Kayaking in really cold water

Saftety and Comfort

– Last Updated: Dec-08-12 8:02 PM EST –

I have occasionally stirred up trouble with one or two people here by suggesting that one does not "necessarily" need a wetsuit or drysuit for paddling small, quiet rivers in fall or spring when the water is cold. Getting out of the water in such a situation normally doesn't take long (but it COULD take too long in certain cases, so being prepared for the worst is still highly recommended). However, I'd never say that about paddling lakes when the water is cold, especially not in winter (even the colder temperature of winter on tiny rivers would make me really nervous about not being well prepared for spending some time in the water). Besides, even with the best safety intentions, a lake paddler isn't likely to be nearly as close to shore as someone on a little river, and in a lake you are far less likely to be able to get your feet on the bottom anytime soon after a capsize either. Best to be prepared for the worst.

I've never heard anyone say wetsuits are designed to work wet and not when dry. The usual complaint I hear is that they tend to be too warm until they get soaked. But if yours won't keep you warm when it's dry, wear something over it for additional insulation and to block the wind. I think the comfort issue is something you can get used to, but if not, a better option would be to find something that is comfortable, and wear it.

All the other advice so far, I agree with. Personally, I normally wear a drysuit for boating on lakes when the water is cold, and frequently wear it for quiet rivers too.

By the way, I'm assuming your lake is a deep one, since wave action won't keep any lake open all winter. In fact, constant wave action will make the day of freeze-up arrive sooner. You see, a lake won't freeze until some time AFTER the whole water profile cools to the temperature of its greatest density (about 39 degrees F). As water at the surface cools, it gets more dense and sinks, until eventually the lake gets filled from bottom to top with water having the temperature providing the greatest density. Once the whole profile from bottom to top reaches 39 degrees, water at the surface which cools further becomes less dense and "floats", where it stays exposed to the colder air and eventually cools below the freezing point. This process takes much longer in a deep lake than a shallow one, and if the lake is deep enough, it takes longer than the duration of the winter season so freezing never happens. Even huge, cold-exposed and wind-swept Lake Superior would freeze quite quickly each winter if it were as shallow as Lake Erie.

Deep lake here
Sebago–lately will not freeze in the middle. Its over 400 feet deep in one spot.



Wave action is working now to keep the near shore ice free but when the ice starts to form, that effect diminishes each day. Depth does prevent the middle from freezing even there is 3 feet of ice in near shore areas. Snomobilers at night from away sometimes find this out the hard way. Each year we have human depth finders. Sorry to be crude, but they invariably die. Already had one this year.



So I suspect your lake too is deep. It would be far safer to use your clothing approach on a shallow windy river. I understand a fair number of Midwest paddlers do this in the winter.



An upset can be no more than a minute swim to where you can stand. Get your stuff out of the dry bag and strip and change. And paddle home as you can’t do an upset twice.

dry suit
Upstate NY right…get a dry suit. I would not use a wet suit in sub freezing conditions personally. I also would learn to roll if you can’t, or paddle close to shore and bring along a cag or somethign to warm you in the event you do go for a swim.



I personally paddle and roll all year long, but use a dry suit.



matt

Dry suit is not realistic
I really doubt someone with a $700 - $900 kayak is going to buy a $1200 dry suit. I think it is better to advise that he get a very stretch thin surfer style wet suit and splash gear and carry two sets of dry clothes and emergency fire kit and shore sneak the rivers and shallow places.



It is hard to die if you can simply stand up and walk to shore to change into your dry clothes. Except for surfing in water above 50 degrees this is almost the only winter paddling I do. A rec boat in the winter in not more dangerous than a canoe.



Stay within two boat lengths of the shore all winter long. Wear your wet suit. Try to swim a bit in it after some of your paddles, when you have the heater in the car running and waiting.

Google Cold Water Boot camp
I suggest you watch some of the videos on the site Cold Water Boot Camp and learn about how long you will last without the proper gear like a dry suit and a PFD.

I’ve done rolls ina Zoar Sport
I’ve done roll practice in a Zoar Sport. Not that hard to capsize in it.



My personal rule is to have a wet suit or dry suit on if the water is under 60.

‘Impossible to Capsize’ – Red Flag
Other posters have pretty much covered the need to dress for possible immersion, so I won’t repeat that. But I will second the suggestion to watch Cold Water Boot Camp. I also must say that anytime I hear someone say or see them write that their boat is pretty much impossible to capsize, it raises a red flag and, frankly, makes me question a person’s risk assessment skills. Never assume a boat is “impossible” to capsize when your life could depend on it – as it could in cold water. The Titanic was considered unsinkable, too.

