Indeed! I’m always impressed by the experienced pros that show up and turn their paddle into an outboard motor. Ego takes a bruising, but inspiring to see.
Didn’t paddle with a soul all year. Not even my partner she had knee problems. Target boats in the channels and 5 mph zones to race.
@PaddleDog52 a cadence near 70 is hard to maintain, especially with the paddle you were using. I do that but I only use a 643 cm2 blade.
Invidentally, I was suprised when I first saw the 120° guideline mentioned. I decided that it seemed about rihht, but I don’t use a sliding scale. 60°/60° is my cut off. No crossing open water until both climb to the 65° range, which typically jumps into the 70°s fast.
I think the worst time of year is that shoulder season in late spring when the water is in the 50’s. We have had people (including me) take a swim and get mildly hypothermic (shivering, etc.) once we get them out of the water and back in boat. Getting them out of wet cloths into something dry has always solved the problem. Alone in open water - I don’t know…
Not worried about you sparaa - you seem to be experienced enough to take care of yourself, but layering when water is not frigid and the air is warm is tough.
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A lot more matters than just the water temps. That’s the big one.
Air temp, sunniness, wind speed, still count.
As do the following: Body composition (more fat = more insulation), age and metabolism, physical conditioning, general health, effects of substance use including alcohol, fatigued or not, did you just have a big drop after an adrenaline wave?
Such formulas are general rules. Not absolutes for every individual.
You can acclimate yourself to cold water gradually, with training. I’ve done it, I’ve seen others who did it. That’s another factor in addition to all the others. We used to see an older woman who lived nearby walk to go for a winter swim in the Puget Sound area. She did not wear a wetsuit. She wore a freaking BATHING SUIT with a rubber BATH CAP! That’s all, folks. When she finished her swim, she merely draped her beach towel around her and walked back home. Very matter of fact about it all, she was.
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Yea, I’m usually in a surfski in winter so I can get back on super quickly though I do wear neoprene gloves under my pogies so that I don’t lose finger control immediately. Makes for some smelly, stinky hands but avoids a situation where I can’t grab the deck.
When I went out in my sit in sea kayak the other day I had base and mid layers on. Toasty, but rather be safe then sorry. I’ve capsized by mistake in flat water before.
There aren’t absolutes for every individual, but there are norms that apply to most people. Someone swimming in cold water in winter in a bathing suit is probably on the rare side of capability rather then common.
The thing to keep in mind is that human’s can’t sense wetness. Its all about temperature and touch. Speaking from experience - falling into cold water with a drysuit can feel like being wet in cold water with light layers underneath. The advantage of a dry suit in that situation is that when you get out, you’re body is dry and your thermal layers can continue to work.
Water temp is still my number 1 concern. Colder it gets the more conservative I’ll be with conditions.
I was at the ocean with friend. We jumped in the water that was rsted 45°. Once was enough . . . Once was enough! The kayak is in storage until about May.
Well, we are in violent agreement.
The perception of temperature when wet IS fascinating. Laguna Madre in TX is uniformly shallow. I was told that when the water temp is 98 and the air the same, people cannot feel whether they are wet or not!
I never paddled in water temps that high. However, when I was doing things like immersing myself (wearing drysuit) in cold water, sometimes the water felt almost warm compared with standing out of it, still wet but no longer shielded from the effects of even a slight breeze.
Point being, there are many variables that could make a body feel cold.
The ski is chilly in cool conditions because there is NO shielding of spray-wetted legs from the wind. The same thing makes it a delight to paddle in very hot weather.
That’s major ice cream headache water temp!
There are many examples. I related a story in another thread about washing up as the water was freezing in the jug. It was cold, but once clean clothes were buttoned up, the sensation was of warm comfort. On one trip I cleaned up using a free standing frost proof hose bib. The water at ground temperature felt warm. The danger is that perception is reality, unless you know better.
