That’s about it: pick your poison. The dry feet has me very interested.
I do see Kokatats on Amazon which means you could try it on and then be able to return it. I always forget how much is available on Amazon. For awhile I tried to buy local but it isn’t easy. I talked to ten shops yesterday and it was like talking to six year olds
Then I drive twenty miles to REI and they can’t find the inventory.
I did find some NRS neoprene gloves which I think I’ll be wearing to buy groceries and walk home because you can actually use your hands!
Maybe this is too bold but could you try the drysuit and then return it?! I can almost justify that because of the money they make. It’s part of the business model.
My 85 year old mom just got in trouble in Florida for launching in a similar spot and they were using a piece of carpet. I think they got a ticket. It was a club of about ten retirees.
Maybe it’s an estuary or something.
Population Density drives a lot of the need for rules I think.
I feel like wetsuits and drysuits are apples and oranges when compared for utility for paddling. For day outings near shorelines or river banks, a wetsuit works fine for most people – it’s a matter of personal comfort and preference. But if you are going to be out a ways in coastal cool to cold water OR doing multi-day trips or expeditions, a wetsuit isn’t a reasonable option IMHO. People have survived not just hours but days submerged in cold coastal waters in a good drysuit following mishaps and strandings. I’m kind of a junkie for adventure narratives including survival stories and I have yet to see one where a wetsuit saved somebody who got stuck in open water for a significant duration.
Not to mention, if I was to wear a wetsuit for hours daily on an extended water journey, my skin and nether parts would be extremely unhappy with the continual dampness, especially in fresh water.
Only she would know. People like what they like andwhat they have adapted to suit their personal purpose. I was a Luddite for years with my winter backpacking and mountaineering kit, using wool clothing and leather boots long after most of my companions had switched to modern synthetics, and i still prefer wood waxable XC skis. I know avid canoeists who still do long multiday portage trips through the Adirondacks and Boundary waters using wool clothing and waxed canvas tents and packs, not to be quaint but because that’s what works for them. Freya often kayaked butt naked along the more remote coasts during her Australia circumnavigation.
Whatever floats yer boat — or more aptly, cloaks yer bod in yer boat.
I admit I have been curious about those newer high tech more comfy wet suit materials but balked at the price. Then again, by the time I paid for my OR Hydroskin 1.5 Farmer Jane, long pants and zip jacket, I could have bought the fancy wetsuit. But I do like the versatility of layering and separates. Wore the hydroskin pants last week on that river day trip I posted. They take so long to dry, though. I really dislike climbing into damp neoprene, yuck.
thing is, even with the rule of “no ‘swimmers’ are allowed with life jackets”–the poster here was clearly in a kayak and would be exempt from that rule–in fact, most places require a PFD to be worn when paddling.
I’ve seen a few places that prohibit various floatation devices in pools and swimming areas. I suspect that this is meant to discourage people who can’t swim from venturing into the water. Many of these floatation devices are not secure or well designed and could come off in deep water.
At present the USCG only requires that PFDs are required for all people on a vessel, which includes kayaks, canoes, and SUPs, but it only requires that they be readily available, for instance not in a closed hatch in a kayak. The only exception is with Type V PFDs which must be worn. Most jurisdictions follow USCG rules, but local jurisdictions may require that PFDs must be worn in certain jurisdictions, venues, or time of year.
There are a few exceptions such as in a swim or surf zone where a PFD is not required.
The USCG continues to study whether or not to require PFDs be worn in various small craft, but has not reached a decision. I always wear one in a kayak, so don’t care one way or the other.
I have paddled at many places where about the only parking is for ‘vehicles with trailers only’ signs. (cost me and several others $35 one evening, not a trailer in sight).
I have to wonder if the reason paddle craft aren’t thought of or even welcome at launches is that we don’t have to register our boats, don’t have to register trailers and don’t buy gas and food (and pay the taxes). Could the money have anything to do with it all?
Boat ramps and parking lots are very expensive to construct and maintain. Many counties feel the need for income derived from their use, whether from parking fees , ramp fees, and trailer permits to help justify their initial and ongoing expenses. A boat ramp serves only a tiny percentage of the local community. Be thankful for localities that allow free use by car top boats.
