Thermal underwear. Body protection
Each fisherman, as experience accumulates, has an increasing number of gear, and the closest attention is paid to their technical excellence. "Fancy" spinning rods, "advanced" reels, "rated" wobblers - well, just a mega-popular topic in recent years in the Russian fishing world. And this, of course, is correct and logical, but it should be noted that many fishermen lose sight of such an important part of fishing equipment as clothing. Of course, everyone has it, and even acquired it specifically for fishing, but many, unfortunately, define it as a secondary role.
Choosing clothes for fishing
How is the choice of ammunition for the vast majority of anglers? Yes, all clothes are simply divided by them into two categories - summer and winter, much less often into 2-3 more subtypes by type of fishing, and the purchase itself is regulated by an acceptable price for a particular wallet. The fact is that the main role in the choice of clothes is still not too burdensome price, and the requirements for functionality are usually quite trivial and fade into the background. It's not the clothes that catch the fish, is it? The main thing is that in winter it should not be very cold, and in summer it should not blow and not get wet.
If you look at this question like this, superficially, then of course it will do, but if you “dig deeper”, it turns out that not everything is so simple. First, the price. If one calculates his total expenses for fishing tackle and the costs associated with each fishing trip, and then tries to compare this amount with spending on clothes, he will immediately understand how undeservedly little money has been allocated for this part of fishing equipment. This time. Two - our catch still depends on the clothes. Maybe not directly, but nonetheless. Well, for example, in winter, in a heavy sheepskin coat and in felt boots with shoe covers from the OVZK kit, you simply won’t go far, and you won’t drill many holes. And in the summer, in heavy rain, you can’t fish for a long time, or you won’t even go to the river at all, if you don’t have the appropriate ammunition.
To the right clothes - through sweat and cold
For the first time I thought about the right winter clothes at the beginning of my fishing journey. Wet, literally to the underpants, after actively drilling several holes, I began to freeze catastrophically quickly in anticipation of a bite of a bream. My powerful fur protection, due to the "wearable" moisture, immediately lost half of its "heat-preserving" ability. With experience, I began to try to adjust the amount of clothing according to physical activity, so as not to sweat excessively. Well, let's say, when drilling dozens of holes, he simply took off his outer jacket, and sometimes even his hat. Yes, it helped for some time, but on the next fishing trip, heated up by physical exercises, I quickly put on my jacket, which has already completely cooled down and iced up in the winter wind, and after a few minutes I feel that my nose ... is not breathing - there is a cold for which - something 3 minutes.
And in the long winter transitions, such a simple “regulation” is not only ineffective, but on the contrary, it is much more dangerous. A wet and hot back on the lee side and an icy wind in the face on the windward side - all this usually leads to sad consequences for health. The real "thermocline", only not in water, but in our own body, and here it is not fish that suffer, but our delicate organs - bronchi, lungs, etc. In general, as you can see, in winter the role of the correct selection of clothes is very large and, I hope, after my example, this is clear. But not everyone understands how to make this choice correctly. At least, for a very long time I could not find that golden compromise between warmth and lightness in one set. And in order not to freeze in the early morning in the frosty wind, and not to sweat while drilling holes, or sitting on a box on a spring day in the warming sun.
Summer suit for fishing. And here, too, everything is not easy ...
For the second time, the question of the right clothes "rose with an edge" already on a summer fishing trip - in a lingering rain. My, the most waterproof PVC jacket, suddenly gave, as it seemed to me, a leak over its entire area. That is, I take off my jacket after five hours of fishing in the rain - and suddenly I find that all the clothes underneath are just wet. Yes, this simply can not be! Having delved into the essence of the problem, I realized that this is again the same “underwear” moisture, but in this particular case, the condensate of my sweat, which settled on the inner, cold from the rain, surface of the “raincoat”. Here's your protection from the rain! Soaked not from the outside, but from the inside.