Those cold water myths are like zombies. They keep lurching around and people who don’t do their homework keep repeating them in lame articles, thereby giving them new life. We have an entire section of our website devoted to busting eight myths. It’s here: https://www.coldwatersafety.org/overview The air / water temp myth is complete nonsense, and you’re right, only the water temp matters. If you have problems overheating, we have a separate section, including a video. that covers that topic in detail. It’s here: https://www.coldwatersafety.org/hot-weather. Also, if you’re willing to deal with thick neoprene, you can take a wetsuit all the way down into the 30’s. That’s what we did before drysuits came along. That’s covered in our gear section here: https://www.coldwatersafety.org/gear-guide
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The air / water temp “rules” are complete nonsense and should never be relied upon for cold water safety. I invite you to visit our Cold Water Myths section here: https://www.coldwatersafety.org/overview
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Noting the chart you shared, the problem with it is that it shows no need for thermal protection at a 55F water temp. That’s inaccurate. We know from scientific research on cold water immersion that most people will experience maximum intensity cold shock at water temps between 50-60F. We recommend that all paddlers treat water below 70F with caution and wear thermal protection. While 70F may sound pleasant enough when you’re speaking about air, 70F water feels very cold to most people. This is because your average skin temp is 91F. Both average and current water temps are easily available for major bodies of water, but the coverage for smaller lakes and many rivers is spotty at best. We have a white paper to help guide you through the thicket: Go here and scroll down till you find the two water temp guides: https://www.coldwatersafety.org/cold-water-articles
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Water temps cheap
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Sad part is this information on a paddling site. 
Hi Moulton – please don’t take this the wrong way, because I appreciate all the work you have done in the area of cold water safety, and I don’t support using this air/water metric as the sole basis for deciding on cold water paddling gear. The point of my post and the chart was simply to show that based on available data (water temp and average air temps) from one area in southern New England (Worcester, MA), the model does produce the correct result most of the time. If 55 degree water is the threshold, using average daily lows you get the right result 100% of the time, and using average daily highs you get the right result 90% of the time. October is the only month with 55 degree water that combined with the average daily high air temperature produced a result of 120.
Obviously, daily fluctuations in air temperature wreak havoc with the model. Also, since water and air temperatures move up and down together, adding average air temperature doesn’t add much to the decision, so why bother. I agree with you and others that you are better off just looking at water temperature.
Having said that, when I decide on what to wear for cold water protection on any given day, water temperature is one of the factors that I consider. I also consider the air temp, what I’m paddling, where I’m paddling, the group I am with, my likelihood of taking a swim, and the how long I am likely to be in the water.
I’m a river paddler and around here most rivers are already down into the mid-30’s. I (almost) always paddle with a group and my swims are likely to be short (famous last words). I hope to paddle tomorrow with air temps in the 30’s and next weekend with air temps in the 50’s. I’ll wear my drysuit both days, but I’ll have more insulating layers tomorrow with the colder air temps than next weekend when it is warmer. There is a trade-off between risk and comfort – hopefully we are all making good decisions.
Have a nice holiday everyone.
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Water temp and hyperthermia is a serious matter, but proximity to land, current and wind cleary factor in. If you’re on a 25 foot wide river that’s fed by 53° water emptying from a dam with and air temps are 93°. Clearly 60/60 = 120 is meaningless.
We typically let our kids use their judgement about when to get out of the pool. The override signs we used at the risk of being unpopular was chattering teeth and blue lips. It took a few years before they figured it out, but I know the message registered. As adults, they set up hot tubs on their decks and use them when its snowing. I think 103°/28° is their formula (131). I done good!
I admit my comparisons might be ridiculous, but no more than someone in a low deck kayak battling the surf off the jagged coast of Maine on the tail of a nor’easter with air temps below freezing. Jeez guys, adults need to make life decisions. 60/60 is mine.
You guys in Maine, keep sending the videos. I cast them to my wide screen, sit in my recliner drapped in a fleece blanket, air temp 68°. Sometimes my “body English” makes me consider a bike helment in case I roll. Thanks for the vicarous experience.
Wow, so you’re like only slightly younger than say, Keith Richards.
Funny enough, one icy cold year at Christmas, I actually paddled Washington’s Crossing outside of Trenton NJ, just to viscerally recreate what it must’ve been like for the “Father of our Country” and his troops. (I wanted to do it during a scheduled historic reenactment ceremony, but had to settle for a solo day when I didn’t have to work.)
Anyway, like Ol’ George, I wasn’t really concerned with what the “numbers” were–If one unwillingly capsizes, formulas are the last thing ya think about (at least in my humbling mostly ww experience). Modern advantages I had on the Delaware over GW and company: Dry suit, thermal layering, PFD, glacier gloves, neo cap. But granted, the General by most accounts had a boat wider of beam than my kayak. Other than that, if I need anything more authentic, figured I could always drive over to Valley Forge to overnight in a frigid bunk house.
The only number that really matters to me in “off season” paddling, be it river/lake/ocean is…latitude. Preaching to the p.com choir here, but winter=dry suit. Now, I gotta get ready for my annual New Year’s Day paddle. Happy Holidays, y’all!
