replacement wet suit

COMING SOON: OTTER-INSPIRED WETSUITS

For thousands of years man has tried to emulate what it is that keeps animals warm in cold environments? The most successful product so far has been the use of fur skins as has been used by Eskimo’s for those thousands of years.

In recent times the down and or feather has been incorporated and generally speaking it has been a failure due to its penchant for water which renders it useless. While it is on the bird it does whatever is necessary to keep the bird alive. If the bird happens to get wet the bird is not adversely affected as man is when wearing a garment that utilizes the down or feather entity as an insulating medium. Another material that was developed in the late 1960’s; hollow polyester fiber was suggested that it will perform as well as the hollow hair of Cariboo. This hollow core polyester fiber has air in the shaft which was supposed to heat up and keep the person wearing the garment warm. However, while the hollow core hair on the Cariboo does an admirable job of keeping the Cariboo warm it did not work the same for man.

Now and I quote;” a team of researchers at MIT recently examined the properties of otter and beaver fur, with hopes of unlocking its fuzzy secret”. These researchers want to mimic the outside hairs and the under fur which hold the air in pockets that insulate the otters skin. The reason is to duplicate this to line neoprene wet suits which will they believe better insulate the wearer. One more time man is trying to emulate the how and what that keeps an animal warm. They will ultimately fail. They just do not understand or want to understand what works for a living entity cannot be duplicated to work for man.

Having read the article I started to think about my insulated flotation suit. I will be making a vest and jacket using the flotation foam laminate with a light weight Lamilite that I use for my jacket liners. Since the water will get trapped in the Lamilite insulation it will warm to body temperature so these garments would be ideal for surfers and any one else who happens to need to stay warm in a mildly cold water environment.

I do not know what the price will be for these garments yet. However, for anyone who is interested in trying one or the other they will be $25.00 and $35.00 respectively. Ordering will have to be via phone since I will not put them on the web site until some of you adventurous people give me feed back as to how they perform; good or bad. They will only be available in the color white at this time.

LAMILITE SOCKS

Since I published Greg’s account of using the socks in his motorcycle riding boots I have received several orders for the socks from riders. Word of mouth advertising is certainly the best advertising a company can have. So thank you Greg.

For hunters who go into tree stands or ice fisherman there is nothing better.