In the state of PA, we paddlers have to pay a $10 per year, per boat, “launch permit” fee (or, alternatively, to register each boat annually like one would a power boat for the same fee, but this makes it a pain to transfer when you sell it.) We are required to have this sticker to use any state-maintained ramp or even unbuilt shoreline that is under DCNR administration to launch a boat into a waterway. My outdoor club was one of many that sought to block this legislation when it was proposed 40 years ago, but I argued that the small fee (which has not changed in the intervening years) would grant us standing at the launch sites so we could not be bullied by the power boaters who considered canoeists and kayakers nuisance “mooches” for using the facilities for free. In my own experience, having the sticker does keep the powered boaters off my case. Since I have so many boats, I am paying $50 to $100 per years to sticker them all, more than the $26 to $52 annual registration for an individual power boat. I think I pay my dues.
That points out the problem with requiring a permit for each paddle craft. How often do you use those canoes simultaneously? It would make more sense if a permit was required for each vehicle used to transport water craft.
There is a long tradition in this country to give non-powered craft the right of way. On the water, people always offered help to those in distress. This goes for power boaters everywhere.
Some time in the last 20 years these unwritten rules are out the window.
Some people seem to get really loaded when they are boating. Modern powerful boats are a bad combination for people that are drunk or using drugs.
I avoid power boats like the plague. I mostly paddle only on rivers. On lakes I now use a drift boat with a 6 hp outboard. Carry an air horn. Look out for idiots. Never drop your guard. My ski boat was almost cut in half by a drunk power boater. An air horn saved us.
In the State where I live, boat licences are linked to drivers licences and DUI laws apply to both. This means if you lose your drivers licence for DUI you’d also lose your boat operator’s licence and vice versa.
I do usually cheat a bit with that by sharing one permit with several boats. I have 4 foldng kayaks (2 Feathercrafts and 2 Pakboats) with fabric skins to which the peel-and-stick launch permits don’t adhere so I slip the tag inside one of those clear plastic name badge holders and clip it onto the deck rigging.
So I can swap that tag to any one of those boats, though technically, in the past, if the “fish police” checked the DNR database for craft description and serial number associated with the one tag I would have to play dumb and say “oops, grabbed the wrong one.”. Chances of that happening are slim to none. In fact, in recent years I have encountered few boating rangers at any launch sites. And even before, never had one check a S/N.
And it didn’t matter this year anway — odd thing is that when I ordered 6 launch permits on line from PA DCNR, instead of getting 6 pairs with unique state serial numbers (which had always been recorded for each specific boat) , instead they sent me 12 identical numbered stickers!
some years I have only stickered a few boats, but since I often lend extra boats to companions, and switch around among the fleet myself, I do need to keep tge most used ones current. The stickers can’t be peeled off hatdshells.
BTW, fine for no sticker is substantial and includes being blocked from launching or told to get off the water, so $10 is cheap insurance. And it does go to the DCNRs expenses in building and maintaining the launch ramps. Though why we also have to have a tag to slide down some of the muddy knot-weeded river banks on state lands with no parking or ramp structures is pretty ridiculous.
Personal choice. For a trip like that I would go with a drysuit in good condition and either dry separates or a wetsuit as a backup, depending on water temps and personal comfort. But always at least one backup.
I know people who can go thru really cold weather paddling in one of the better wetsuits. Great for them, it ain’t me.
In many states the PFD rule is off for adults after May 1 and before Nov 1. The Coast Guard is not fond of this and would prefer a uniform year round policy. But thus far this has not happened.
And anyone who dives in Lake George in upstate NY after Labor Day without thermal protection is a very tough cookie. The lake has a thermal layer at the bottom that never really gets warm, but it is a whole lot more not-warm by then.
Technically, these are launch permits, not registrations. Registering a paddle craft is optional (and one need not get the launch permit if one registers the boat). BUT, once registered, you have to transfer that if you sell or give away the craft. So I have never bothered with that.
I agree with tketcham: the large (palm-sized) ugly stickers (black letters/numbers on white framed or backgrounded with some garish neon color) are a blemish that we are required to slap on the gunwales on both sides, slightly behind the cockpit. They are nearly impossible to remove without heat and scraping so I end up overlaying them. But the damned state keeps changing the size and shape of them so they really look trashy stacked on top of each other if I don’t make the effort to strip them off.
To further add insult to injury, a few years ago the state stopped requiring PA car owners to put what had always been an annual registration fee sticker you had to slap on your on license plates. You still have to pay the fee each year but the cops have to run the plate number through the central computer to see if you are current.
