Cold Weather boating

[stanleyjs]

How do y'all paddle in the fall/winter/spring?
I got a whitewater boat this summer but I haven't been able to take my kayak out since September as the air has been too cold.

I've been looking at getting a drytop and drypants. How well would that combo work with my normal skirt? I want something that if I swim I'm not gonna get hypothermia... but I can't afford a $1000 drysuit.

[BigGREATColt]

Look for used drysuits you can usually find them for around 500
A new dry top/dry pant combo can usually run around 400
Not to mention they aren't actually dry like the dry suits
Otherwise you could do a wetsuit/ splash top combination

[Deuce]

Second Colt's recommendation of looking around for a dry suit. You can get one for much less than a grand. Troll Boatertalk's gear swap section as well as Mountainbuzz and fleabay and check with Kayak Academy. Super nice folks. I bought a brand new with tags Kokatat Hydrus dry suit with relief zipper and booties from them for $500. Hydrus is not quite as breathable as Gore Tex but still breathable and carries the same lifetime warranty from Kokatat. They also sell used suits and stand behind them. Happy hunting.

[Crane]

Not endorsing, but a $400 drysuit appears possible to buy now: http://www.mythicdrysuits.com/products/enki" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Deuce]

I've read some reviews on the Mythic suits and so far people seem to like them pretty well. Bottom line is there are plenty of options well under a grand.

[magicmike]

The screen shot is from Kayak Academy. I picked up the Tropos paddling suit before the holidays for 429 bucks, and love it. It only has a 2 year warranty, but it's a Kokatat, so they will fix it forever after that, on me. In 2 years, I'll get a gortex one and have this one for a backup if I ever have to send in the new one for repair. There are a lot of ways to get into winter boating without spending a thousand dollars, unless you really want to. This is my first drysuit, and I will never be without one again.-M-

[diona]

wimps! lol!! my first winter ww kayakin I wore my farmerjane wetsuit, a fleece kayak layer and my paddle jacket..a fleece beanie hat, no gloves...had better control of paddle when I rolled..it wa
s 18 degrees on Lee Creek icle float in '99 with my fave paddle buddie Jim Jones...back when we were noobs!!! Lol!! Jim accused me of being way to attached to my farmerjane...back then..it adjusted to my body temp..worked!!

[Deuce]

Nice first post.

[okieboater]

In the spirit of telling stories about cold weather boating in "farmer jon type wet suits" - here is another "true" experience.

By the way, I spent a lot of time boating wet suits, wool sweaters and rain jackets over the top as a paddle jacket.
Great memories and good trips but man was it cold.

One time back in the fiberglass kayak days, a group of us Okies did a winter float down the Big Piney. It was below freezing and overcast but not as cold temp wise as diona's trip. At least that is my memory of the float.

I don't remember the exact spot but maybe mid float a bud flipped and took a long swim dressed as diona was. Except some type of wool sweater as fleece was not that common or if it was we did not know about it.

This was back in the day when all of us was still learning boating skills.

This gentleman was finally got to shore. He was past the shaking stage barely able to talk bad case of the mumbles and stumbles. He did not have any dry clothes. We had a pretty good sized group and as he was being brought to shore several were out grabbing wood. We got a big orville wright size blaze going with him steaming water vapor in front of the fire. Fortunately for him the rest of us did have spare dry clothing. We put together dry stuff, got him out of the dripping wet stuff. Keeping the blaze going, he took a while but came around. None of us at the time had Wilderness First Aid training. Looking back I am sure our bud was in the advanced stages of hypothermia. We got lucky and so did he. We got things dried out and made the rest of the trip slow and sure and got him to the take out. The stories started at the BBQ shack out side Clarksville and we all learned about below freezing swims from the incident.

All I am saying here is every body and every swim is different. If you are out in below freezing or even close weather and take a long swim the wet suit lets water inside and takes away body heat really fast and the paddle jacket over what ever does the same thing.

These days we have great dry tops (granted breathable fabic is expensive but coated ones work pretty good) and the dry top does help keep the body core warmer during swims. I did my share with this combo of dry top and neoprene farmer jon bottoms. Adding a dry top to a farmer jon bottom helps a lot in my opinion.

In any event, having dry clothing along makes recovery from a wet swim a lot easier to achieve.

Later on after dry suits came out a bunch of us ACC buds made a rare at the time New Years Eve Nogo run. Temps were falling like a rock in the afternoon and I am sure we were in the teens. A bud dressed in a dry suit took a reasonably length swim but was in a dry suit. It was a good group and we got a big fire going really fast. Out of the water our swim bud was walking around getting teased about his swim. He never took off his dry suit, stood around the fire and got his feet and hands warmed up and off we went. Not that big a deal.

Cold weather boating outfits have made giant improvements and if a person can, I hope they can take advantage of them. :myday"

[diona]

awesome reply Okieboater.........I am lucky to b of the plastic "Tupperware ' boats.generation..to quote Scott Hashaw.....I don,t know if I could repair a fiberglasss one...[img][img][/img][/img] AND technical fleece is a godsend too! I remember those ddays before capiline, spandex, and fleece....

[okieboater]

Thanks diona.

At one time there were quite a few of us fiberglass boaters around the ACC.

My friend Flapjack down at the Fort and his better half boated glass longer than I did.

Glass boats took some special care but were fixable. I remember one time on Upper Richland we had a glass squirt boater along who wrapped his squirt boat and we basically duct taped that baby back together. I had just ordered a super duct tape just to see if it worked and it did. The boat made it to the take out but shipped a lot of water along the way.

Good times for sure. Having said that, I enjoy modern boat designs, dry suits and fleece a bunch as they make for a lot of comfort. I have discovered merino wool and am slowly but surely watching the sales and adding more and more merino layers. So far that stuff is working well for me.