I appreciate the help
My intention is to stay within 100’ of shore. The water is no more than 5’ deep there, and I can run home from wherever in 10 minutes. (however I know from my one icy capsize that it would be an extremely long 10 minutes)



I appreciated everyone’s advice and I get it; bad idea.



The explanation of how lakes freeze was interesting; I didn’t know that, but it makes sense. The lake is 250’ deep and I am told it never freezes in the middle. I am talking about near the shore though; my neighbors claim it remains open from waves. I used to have a place on the opposite side and it sure froze there. We’ll see in a month or two.

Or…
Get a $300 dry suit like I did.



Or… stay off the water in the winter and ride a bike instead.

100 feet might be too far
Even if you can stand in the water it might take you too long to get out of it.



My personal experience and information gleaned from personal accounts here and elsewhere suggests that individuals response and resistance to sudden cold water immersion varies quite a bit. Unless you are certain you can be out of the water in 2 minutes or so, I wouldn’t risk it.



You can read and read about the effects of cold water immersion but until you experience it you really don’t understand it or know how you personally will react.



My personal experience in paddling in sub 35 degree water is the same as what ByronWalter said above. Even with a dry top and a reliable roll I found that sudden upper body immersion was nearly instantly debilitating.



One of the effects of immersion in water of that temperature is very sudden and dramatic vasoconstriction of the blood supply to the extremities. Blood supply slows to a bare trickle. As a result, your arms and legs can become near useless as soon as your muscles consume the oxygen supply they have at hand, which is pretty quickly if you have been exercising.



I lived in Minneapolis for a decade or so. Every winter typically one would read about a drowning or a few drownings that occurred on one of the small local lakes, often very close to shore (within 6 feet). It was not uncommon to hear the victim described as “a good swimmer”, and I remember a couple of instances in which a good Samaritan standing on the bank who witnessed someone struggling to get to shore jumped in to try to save them and wound up drowning also.


Take a cold shower
Seriously. let the water run cold for a minute and then get under it.

And stay under it for 5 minutes.



I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but cold water is a killer.

There is an audience here.
Several folks like to post news of paddliing fatalities so others can read and discuss them. It’s even better if they have a personal connection. Go for it, if that’s your thing !

dry suit
There is one on the classified ads for like $400 or so. Can also get them on ebay. Does not need to be a top of the line model.



If a kayaker is a novice then their liklihood of a capsize is greater. If they can’t roll then liklihood of immersion is greater. All the more reason to get a dry suit.

One thing you left out
Historically, inuit villages lost as many as 1/3 of their hunters to capsizes where rolling or rescue where the paddler did not exit the cockpit couldn’t save them, and that included Greenland.



And keep in mind that it was mostly Greenlanders that rolled. Most other (But not all) arctic cultures did not. There was one famous interview from the late 1800’s or early 1900’s where an old kayaker was asked what to do in the event of a capsize, and the answer roughly translated to “You shouldn’t do that”.



Wear some cold water immersion clothing. The stories about inuit being immune to cold water are total bunk.

Too far from shore
I’ve been hypothermic more than once, and curiously always in temps much warmer than upstate winters. I suspect it is because once things start freezing I don’t make the mistake of underestimating the situation.



Anyway, 100 feet plus a run to shore or the house to get your stuff is too far tin sub-40 degree water and air temps in the 20’s or worse before wind chill factors. Hypothermia can come on much faster than the time it would take to make that distance and render you unable to use your hands to help yourself.



There is a very common mistake people make when looking at the hypothermia charts - and there are many copies of it out there on sites from kayaking to power boating. They look at the time before death, rather than the significantly shorter time to where consciousness or physical processed like using your hands to get the wet clothing off are affected. In upstate NY winter temps, the time to the first part runs no longer than 15 minutes. And you, like me, could find in actual experience that you had an individually lower tolerance.

Be Very Careful…

– Last Updated: Dec-09-12 9:56 AM EST –

...even if you stick close to shore in relatively shallow water.

Early last spring, while I was visiting relatives who live near Lake St. Clair, a young couple took a canoe out into the lake on a quiet 70 degree sunny day, and managed to flip it in shallow water perhaps 250' feet from shore. The man waded in, but the young woman, whom he thought was close behind him, didn't make it. He was so disoriented that he didn't realize she wasn't there.

For me, cold water paddling equals full immersion gear - drysuit, fleece and merino underlayers, cold water hood and gloves, a drybag packed with a complete - and I mean complete from polypro underwear to a good wind blocking outer layer with lots of wool and fleece in between - change of warm clothing, and most importantly, a companion or two who know what they're doing.

