Neoprene gloves in frigid water, air and wind.

This is another post I had made to the Facebook group Inland Seas, Paddling the Great Lakes:


As a bit of a follow-up to yesterday's post on wetsuits in cold water...

The guides are finding that their hands are the hardest thing to keep warm. Their hands are always getting wet due to strokes, spray and the exercises we are performing. Wet hands get colder when the wind causes evaporative cooling to act on them. They and I are finding that neoprene gloves can often be worse than no gloves at all in those conditions, especially when the sun is out. On the days when the high gets into the 50's it isn't so bad. On days when the highs are in the low 40's or high 30's the only real solution is to keep your hands dry, except that we are kayaking...

I have neoprene gloves which don't have an outer nylon layer so they are smooth and they shed water quickly and it doesn't get to evaproate off. I have several pair and have been loaning them out. The company has neoprene gloves with an outer woven nylon layer which holds water. Yesterday about half of the students were paddling without gloves and tucking their hands into their PFDs to warm them during breaks even though they had gloves available. There is just no way to warm your hands when they are in cold wet gloves in the wind!