Clothing Guide
Dressing suitably!
When the weather is wetter and colder you neeed to be prepared. If you check the temperature before you paddle it'll help you understand thing better. Eg under 10 degress and an extra thermal.
If you plan your clothing, you will enjoy the paddling more! Wear lots of layers, this
enables you to easily vary your temperature by adding or removingthem.
Swimming costumes can be good but ensure you have packed a change of underwear!. Think
where you will be getting changed, you may be changing in a public car park so you need
tokeep decent!
Thermal tops and bottoms make a good base layer follow this with fleece (primark do them for £4 now!)or jogging bottoms. please never wear jeans to go boating as they shrink and become heavy when wet and they retain no heat and are difficult / slow to dry. Modern technical outdoor/walking trousers like Regatta ones are warm and dry really quickly.
Wetsuits are an optionbut remember they are porous and the wind whistles through so you'll still need a jacket that’s windproof and waterproof. They are good at protecting your body if swimming in white water. Lightweight waterproof jacket and trousers help to keep you warm by reducing windchill.
Dry top, dry trousers or a dry suit will also reduce the chance of your base layer getting wet, but body heat in these things can be a problem and cause it own dampness. So again a good technical fabric for base layers and fleece that'll dry easily is essential.
Footwear is vital for warmth and protection. Wearing socks will help to keep your feet warm. Laces can get caught when exiting a boat in white water so replace bows with those plastic sliding retainers, but laces must be tied up. Wetsuit boots can be good, but make sure they have a decent sole, and there are canyoning boots too. For racing there are various lightweight foot hugging alternatives.
Local outlet: Liquid Blue Clothing Great kayaking kit and seal fixing service for your dry gear...
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