Staying dry in a sit-on-top kayak seems the world’s hardest task. You, of course, love kayaking and paddling. And, you don’t try to stop your kayaking even in colder months. That love for kayaking is immeasurable. But you need to take care of yourself first. Why?
Kayaking in cold months slowly reduces your health, if you are not so careful about yourself. The term ‘hypothermia’ is related to health being at risk.
Hypothermia means when your body loses more heat than it produces. It starts occurring when your body temperature drops to below 95F. As a result, your body will be showing symptoms that can cause health damages.
Therefore, you must have to follow precautions. If the outside temperature is not as it should be cold, and your body is feeling warm, make sure splashes of water don’t catch you. Otherwise, the possibility of hypothermia will increase, and the tension around hypothermia will make this much worse.
The point is there are lots of reasons that can lead to hypothermia or any other health issues. Besides, bad moisture weather impacts body temperature. So, you must know how to stay dry in a sit on a top kayak before heading out onto the water. Knowing things and keeping yourself dry reduces the chance of being in bad shape.
However, stopping kayaking isn’t a solution from the very beginning. Instead, it helps mentally and physically a lot. Thinking of all the factors, we come up with a kayak and your health-related tips to minimize the bad conditions.
Wear Proper Apparel
Kayaking in cold weather throws a challenge, and being dry even in that situation is what we can do for ourselves. So what’s the change you need to conduct?
It’s always been simple. It would be best if you suited up in an outfit that can resist the water or have cold weather attire specially designed for paddling. A point to be noted is that don’t you go paddling wearing sweaters made of cotton. These kinds of clothes aren’t water-resistant. Instead, they are water absorbent.
Taking a sit-inside kayak with a skirt
If you are planning to kayak, paddling, or even fishing, sitting inside a kayak with a skirt is an amazing supported outfit in that case. Before that, you need to access a site inside the kayak.
There’s no entrance water getting into the inside of the kayak if you use a kayak skirt. Your lower part of the body (waist to toe) will be protected from outside elements, so, obviously, no water can touch that part.
Wearing a water-resistant jacket and then sitting inside a kayak with a skirt, that’s how you can protect yourself from cold weather. No splashes of water can affect your health.
Avoid getting your hands wet
Seeing the subheadline, you may think that’s about the cloth or gloves. But, it isn’t about attire. If paddling leaves wet on your hands, you might catch up to some unavoidable issues.
Anyhow, you can use a paddle drip ring that will eventually stop water from coming to your hand and skirt. Also, a waterproof gloves pair will help you to be dry. It would be best if you kept extra gloves in case you need it.
Keeping water out of the kayak
You can face a kind of situation where water is dipping into the kayak. How do you react?
If you are on the water with a sit-on-top kayak, plugging your scupper holes with a set of kayak scupper plugs around the seat to drain water out of the kayak.
Furthermore, if you want to be cautious, you can take a bilge pump by which you can remove water that gets into the sit-on-top kayak accidentally.
Carrying an emergency kit
How to kayak without getting wet is difficult when you don’t have any basic knowledge about kayaking. We don’t know the future. Carrying an emergency kit won’t harm you. Instead, you can rely on it when in need.
Kayaking in cold weather is rough and tough work. You may get wet, or water can dip into your kayak and worse if you can’t resist hypothermia.
Avoiding these cases would be tough, but taking an emergency kit works like a helping hand. So, take an extra set of clothes, first aid kit, signal kit, drinking water, snacks, backup paddle if possible, etc., in a kit.
Tips that make easy to remember before dive into kayaking
- Taking an emergency kit that includes every necessary thing.
- Using a standard recreational sit-inside kayak can be just as stable as a sit-on-top kayak.
- When paddling, keep your paddle at a lower angle to avoid an over splash of water coming to your hand.
- Try not to lose your paddle with a paddle leash.
- Plug your scupper plug securely. It eventually helps.
Every living organism has a way to survive. Humans don’t go above this. So, we need to take care of ourselves. Kayaking in cold weather becomes a challenge. You need to overcome it by staying dry in a sit-on-top kayak. If these go opposites, you will be catching up with issues like hypothermia.
Above from the start, we try to enlist some solutions just for your basic survival in cold weather kayaking. It’s a baseline; you have already gathered enough information to carry out all these ways. If there is anything to know or ask about clothes during kayaking or related to kayak instruments, feel free to contact us.
Reference: NRS
