Re: [Paddlewise] Poor Man's Cold Water Paddling

When I first started paddling whitewater, I could only find it in Arkansas in the winter.  I was too poor to get outfitted with high tech stuff so found many hints for keeping warm.

I invested in good, poly long underwear.  I also bought a wonderful wool sweater with the sheep oil still on it.  It was so soft I could wear it against my skin without scratching.   And I bought sock liners and heavy socks.For the rest, I used my warmups, second hand tenis shoes, bread bags, and nylon jackets and wool watch caps.  I think I also had some nylon rainpants. Oh yes, I had a wool shirt.

I wore the long underwear and the sweater and then the shirt, if needed, and then the nylon shell.  I wore a wool watch cap and the hood of the jacket.  On the bottom, I had long underweaar, warmup pants - except for one learning experience where I took one pair of jeans to 20 degree temperatures and snow and fell in - and then the nylon pants.  On my feet, I had the sock liners, bread bags, heavy socks, and old tennis shoes, bought secondhand in one size larger than normal.

I also had gloves.  I was always warm even in temperatures in the teens.  I also could use most of the clothing for backpacking.  At the time I used to bike with a friend who, in winter, rode in long underwear, then a plastic bag (he cut holes for his head and arms) and then a wool shirt.  So this is another way to help keep warm on the cheap.  There used to be a lot of articles about making vapor barriers with waterproof material next to the skin or on top of wicking long underwear.

And as I was just learning to do whitewater paddling, I fell in a lot.  But we always carried a change of clothes in the boat and had fire starter so  we could pull over and start a fire if needed.  We sometimes brought hot soup in a thermos as well.
the time I fell in in my jeans, had to borrow pants from 2 different guys to keep warm.  We kept the jeans over the fire all weekend but they never finished drying.

So you can stay warm with less than high tec clothing.  This is nice to know if you only have occassional cold weather paddles. I would never attempt what I did without being with a group.  We shared clothing, food, etc. as needed and helped rescue each other.  So we never had to stay wet for long periods of time.  I felt as warm wet as dry on the top anyway.

Marilyn


***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************