Pogies
My pogies are Hydroskin.
I tried them alone and found they were actually warmer than my neoprene gloves, but still a bit chilly at 35*. I tried a pair of 9mil nitril gloves. Found I had trouble getting my hands in, and the gloves didn’t add much warmth anyhow.
I tried a pair of poly glove lines. They were surprisingly easy to get into the pogies and added significant warmth. Only problem was that the gripping dots on the liners didn’t grip the paddle very well. I will have to find something to put on them, or find liners with better gripping dots.
I appreciate everyone’s help.
Very Flexible
The Level Six are like a wet suit for your hands. They don’t stay dry but they do stay warm. Pretty easy to get on and off.
I beg to differ on this one
Adding unnecessary insulation on your body is just going to make you sweat more, which will be uncomfortable may ultimately result in you getting cold when your insulation get damp. I’ve been out plenty of times when my body was very warm or too warm, but my hands were still cold.
The biggest issue in keeping hands warm is blood flow. There’s a fine line between having gloves that fit closely enough to enable good paddle control and keep water flushing to a minimum and having gloves that are too tight and restrict blood flow.
The same is true of dry gloves; the wrist seals need to be just snug enough to prevent leakage without restricting blood flow. This is a looser fit than most people think. If you can’t easily pinch the seal with your thumb and forefinger and lift it off of your skin, it’s too tight.
I agree with the differer(BN)
Below freezing anything that leads to an overheated core is to be avoided.
There are a number of ways to keep hands warm and dry including overmitts and wool mitts or whatever.
Lobstermen know this. Its not rocket science.
Too tight wrist seals…
Brian, I’m curious about your comment on dry glove wrist seals being too tight. (Please do not take this as me questioning your statement. I am genuinely curious about how this works.) If the wrist seals on dry gloves can be too tight, thereby restricting blood flow and leading to cold hands, wouldn’t the same be true about the wrist seals on dry suits and/or dry tops?
I agree with EZ as worded
– Last Updated: Dec-26-14 11:07 AM EST –
Note that he said dress so that you are "almost too warm". I don't consider "almost too warm" as the same as being overheated and sweating, just a bit warmer than what's necessary or comfortable. I have always had real problems keeping my hands warm in winter, to the point that mittens and gloves that work fine for most people just don't work for me. If I'm dressed warmly, so that I feel like I could shed a bit of clothing but am not overdoing the warm clothes too much, I have much less trouble with my hands being cold. Also, it's important to wear "chill-free" clothing like wool and/or proper synthetics. It's true that one sweats a bit more than normal when "almost too warm", but with the proper clothing (and nobody here needs this explained to them), a small amount of sweating won't lead to being cold later on.
EZ's advice is the method I've been using for years to help keep my hands warm. It absolutely DOES work.
wondering if NRS
still makes the Reactor gloves and Toaster Mitts? That’s what I use. Had about 6 pairs of gloves from when I paddled 4x a week with my son, threads let go on the seams, but they work pretty well for me. The mitts are even warmer.
When I paddled in the upper teens/20’s I found bringing a thermos of hot water and dousing the neoprene helped out for awhile…now at that temp. I go hiking instead lol.
Gore-Tex Mittens
Depends on how cold it will be when you plan to paddle. Personally, I wear a pair of Cabela’s Gore-Tex Mittens with a pair of ThermaSilk glove liners under them when the air temp is anything below 40°. Sure, they’re big and bulky, but nothing else keeps my hands warm and toasty when the temps drop below freezing. I’ve been out when the air temp was 17° and water was freezing immediately when it splashed on my deck and paddle. These mittens kept my hands warm even when they got wet. Keep in mind, I’m just doing recreational paddling on a slow, flat river. So, I don’t need uber-dexterity in my hands/fingers for my style of paddling. Paddle feel isn’t that big of a concern for me, but if I ever needed the extra dexterity in an urgent moment, these mittens are easy to rip off in a second especially with the slick ThemaSilk liners.
I have a pair of NRS Maverick gloves that I use now and then. However, my fingers will start to get cold and go numb any time the air temp drops below the high to mid 40°s. I like my Mavericks, but to me, they are more for COOL weather paddling not COLD weather paddling.
I’ve never tried pogies. So I can’t comment on them other than to say I doubt they’d be warm enough for me. But then, my current style of paddling does not require the sort of finger dexterity and paddle feel that pogies are meant to provide.
Absolutely!
Wrist seals on dry suits should fit the same way, that is, very comfortable and easy to lift off the skin. I probably wouldn’t have trimmed my own to that degree had I not been shown this by a friend/paddling mentor. For a while, he used the same dry suit for scuba diving and paddling, and that’s how he fit his wrist seals. I figured that if it worked for diving, it would work for paddling and it does.
Worst case, I get a few drops of water seeping into my gloves or sleeves over the course of a typical day, but it’s important to note that I paddle low volume boats and have long arms, so my hands are in the water on almost every stroke. I also tend to roll, scull and otherwise play around in the water.