And the most compelling argument in favor of the right summer clothes I got after the first use of waders in the July heat. Naturally, in those distant times - cheap, rubber. Those who have not experienced this "high" have lost a lot. Inexpressible extreme sensations! Dark rubber perfectly accumulates and conscientiously transfers solar heat to the inside of the suit. Even natural cooling in the water of a summer river helps only for a couple of minutes. At first, you just get hot. Then you start to sweat desperately. The steam environment inside the rubber "cocoon" gradually heats up and, having no way out, becomes more and more concentrated. And now you feel likeyour underwear is already getting wet and sticky with sweat. And the sun bakes and bakes. It's just hot outside, but inside your waders there is a real bathhouse, and in addition - a steam one! As a result, you simply can’t stand it, and in order not to get a powerful heat stroke, you desperately jump out of this hellish invention and fall into the water with bliss. And in those moments you begin to understand that something is wrong here. It shouldn't be like this, and there has to be a way out somewhere.
These three cases are the most indicative for realizing the need for the right choice of clothing. And there is only one negative reason in both the winter and summer versions - this is excessive sweat. In winter, it is bodily moisture, which occurs in excess after active physical exertion, that nullifies the heat-saving ability of clothing, and in summer, again, the same moisture is the main cause of discomfort in both hot and bad weather. So is there a way to deal with it? This is where modern technologies come into play, no less sophisticated than in the production of fishing tackle.
Basics of choosing fishing clothes
In general, fishing clothing can be divided into two categories - top and bottom. On the first category - a suit for fishing, we traditionally pay the main attention. This, it seems to me, is not entirely true, which we will discuss in detail in the second part of the article, but for now, for a general concept, we will consider the principle of its operation. It is simple: outerwear should in any conditions provide warmth and dryness to the body of the angler. But even during one fishing trip, weather conditions can change dramatically - from a cold autumn morning with heavy rain to a hot, clearer afternoon. For me personally, as a fishing fisherman, this is almost always a big problem: how to dress so that you don’t freeze in the morning and don’t sweat in the warm morning kit in the afternoon. It is clear that extra clothes can be removed, but if there is nowhere to hide them, then carrying with you in a backpack, and in the heat of the day, half of what was worn in the morning is not very pleasant, given that the backpack is far from being huge in size and every square centimeter of its volume counts.
In winter, the situation is even more complicated - for example, closer to spring, the temperature in the morning can be below minus 20ºС, and in the afternoon it can rise to zero. The difference is very noticeable, and how to choose the right version of clothing is a big question, often seeming simply unsolvable. And this problem is also actively manifested in the summer, in the heat, when using wading suits. Standing up to your chest in water during the current can be cold, but once you go ashore and get under the scorching sun, it becomes hot after 5 minutes. Is it possible to have a set of clothes that heats and cools at the same time?
So far, modern production technologies have not reached the level that mass consumption clothing itself regulates the temperature conditions for the angler's body according to our desire. And the basic principle of its functioning is based on maintaining the body temperature at a physiologically comfortable level due to the structure of the material and its composition. And its task is simple - the less influence the external temperature has on the temperature inside the clothes, the better. If we take the value of comfortable temperature on the surface of the body as 25ºС, then under any external weather conditions, clothing should maintain it with the minimum allowable run-up - for example, within 22 - 28ºС.
An illustrative example of the principle of its operation is the clothing of some desert inhabitants who, in 50-degree heat, wear fur coats. In this case, the fur does not heat, but keeps body temperature inside the fur coat. The point is precisely this - to save not heat as such, but the existing (required) temperature. And it can be not only positive, but also negative. For example, if you wrap a frozen pike in a downy shawl and expose it to the summer heat, the cold will remain inside for quite some time. Based on these radically different examples, it is clear that clothes can do quite a lot, and modern technologies have brought this functionality to a high level.
From natural to synthetic
From time immemorial, clothes were made from natural materials, and for a long time they were completely satisfied in terms of consumer qualities, since the choice among them is quite extensive, and the properties of different types of fabrics made it possible to make clothes for different conditions. But the constant problem was that most materials, with their specific positive properties, also had a lot of negative side qualities.
