rapid physiological effects.  I was a good swimmer and I was definitely swimming as fast as I could.  Still, if I had stiffened up halfway out or back, I could have drowned.  This was during the summer so perhaps the water had warmed just enough to do it.  The upshot is, I will very carefully assemble my clothing arrangement.  Thanks for the heads up!

I am still having problems with the statement that waders and a dry top are safe.  Maybe - maybe - if they're neoprene waders, but breathable waders?  How do you get the latex gasket at the waist to seal the folds and wrinkles, since you don't wear custom fitted waders?  You even get gathers around the belt and the tighter you cinch the belt, the more gathers you get.

This isn't a lack of experience, it's personal experience at being underwater - in warm water - in properly cinched breathable waders.  They do leak around the beltline, and not just the teaspoons that leak around the neck of a semi-drysuit.

I am still having problems with the statement that waders and a dry top are safe.  Maybe - maybe - if they're neoprene waders, but breathable waders?  How do you get the latex gasket at the waist to seal the folds and wrinkles, since you don't wear custom fitted waders?  You even get gathers around the belt and the tighter you cinch the belt, the more gathers you get.

This isn't a lack of experience, it's personal experience at being underwater - in warm water - in properly cinched breathable waders.  They do leak around the beltline, and not just the teaspoons that leak around the neck of a semi-drysuit.

I don't drink that particular flavor of Kool Aid, so somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.  I think the idea is that the dry top (with latex gaskets at the neck and wrists) traps the air that's inside of it like a diving bell, or a drinking glass held upside down and pushed under water in the sink.  If the water can't go up from the bottom of the dry top, it can't get over the top of the waders.  I can believe that it works, but it seems more risky than a suit. 

I am still having problems with the statement that waders and a dry top are safe.  Maybe - maybe - if they're neoprene waders, but breathable waders?  How do you get the latex gasket at the waist to seal the folds and wrinkles, since you don't wear custom fitted waders?  You even get gathers around the belt and the tighter you cinch the belt, the more gathers you get.

This isn't a lack of experience, it's personal experience at being underwater - in warm water - in properly cinched breathable waders.  They do leak around the beltline, and not just the teaspoons that leak around the neck of a semi-drysuit.

I don't drink that particular flavor of Kool Aid, so somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.  I think the idea is that the dry top (with latex gaskets at the neck and wrists) traps the air that's inside of it like a diving bell, or a drinking glass held upside down and pushed under water in the sink.  If the water can't go up from the bottom of the dry top, it can't get over the top of the waders.  I can believe that it works, but it seems more risky than a suit.

I have the same wonderings about drytop/drypants combo. You don't have anything to the top to seal, just a neoprene waist that sorta meets a neoprene wide belly area.

I have done a lot of whitewater kayaking in dry pants and a dry top, including a lot of multi-day kayak trips where I expected to wear the same clothing on and off the river for many days.  This is a pretty dry combination, because the smooth neoprene top of the dry pants, the neoprene spray skirt, and the waist and tunnel of the dry top are all sandwiched together.  However, I know that if I take a swim while wearing dry pants and a dry top, they are going to leak some water, particularly if I'm thrashing around in white water.  However, I'm willing to take that risk, because I go for years without swimming out of a whitewater kayak.  If I think there is much risk of swimming, I'll wear a full dry suit.

In my experience, a neoprene wader-dry top combination is pretty dry (but not completely dry) if the waders fit you snugly, because you can get a pretty good seal between the smooth neoprene waders and a dry top.  However, in my experience you don't get as good a seal between nylon waders and a dry top, because the waders form wrinkles which leak water, even if you chinch the dry top down pretty tightly on top of the waders.