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120 rule?

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Miss Adventure:
What is your opinion about the 120 rule of thumb (you can ditch the wet suit when the air and water temp combined equals 120 or greater). I MUCH prefer warm (ok, HOT) water, but as far as just safety goes (not necessarily comfort), do you think 120 is enough? I found this article recently about the 120 rule: https://www.boatus.com/pressroom/release.asp?id=1256#.WM8-uvkrI2w
I had just been thinking about this because of the warm weather we had a couple of weeks ago. It was about 70 degrees outside which got me itching to get on the water, but the water temp is still around 55. Two days later it was 25 degrees colder outside and the water was still 55. BTW, I'm not talking about surf SUP, just sound-side lazy relaxing SUP. Even though 70+55=125 I still wouldn't have risked it without a wet suit. Would you? 

PonoBill:
Depends on where you are and what you're doing.  If you have a chance of being stuck for a few hours or more, then no. If you're going to be sitting around or standing around much, then no.  But I trunk it in the gorge often when it's 70 + 40. I have a built-in Orca suit to begin with, and downwinding is pretty active.

And of course, if it's Celsius, then no.

Bean:
Nah, if the air and water are both 60 I'll still be in a drysuit.

On the other hand, for SUP surf, the 100 rule works for me.  If the combined temp exceeds 100, it's time to step down to a full 3/2 suit.

Ichabod Spoonbill:
Funny how this differs as to the area. When the combined temperature is 100º, I'm usually in my thinner wetsuit  2.5MM with a 1.5 MM jacket. Only when it gets lower do I go for the blubber suit. When the water gets about 55º and the air is warm, I go without anything. I know I can take a fall in mid 50s water with warm air. I've done it lots of times, and in Cape Cod that's kind of normal.

You have to know your conditions too. If it's calm you might not fall in at all. You also have to know your board. I might dress differently for a tippy raceboard in cold weather than a nice wide cruiser.

Subber:
Today, 55 water temp, 55 air temp with just a little sun barely coming through the clouds.

For surfing, I wore wetsuit shorts (various thickness 3mm, 6mm, 8mm) and a thin 1mm vest.

Plenty warm surfing although my feet were a bit cold initially.
Fell in after the forth wave and then again a couple of times later.
Out for about an hour and a half.

Once I warmed up, I was plenty warm.
Of course, I was also always fairly close to shore without any danger of being stuck out there.

After the fact, I guess I could have just trunked it, but I wouldn't have been as comfortable.

I usually trunk it surfing if it is 60 or higher air temp and sunny.  Water is usually 55 so the magic number
in our area is about 115 for surfing ---- I'd say higher for lazy relaxing supping around, since  you wouldn't likely
be heating your body up as much.

Oh yeah, wind was 4mph or less. 

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