For example, dry wool warms very well, and in this it is still almost as good as any artificial material. But on the other hand, it actively absorbs moisture and eventually loses a large part of its heat-saving effect, and it takes a lot of time to dry it. Also, in addition, wet wool is simply unpleasant to wear on the body. But even with a load of low intensity - for example, when walking calmly, the human body releases about half a liter of moisture per hour and wool absorbs a large part of it.
The same goes for cotton, which is very comfortable to wear.skin, “breathes” well, weighs little, etc., but only when dry. But as soon as a person sweats a little, cotton loses all these positive properties very noticeably. This also applies to other natural materials.
Comfort technology
When fabrics for clothing based on synthetic fibers appeared, at first they outperformed natural materials only in terms of wear resistance. And they had one very noticeable minus - they did not let water through from the outside, but they also did not let it through from the inside. And so, under the synthetics, stagnant air accumulated, saturated with sweat vapor, which eventually again settled on our skin. That is, the material "did not breathe" - it was not ventilated. By the way, most of the inexpensive “fishing clothes” are made from such materials even now. To solve this problem, scientists set out to create a synthetic material that, firstly, “breathes” (ventilates) very well and at the same time maintains the desired body temperature. It was a very difficult task with conflicting initial installations.
So, the right stuff should be:
Firstly, do not create a "steam effect", allowing air to circulate through the fabric - "breathe" (ventilate the body);
But at the same time, to warm is to create within oneself (or under oneself) a layer of motionless warmed air;
To be as thin as possible to facilitate the release of moisture from the body, but at the same time to warm, which is usually achieved just the opposite - a large thickness of the fabric;
It is good to absorb water, thereby removing sweat from the body, but at the same time not to get wet and dry very quickly, i.e. get rid of moisture (always be dry);
Fit as close as possible to the body in order to collect sweat from the skin well - and at the same time not restrict movement and not create discomfort;
It is equally good to remove moisture at any outside temperature - and if it is lower than underwear, and if it is higher than it (i.e., both in heat and in cold);
To be as light as possible (comfortable) - and at the same time strong and resilient (wear-resistant).
Such difficult, even separately, qualities should be combined in one ideal material of our clothes. Is it possible? Yes. How this is done, let's look at the example of some models of underwear thermal underwear, which is now quite common and produced under different brands. I want to say right away that the common name for this line of clothing is “thermal underwear,” which can be misleading for many. This is by no means heat-preserving clothing, namely thermoregulating. It does not accumulate heat, but regulates its amount at a comfortable level. That is - it warms in the winter, and vice versa in the summer - it takes the excess out. This is the most important and amazing "trick" of functional underwear.
The principle of operation of different types of thermal underwear
Thermal underwear can be of several types, designed for different weather factors and physical activity. And, accordingly, the material for it is taken different in composition and structure. It can be a multi-season model, for medium loads, where a thin fabric of 100% polyester is used. Or underwear for the cold season, where the composition of the material is more complex, for example, with a small content of wool (without this natural heat-saving material, there is still nowhere). For example, the composition may be as follows: acrylic 85%, wool 10%, nylon 5%. Why is it necessary and why such types of thermal underwear are needed, let's look at specific examples.
Let's start with the cold weather model. So, the primary task of such underwear is to warm and remove moisture. The material accumulates heat due to the layer of air contained in it and warmed to a comfortable temperature by our body. Air conducts heat very poorly and therefore such a layer is an excellent insulator between the external environment and the underwear. The fabric fiber itself already has the lowest coefficient of thermal conductivity, but still the main thing is air - and the thicker its layer in the fabric, the warmer the laundry will be. As a result, the essence is simple: the thicker the material, the warmer it is. But, as mentioned above, the small thickness of the material is also important to us. How are these requirements combined, for example, in the winter version, where the maximum thickness is initially required?
