staying warm

I just ran into this photo on the internet and was reminded of some similar photos I took a few years ago of my own cold weather paddling gear. 

This is a photo someone took of the clothes that someone from the Canadian Arctic would wear in winter. There's a parka there, boots, gloves, fur pants and even a pair of long johns.

This is a photo I took a few years ago of the gear I would wear back in Wisconsin to go paddling on Lake Michigan in the winter.  We used to go paddling as long as the temperature stayed above 15 degrees F, that's about -10 degrees C.  When it got any colder paddling became difficult, mostly because ice would build up on everything from the boat to the paddle and clothes became stiff like cardboard to the point where movement became difficult.  But mostly the multiple layers made immersion in the water possible.  The water, of course never got below 32 degrees F (0 degrees C).

And there's my paddling jacket flanked by boots and gloves and at the top, a hood.  We always used to go to dive shops for the neoprene gear because they had heavier duty stuff than the kayak stores.