SOTs seem much more popular down south than up north (e.g.,. Florida vs Michigan or Nova Scotia). I suppose part of this relates to what I perceive to be the greater popularity of kayak fishing down south. I had always thought that another factor is that sit-inside kayaks act like another thermal layer, trapping body heat and shielding your lower extremities from the wind. Still, people walk and ski and do all sorts of other activities in the cold so its not like you need to be enclosed in a kayak to be outside (obviously). Assuming you are wearing a drysuit with appropriate garb beneath such as a fleece jumper, it seems to me that SOT’s may have an advantage regarding ease of re-entry if for some reason you end up outside of your boat (vs re-entry and roll for example), and also the fact that you would not need to spend time in such conditions (the kind that got you out of your boat in the first place) trying to pump water out your boat. So I can see an argument for paddling SOTs especially in cold conditions. Anyway, just a thought and wondering if anyone agrees or feels differently.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody wear a $1,000 dry suit in a $500 sit on top. But I do know SOT fishermen in Florida in the winter that wear waterproof pants, jackets and boots in the winter. It gets cold and wet here. But the great masses think the prime season is in summer not the real season in the winter.
I did…
I had the dry suit when I was a sea kayak instructor. When I got into white water it was with a poly wave ski (it literally was a white water kayak, with the front half a sit on top). So since our best white water is Jan-March, I put on a dry suit occasionally.
Every sit on top is not a cheep poly boat. I bet dry suits are more common on wave and surf skis, than normal rec boats
There are SOTs and there are SOTs. What usually ends up being discussed on this board is very basic beginner SOT’s for flat water kayaking. If you looked at a primarily fishing or WW board, or one with more serious surf folks, you would see people talking about much more capable boats. And having a much more mature idea about apt clothing than someone who just got their first SOT to poke around on a small lake or a lazy creek and hold a dog or a child.
In terms of clothing, wetness may be as much of a factor as cold once someone gets more serious. And other factors - winter is not a prime WW season in many parts of the country because it is both very cold and there is not reliably enough water to make it white.
I should mention a bit of a grump of mine - SOT’s are NOT necessarily safer for self-rescue than SINKs. I knew of one guy who totally could not get back on a SOT where I vacation, a very fit man in his mid-forties. Luckily his wife was a hell of a paddler in a Swifty and could tow him. And there are not infrequently stories about fishermen in more challenging situations who end up in the water and can’t get back into the boat. Again, we don’t hear as much about fishermen as recreational (as in doing it for fun) paddlers on this board.
I wore a drysuit during a few winter paddles in CO, using the Prijion Twister I owned then. It began snowing while I was out on one occasion. Water temp must’ve been in the low 30s, so nothing else would have been as warm as drysuit and insulation layers.
What got cold were the gloved fingers and the butt. The fingers I expected. The butt chill came as a surprise, but it was a wet ride on the integral seat hollow. I learned to wear bike shorts inside the long undies.
I’ve been out in the Tarpon on some 30 is days. Everything was fine but my cold toes. Chota mukluks with wool socks.
Could have been because the boots were wet, outside only, and there was a breeze.
One of the differences between SOT and SINK is what you mention - thermal protection. A sit inside with skirt is warmer in colder conditions, but with appropriate clothing, a SOT could be used in cold climates. And this does play a part in what you have seen - how SOTs are more popular in warmer climates and SINKs in colder.
But another difference between SOT and SINK (especially SOT and sea kayak) is boat width and how that impacts its ability to work in conditions. A wider boat will feel much more stable on flat water, but becomes much more unstable in wavy water (that wide, flat bottom really wants to stay flat with the surface, but waves mean the surface is now at an angle - narrower/rounder hull profiles don’t have that push to stay flat parallel to surface). Hadn’t really thought about it (so maybe I am wrong), but seems that conditions are generally larger as you go north.
“Hadn’t really thought about it (so maybe I am wrong), but seems that conditions are generally larger as you go north.”
