Should I wear my dry suit every time I go in the ocean

Here is a safety question do all of you always wear your dry suits in the ocean ? Even in the summer .?

 Simple answer----- yes !

 Ocean water temperature will seldom be over 55 degrees. Hypothermia will disable you very quickly if your core temp drops rapidly. If your core gets too cold--- you die....

  Always dress for water temperature----not the air temp.

What Mark said.

OK thanks I have a dry suit but haven't worn it the two times I went out in brookings . I had it on yesterday but quickly became so hot I decided to take it off before deploying . I will start wearing it every time now . even if boiling inside of it .

Do you guys just wear shorts and a T-shirt under your suits in the summer ?

If a dry suit is too hot try a wetsuit and carry a measuring cup to dump water on yourself.

Do you guys just wear shorts and a T-shirt under your suits in the summer ?

You still need to wear thermal layers underneath the dry suit as the typical dry suit has no thermal properties, and just provide the waterproof aspect.

Never wear cotton as cotton absorbs moisture and holds onto it keeping you cold, wet and heavy. Try to build layers with wicking properties, like synthetic fibers found in Under Armor, fleece and such.  Wool, and even better...Merino wool are great for added warmth and wicking without overheating.

Goodwill is a great place to start collecting basic under layers that don't really need to match.   Keep these layers stowed with your dry suit so you have them at the ready. 

 

What is the water temperature down there? Most of the time up here it's overcast at the coast so overheating isn't usually a problem. You can also keep a cup handy and just throw some water on your suit every few minutes. If you're really hardcore you could just jump off your kayak and swim around a little That's what our old friend Pelagic used to do. Or so he told me

An old white T-shirt can be used to block the rays and provide topside evaporative cooling.
Keep it wet and on your lap as this is where the sun is most likely cooking you from. 
Also, many dry suits have black legs which really can heat up, so keep them wet or covered with the old white t-shirt.

As Noah mentioned, up here in the North coast it is usually overcast well until noon and then there is usually a breeze that starts to kick up in the afternoon.  Overheating isn't usually an issue even in the summer.

My dry suit is all black so it heated up quick . I'm gonna invest someday in a different one and keep this as an extra for for guests .

Hang your legs off the side,  splash water in your lap, hop in for a quick dip. All cool you down pretty quick.

Do you guys just wear shorts and a T-shirt under your suits in the summer ?

You still need to wear thermal layers underneath the dry suit as the typical dry suit has no thermal properties, and just provide the waterproof aspect.

Never wear cotton as cotton absorbs moisture and holds onto it keeping you cold, wet and heavy. Try to build layers with wicking properties, like synthetic fibers found in Under Armor, fleece and such.  Wool, and even better...Merino wool are great for added warmth and wicking without overheating.

Goodwill is a great place to start collecting basic under layers that don't really need to match.   Keep these layers stowed with your dry suit so you have them at the ready. 

Insayn's comments are excellent.  To elaborate on them a bit:

Buy a drysuit which is big enough so you can wear many layers of clothing underneath it.  If you go for the trim stylish look when you choose a drysuit, you'll be sorry when you try to use it in cold weather and cold water.  A dry suit should be pretty baggy so there is room for about four layers of clothing under it.  This allows you to kayak in comfort even if it's snowing out, and there are chunks of ice in the water.

Here are a couple pictures from a day of kayak fishing in the snow in May on Lindbergh Lake in Montana.





Here are a couple pictures from a 5-day 116-mile unsupported kayak trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, starting on Marsh Creek, where we paddled through snow for the first day and a half.  Our drysuits kept us warm and comfortable, and we wore the same clothing on and off the water.







NEVER EVER wear cotton under a drysuit, or in any outdoor activity for that matter.  When cotton gets wet, it sucks heat from your body like a swap cooler, and it dries off very slowly. Polypro and similar fabrics will keep you warm even when they're wet, and they dry out quickly just from your body heat. Sometime when you're fishing in cold weather, try this experiment:  put a cotton glove on one hand, and a polypro glove on the other, and get them wet.  The cotton glove wll make your hand cold and will dry out very slowly.  The polypro glove will keep your hand warm and will dry out quickly.  Try the same experiment with a cotton glove and a wool glove.  The wool glove will stay wet for a long time, but it'll keep you warm even when it's wet.

The best clothing to wear under a drysuit is polypro and its clones, like Patagonia's Capilene.  You can buy pile pants and jackets quite inexpensively at discount and athletic stores.  Look for clothing which has a lot of loft (i.e. which is pretty thick and light), and which will layer up well.  Acrylic is almost as good as polypro.  When winter clothing goes on sale in the spring, you can buy acrylic sweaters at low cost.  They work very well under a drysuit.

When whitewater kayaking in hot weather and cold water, even if you take a swim you can expect to be on shore in a minute or so.  So you only need to wear enough clothing under your drysuit so you'll stay comfortable when you get splashed, or if the sky clouds over and the wind comes up.  In many situations when whitewater kayaking in hot weather I may wear just one thin layer of polypro under my drysuit.  You'll want to wear something under your drysuit, because when the fabric of a drysuit gets wet it feels clammy and uncomfortable, whether or not the fabric is breathable.  So I prefer not to wear short sleeves and pants under a drysuit, even if it's hot.

When you're out on a large lake or the ocean in hot weather and cold water, if something goes haywire you could end up in the water for an extended period of time.  So wear enough clothing under your drysuit to keep yourself warm even if you end up in the water for a couple of hours.  Don't guess how much clothing that will require.  Put on a bunch of clothing under your drysuit, put on a life jacket, and try floating around in the water for about 15 minutes.  You'll pretty quickly discover if you're wearing enough clothing to protect yourself from hypothermia in an emergency.  If you get hot, splash water on your drysuit, or lower yourself into the water and practice re-entering your kayak.  I spearfish for pike in Montana in a drysuit.  In the spring and fall, this involves snorkeling around in water which is in the low 50's for 4-5 hours a day.  A drysuit with  enough clothing under it allows me to do that in comfort.

A wetsuit is an option.  The downside is extra work to unpeel due to no relief zipper.  They are cooler, and you can warm up with a jacket on the outside.  Probably less likely to fail as well.  And easier to swim in if you need to.  Going pee is the main negative.

 Simple answer----- yes !

 Ocean water temperature will seldom be over 55 degrees. Hypothermia will disable you very quickly if your core temp drops rapidly. If your core gets too cold--- you die....

  Always dress for water temperature----not the air temp.

+1          ..............ALWAYS in the salt

Here is a safety question do all of you always wear your dry suits in the ocean ? Even in the summer .?

The only time and place you can get away with not wearing a dry suit in the "salt" is a 90+ degree day on the puget sound, and you damned well better be physically capable of pulling you butt back in your boat quickly or you'll be in trouble within minutes.