The material of the underwear uses a special honeycomb weaving technology, which not only increases the volume of stored air, but also allows you to contain a certain percentage of completely still warm air (heat insulator) with very good "breathing" ability. That is: a certain part of the cells retains warm air in itself, and the other part freely passes it, allowing the fabric to “breathe”. By adjusting their quantitative ratio, types of linen of different properties are created. The main component of the material can be, for example, acrylic, which combines high thermal insulation properties, softness and strength. In addition, on the inner surface there may be a "bouffant" of wool of small thickness, which retains an additional layer of air.
For a lighter and thinner material of "cold" thermal underwear, the threads are madeboth structures from which the fabric is woven. They have air cavities inside, which also accumulate heat, which, together with the cellular structure of the weave, allows you to minimize the thickness of the fabric and its mass without losing heat-preserving abilities. Fibers usually have several hollow channels in them, which are obtained during production by pulling the thread in a special way. As a result, each thread of the fabric is in itself a heat accumulator.
"Breathable" thermal underwear. How does it work?
Moisture-wicking functions of the "breathable" material are based on two principles - the pressure difference between cold and warm air and the capillary effect. In the first case, the air in the tissue and heated from the body has a higher pressure than the outer layer and, due to the pressure difference, is forced out along with moisture (sweat) vapor. According to the laws of thermodynamics, this can be described as the dependence of the volume of air (gas) on temperature increase, according to the Mendeleev-Claiperon formula: PV = URT (P - pressure; V - volume; U - unit of substance; R - gas constant; T - temperature) . From this formula it can be seen that the pressure and volume (of air) directly depend on the temperature and the amount of the constituent substance, which in our case is moisture (sweat). That is, with an increase in temperature and the amount of moisture, the pressure in the wearable inner layer will increase and air, together with sweat molecules, will tend to the outer outer layer with a lower pressure. Simply put, this can be called air circulation or ventilation.
The “cold” type underwear works due to the capillary (“wick”) effect: the fibers of the material are very thin and, when in contact with moisture, a “suction” effect is created, which is achieved due to the large force of the surface tension of the liquid on a small area of the fiber thread. This is also facilitated by the special structure of the weaving of the yarn. The effect of "suction" of moisture can be demonstrated by the simplest example: it is worth lowering the edge of the fabric into the water - and it will rise along it to a rather large height. This is the action of the capillary effect. But in order for it to work on our body, it is necessary that the tissue has direct contact with the skin (read - “with sweat”). And that is why it is so important to choose underwear in size - "tight-fitting".
But all these wonderful qualities would not matter if the thermal underwear material got wet and held water. But its synthetic fibers do not absorb water at all (unlike natural fabrics), but only conduct it through themselves. Moreover, they even repel moisture from their surface. That is, for example, a fabric made of polyester almost does not get wet at all and gets rid of moisture very quickly - it dries or transfers moisture to the next layer of clothing. Together, all of the above qualities allow you to quickly remove moisture (sweat) from the surface of the skin to the outside and keep it constantly dry.
Additional benefits
In addition, the materials commonly used in modern thermal underwear have a considerable number of positive and pleasant properties. Firstly, they are very comfortable "to the touch", in which they are almost as good as even pure cotton. Smooth and soft, exerting a minimum of pressure on the skin, while elastic and close to the body. This is also facilitated by a special anatomical, three-dimensional cut of underwear, with flat closed seams. And recently, most models have a special antibacterial treatment that allows you to get rid of unpleasant odors even with prolonged use. The quality of the yarn, the weave and the fabric material itself ensures high resistance to deformation, which maximizes its service life.
The result is underwear that not only warms even in cold weather and the highest physical activity, but also avoids overheating, as well as hypothermia after high physical exertion. In the assortment of any well-known company that produces clothing for outdoor activities, thermal underwear is diverse in its heat-saving and moisture-wicking properties, the varieties of which we examined in this article. The main thing is to choose it for yourself both in size and functionality. It is naturally better for us anglers to have two types, similar to those presented above - for the cold season and for hot days. If you have not yet experienced the effectiveness of such modern functional underwear, then I must say that you have lost a lot.