Final thought - wetsuit vs. drysuit - in this neck of the North Atlantic, it's drysuit all the way. A decent used drysuit need not be expensive - if you were here, I've got two Kokatat SuperNova suits hanging in the closet I'd be pleased to get $200 for. Perfect? - no, the booties leak a little, but some Aquaseal could fix that. I've upgraded by buying two used Reed ChillCheaters for about $250 each...and that's a hell of a lot less for all four suits than your survivors would pay for a coffin...

All I can do here
is reinforce what others have already said.


  1. Surfboards, boats, ships all capsize in the right conditions. Anything that floats can encounter conditions that exceed the performance envelope of your craft. Frankly, if you think you won’t capsize, you don’t have enough experience to understand the dangers you are in.


  2. Prepare for immersion. You will probably find a drysuit more serviceable, comfortable, and warmer, than a wetsuit. Wear wool, not cotton.


  3. Read some first hand accounts on hypothermia onset after a capsize. It happens quickly and can overcome the best in a shockingly short time. Judgement and the lost of hand control can occur in less than a minute in some people, over 5 minutes in others. Find out which end of the spectrum you are in and try to do a self rescue in the conditions where you paddle. If you can easily do it, fine. Just remember than any conditions that make cause a capsize will still exist after you rescue and that you will be weaker after each successive capsize.



    You ask, “So… am I being an idiot for not wearing a wetsuit, or is it a reasonable thing to do,” and the answer to this isn’t that cut and dried. I feel you are taking unnecessary risks by paddling alone in conditions where immersion could well be fatal. That you are not taking some reasonable precautions to prevent hypothermia suggests that you are more confident in your boat than paddlers with a great many more years of experience than you. In truth, you are exactly the type of paddler that I would NEVER go on the water with because you endanger everyone around you.



    If your lake can produce 2.5 foot waves (which are NOTHING by the way), it can also produce larger waves. Unless you’ve been out in the worst possible conditions (and no matter what conditions you’ve been out in, something worse can come along), don’t assume that any body of water can’t outperform either your boat or your skills.



    You say the boat was , “a bit difficult to control,” in those conditions. This suggests that a capsize is a WHOLE lot more likely to occur than you think. And by the way, it isn’t the boat that capsizes, it’s the paddler. The only way a kayak can stay upright in virtually all conditions is because the paddler knows what to do and when to do it. Any boat can, and will, capsize.



    I’ll be honest and say that I feel you are taking unnecessary risks here, but if you are comfortable with those risks, go out on the water alone, dress in cotton, paddle during storms, wrap your boat with aluminum foil so it conducts electricity better, or whatever else you wish to do. I’ll probably say something like, “it was an event just waiting to happen,” when I read the incident report.



    If you feel that I am being harsh or rude, I don’t really care. I’ve had to many experiences on the water where I’ve rescued others from their lousy choices and seen what can happen in even warmer water than those you plan to paddle.



    I’ve been in waters cold enough to defeat (to some degree) the thermal protection of a wetsuit and even performed a rescue in those waters. It wasn’t fun, and the two scouts we rescued both had mild hypothermia after only about a minute of immersion.



    Pardon the wall of text, and either take what I write under advisement or not. Your choice.



    Rick

You’re bucking for…
…a Darwin award. Get proper immersion gear and wear it. While you’re at it, learn some bracing and rescue skills. If you can’t do that, stay off the water!



I’m tired of reading about people who do what you’re doing and wind up in a morgue. Irresponsible paddlers are the main reason we have fight off ridiculous legislation every year that’s aimed at protecting us from ourselves.



Yes, this is harsh, but so is reality. In cold water conditions, you have very little margin for error and water doesn’t care how good your intentions are. If you don’t believe that, buy a copy of “Sea Kayaker, Deep Trouble” and read it.

I hope Toller comes back and posts
his game plan after he has thought it out. Otherwise this conversation, while well meaning, is one sided.



It would be nice to know if our advice had any affect. If the decision is not to paddle that is fine.

At this time
I don’t even know if I CAN paddle this winter. If the shore freezes, I won’t even be able to get to the water, so the whole thing is academic. Launching from the ice seems a bit dicey. I will have to see how it goes.



A few years back I bought a canoe in February and had to try it out. The only open water was a large creek that flowed too fast to freeze over. I took the canoe out, dressed wholly inappropriately, and immediately capsized. I took the time to save the canoe and the paddle and ran home. It was a horrible experience that I hope not to go through again, but it was a huge distance from a Darwin Award!



Changing the question a bit, the water is now 46*. How deadly do you figure that is; bearing in mind that I will be in 4’ of water 80’ from shore.