Hypothermia is not limited to the NW

Jason, what's the tunnel on suits for?

for overlapping the tunnel on a spray skirt. It gives a shingle effect so when you roll or have waves break on you you don't get a bunch of water in the boat. Not necessary for SOT's, rafts, or canoes. The front entry or no-tunnel is pretty standard for those boats.

It's kind of funny, there is an article in the last sea kayaker about a bunch of guides from the PNW who got there as*es handed to them in Costa Rica because they just didn't feel there was any danger because the water and air were so warm so they didn't take there regualr safety precautions.

2 of them were rescued by the CG after 5 miles of swimming/floating after getting blasted over by "unexpected" high winds. They both were hypothermic in water and air above 70F.

You can get really chilled even in 75 degree water, if there's wind.  After all, it's more than 20 degrees cooler than your bod!!

Everything we sell has socks and pee-zip. I'm not sure why you would get one without.

I agree about the socks, but the ladies have no use for a front zipper

Oh contrare!

we sell the ladies with a lower front reliefe zip so they can use a "freshette" to stand and pee. No chick wants that rear zip because it makes there butt look big, and sitting on that zipper all day is a drag (I hear)

How many of those do you actually sell?  We had chicks use them in Afghanistan but I've never seen another one since, or seen 'em advertised.

My wife uses one sometimes when camping , kinda disconcerting to see her standing there in the brush, taking a whiz like a guy....

I'd say somewhere between 30 and 50 a year.

this might not be the right spot for this, but with alll the recent discussion about staying warm in the water, i did a web search  for dry suit makers, trying to find one that wont break my bank account.

in the process, i found this article by  Eric Jackson of Jackson Kyaks fame, on how to stay toasty on the water, in the winter. bear in mind, the man is a very active kayaker, mostly whitewater. but what he says should apply to what we face too; http://jacksonkayak.com/blog/2011/01/13/how-to-stay-toasty-warm-in-the-winter/

stohlquist makes the best non-gore "affordable" dry suit I've seen. Both them and Kokatat have been making them the longest. I.R. makes nice ones to, but can be almost as much as gore.

there's Level 6, Bomber Gear (taken over by confluence this year (WS, Perception, dagger etc), IR, Kokatat, Stohlquist. That's all I can think of right now for paddle sports specific dry suits.

Here's a stohlquist bPod at $499 http://shop.aldercreek.com/Outerwear-Apparel/Drysuits/bPod-Drysuit-C69-i996250.html
and the gPod (latex gasket) is $549.

I'm pushing the boss for a special NWKA 15% off dry suits online right now, will update in a sec.

Since the Near Tragedy thread was closed, I thought I'd add this here.

KISS principle---may regret it when it's hot, but the one-piece is simpler and quicker to suit up.  I may miss the hood, though, as it's great in the drizzle. ...

I have one of the Full Dome Hoods (last item on page) which I like a lot.  http://www.glacieroutdoor.com/products_water.php

But it does give you "hood hair".

Nanook, that's a great price for a full dry suit with pee zip and sox!!   And I too have one of those hoodies, works great.  Since I got sorta low in the hair department, I need some xtra insulation and the bpod does the job.