I’ve been given a pair of MEC pogies, they look interesting. They won’t fit my Greenland paddle, but I can soon make one that will accommodate them.
My question is: how effective are they? Today for instance, OAT is +6C. Will summer-weight gloves be ok under the pogies? I can go out and experiment, but I’d rather start with the right combo if possible.
Hmm
Hiya, First I have to compliment you on a Greenland Paddle. Dying to get my hands on one of those!!! I had the opp to try one with my P&H Sirius…loved it. Hard to find in NFLD though 
Second, on the pogies, I am not a fan of pogies, I use the MEC NOOTKA gloves year round, paddling on the Avalon Penninsula…I dont find them too bad. One of the guys I paddle with just switched to a set of Pogies and loves them and finds them much warmer then the glove. I can’t imagine having to use the summer glove inside the pogies…But if the water temp calls for it, give it a shot, keep in mind overheating on the hands…Hmmm…I’d bet thats an awful warm combo though.
You’ll like em, they’ll be warm
I use a combination of surgical gloves over an ultrathin liner glove beneath the pogies if its really cold, or just surgical gloves for 32-45F paddling. I think it’s important to wear something under the pogies and my hands stay drier this way as well. It’s amazing how fast the wind, water and cold will steal dexterity when your hands are outside the pogies if you don’t. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how warm my hands stay this way and have at least minimal protection for when the hands are needed outside the pogies.
hot hands?
JMO, but with your pogies and a wooden shaft, you may warmup pretty fast after only a bit of steady paddling. I paddle all carbon shafts & in all but the coldest wind chills, I often have to take mine off! (wish mine were not lined) I imagine it might be difficult to fit them on a Greenland stick & have never tried them on mine. Good luck & Happy New Year!
Mountain surf…
makes a short white-water neoprene pogie that I’ve used for 3 years. I like the “open-wrist” design of the white-water pogies as these only require one hand to put each on. They have a velcro closure along the axis of the paddle shaft making it possible to install them on one piece shafts. I never wear any gloves under my pogies (even in temperatures as low as upper twenties); however, I keep a pair of gloves accessible for when I’m not paddling.
don’t know about your pogies
I’ve got some thick neoprene pogies that kept my hands toasty in temps to -5C (water ~5C) back home in VA (it does get cold there every once in awhile). I wore nothing under the pogies. The trouble was things like putting on the spray skirt at the beginning of the trip or popping my right hand out to fiddle with the skeg control when the deck of the boat is icing. Still, when I kept my core hot my hands would quickly heat back up when re-inserted in the pogie and paddling resumed. This wouldn’t work with an aluminum shaft but with carbon or wood you could probably get by fine without under-gloves.
Then again I have hot hands. I went canoeing with my brother in the Merchants Mill Pond in NC when I was home at Christmas. The air hovered around 0-1C all day and I wore nothing on my hands while paddling (had wool mittens I wore when we stopped) and my hands stayed quite warm except when I got them wet shoving over a beaver dam.
Keep in mind…
I still paddle with 10 naked piggies beneath the pogies when the air temp is up, but keep in mind how fast you’ll lose dexterity if the unexpected need to do anything outside the pogies arises. Thin liners are an easy comprimise, will give you a lot more protection from the wind across your damp hands and therefore more time before loss of dexterity. Like everyone is saying your hands will be warm enough in the pogies either way.
pogies
I also prefer them to heavy gloves but there is a risk if you need to use your hands for something else. Last spring I went out on a warm air/cold water(still some shore ice) day and was fine with bare hands in the pogies while I was paddling, but my hands locked up and became useless in just a couple of minutes of rescue practice.
Thanks!
Here’s the ones I got:
http://images.mec.ca/media/Images/Products/Paddlesports/4013790s.jpg
Didn’t go yesterday, too warm at +6. It’s -8 now, and the tide’ll be high in two hours so I’ll try 'em out very shortly. Thanks all, for the advice.
Just as advertised
Got out this afternoon, -8C with a light wind and a few snowflakes. I started out with Chota gloves under the pogies, but soon got rid of the gloves. My hands were toasty warm in the pogies, and bonus, I could feel the paddle shaft!
Just as everyone said, when I went ashore for a break my hands quickly chilled even in the Chotas. It was nearly a half hour before they warmed up again in the pogies, but when they did it was great.
Thanks again for the input everyone, pogies will now be a part of my regular winter kit.
as pogies go MEC ones are terrible
they are 5mm neo which is extremely heavy and stiff. my hands are large and the pogies are not big enough given how stiff they are. if you have a really light paddle those pogies will negate that feeling pretty fast.
good pogies are made by Kokatat out of their Tropos fabric and Snapdragon. also MEC doesn’t use a water shedding neoprene like the high end paddling companies use so they suffer from evaporative chilling.
however they are very inexpensive so i didn’t feel bad leaving mine behind (intentionally) at an outfitter after a trip for someone else to use.