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Crag & Route Beta

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Topic Date User

Deep water soloing 21-Jul-2011 At 2:56:28 PM Pat B

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I've been to Thailand and Turkey DWSing and was remarkably suprised at how much grip my rubber had even when wet, so when I fell in I didn't worry too much about changing boots. With chalk I found that, again, I didn't really need it, it certainly wasn't the limiting factor when you start to get a bit higher of the water.
Having said that, people do take changes of boots and chalk. Many of the solos in Thailand have rope starts so you can conceivably start dry (out of the boat, off a kayak is tricky but still achievable) so you can either hang a chalk bag on the rope, collect it/chalk up on the way past or back yourself to stay dry and wear the chalk bag from the start. Obviously for dry starts you need another person to control the boat/kayak and some of the local longtail drivers may not want to/be able to get you close enough. If you must have chalk, then take many bags and only put a little in each time because ultimately, if you're pushing yourself, you're are going to get wet. And that's half the fun and excitement.
There are DWS trips every day run by the climbing companies out of places like Railay and Tonsai, but I didn't bother with them, just hired kayaks. And when you hire kayaks you can rent dry bags (and snorkels and goggles) as well.