I think that’s probably true, at least in the sense that up north one is more limited to exposed coastal paddling whereas down south, so much of it is behind barrier islands or deep into estuaries and bays that are a bit more protected and with less fetch. In my experience, it does seem also that there are just more calm days down south. I believe also that the coastal shelf extends considerably further offshore, on average, down south vs up north. Would have to double check that though.
The seasons in the south are quite different than up here above the 45th parallel. You won’t see many SOTs until early July. They start hibernating just after Labor Day weekend. That’s a short paddling season. SINKs are out so long as there’s enough open water to paddle in (and your launch site isn’t snowed in).
There are surfski paddlers who play on Lake Michigan when the water temps are 36F-40ish and air temps colder. They wear drysuits, pogies, and appropriate foot/head gear. Also carefully choose their conditions, don’t paddle in waves over two feet or when there’s an offshore wind, and stay within half a mile of shore. Common sense stuff for anyone paddling in very cold water.
I retreat inland in late autumn as when November rolls in, so do the gales on the Great Lakes.
There certainly paddlers who use sit on top kayaks in very cold conditions. Most of those I know are actually waveski surfers. Sing who posts here once in a while might have a picture of himself surfing in a blizzard mid winter near Boston. I also have two facebook friends I originally met here from Nova Scotia and Alaska who wave ski year round. I believe a couple of years ago someone posted here about recommendations for the best SOT for an expedition, he was dragging the boat like a sled on cross-country skis on a hike/[paddle in Antarctica. I saw an online story after he started the trip but I don’t know how that ended up. Most waveskiers don’t use dry suits but wetsuits, as drysuits have too much drag for wind and waves and tend to keep you recirculating in heavy surf.
@pikabike said:
The butt chill came as a surprise, but it was a wet ride on the integral seat hollow. I learned to wear bike shorts inside the long undies.
I use Fourth Element Thermocline shorts as the innermost layer when I paddle in the winter. They have the same insulation as a 2 mm neoprene wetsuit. They prevent most of the butt chill.
https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Element-Thermocline-Shorts/dp/B00I9QYOCM
I will look up Thermocline. Does it feel clammy? If not, it would be worth buying as a general underpant for cold weather. I have used old bike shorts for that purpose, because just adding a layer to the thighs, butt, crotch, and lower abdomen sometimes is enough, and it is easier to layer over than multiple long johns.
@pikabike
http://mysterioso.com/category-womens-coldwater-weather-tops-and-bottoms
After reading raves here about this product, tried it last winter. Dry and warm.
@pikabike said:
I will look up Thermocline. Does it feel clammy? If not, it would be worth buying as a general underpant for cold weather.
It doesn’t feel clammy. More like fleece. I use them as underpants in cold weather and as bathing shorts in hot weather.
It can be and has been 80 degrees on New Year’s day in Florida.
Still sea kayakers, aka touring kayaks don’t select a sit inside boat because of hot or cold. They select the boat by what it can do. They select wardrobe and accessories by weather.
Racers select a boat by what it can do. True a surf ski is a sot of sorts. But a sot fisherman would disagree.
@Rookie said:
@pikabike
http://mysterioso.com/category-womens-coldwater-weather-tops-and-bottomsAfter reading raves here about this product, tried it last winter. Dry and warm.
Oh, yeah, the Mysterioso shirt is still wonderful. I knew they made long tights but not sure about shorts. Will check at their site.
Fwiw, the boat I was using was also a prion twister. It was an early version with a skeg slot. Learned a lot about white water, but got the hell beat out of my shins in canoe polo.
I will occasionally use my Feathercraft Java sit on top during the winter in Alaska… It can be cold and wet but I can sail it. I do prefer a sit in mainly because I don’t have to assemble and disassemble in cold weather
@Chuck von Yamashita said:
I will occasionally use my Feathercraft Java sit on top during the winter in Alaska… It can be cold and wet but I can sail it. I do prefer a sit in mainly because I don’t have to assemble and disassemble in cold weather
Paris needs a canoe!
You know Raftergirl paddles a sot out west. Maybe she’s the one to comment on sot use in cold weather.