Kayak Clothing

What to wear?

The answer to that is to adjust the clothing after the water temperature, skills, company and weather condition. If you capsize in cold water and and havent got good immersion it doesnt take long before the body systems starts to work poorly. In Scandinavia, espically in north of Norway, is the water cold even if it in the middle of the summer. Avoid cotton. Cotton gets cold when wet and dries very slowly.

Immersion clothing

• Dry Suit – Are often made of Nylon or Gore-tex and are complete waterproof and keep you dry. Wrists, Ankles and neck have latex or neoprene sealing. The dry suits costs a lot. I recommend you to spend some time checking out different dry suit manufacturers. Sometimes sailing dry suits work nice for kayakers.
• Wet Suit- Are often made of neoprene. The wet suit doesnt keep you dry. In case of capsizing the water will not circulate. Instead the water will be kept as insulation next to the body by the neoprene. Make sure the neoprene and model is flexible and allows you to have a good range of motion.

Hats

Wear a hat to protect you from cold temperature, wind, sun and rain.

Footwear

Always carry something on your feet. Landing barefoot on a reef, a cliff with sharp edges or Acorn barnacles can tear up your feet. Use some footwear that you can use in water. I prefer neoprene footwear. My favourites are knee high muckluks. One problem with neoprene footwear – they smell!

Insulation

Wool! All over!