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Santa Brought Drysuits!


Fman

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Santa brought us a couple International Barefoot Drysuites for Xmas, so I had to test it out in the swimming pool yeserday, water temp was 33 degrees, the suite worked great, but my feet and hands were freezing *ss cold!!!!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a certain boot that will help keep your feet warm with a drysuite and tolerate an open toe wakeboard binding? also looking for a cold weather glove recommendation to help with hand warmth. Not sure if a face mask is needed, weather here in Nor-Cal is usually 55-60 degrees during day, I think the lake water temps are running 50-55 degrees this time of year.

Any help or feedback appreciated.... thank you!

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Pete one link is from Sept and the other from 06.

Fman- my GF picked up a Barefoot Int suit for me as well. I just didn't realize these suits fit snug and not like the O'neill poofy type. I have a large and thinking I may need to change it it for a XL.

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Pete one link is from Sept and the other from 06.

Fman- my GF picked up a Barefoot Int suit for me as well. I just didn't realize these suits fit snug and not like the O'neill poofy type. I have a large and thinking I may need to change it it for a XL.

We have one small and one XL. I am 6' 1", 195 lbs and it pretty baggy and loose on me... apparently, they are supposed to be this way. They definitely fill up with air when you enter the water, need to be burped out the neck area. My 9 year old will be in the Small.... and this will also work for my wife and daughter. The only thing I did not care for was the tightness on the neck area, I heard you can trim it down a little to loosen it up a bit.

I am trying to find some good feet and hand protection recommendations.

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I use NRS Reactor gloves. They are curved in a natural hand position for gripping, and are 3.5mm and extremely warm. They are designed for cold water kayaking and whitewater rescue applications. We went out in drysuits in November with 39 deg water, and with the Reactor gloves, I had warm hands all day. I tried one session with 1.5 mm gloves, but my hands froze up and went numb, so I quickly switched back to the Reactors.

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When I used to live in Seattle we had some latex booties and gloves that we used with the dry suits. I wore a pair of wool socks under the booties and a pair of cotton gloves under the gloves. I had a hood that I used for diving that kept my head warm. I was never cold at all including January runs while it was snowing outside. The only hard part was finding people to go with you as it was really cold without a dry suit. You could call Wiley's in Seattle, I am sure they could hook you up. You could also check with a dive shop.

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Another vote from me for the NRS reactor gloves. Also get a swimmers cap...that's the difference between being in cold water 10 minutes or an hour riding! It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's huge.

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Closed toe bindings. When you fall keep your hands out of the water. None of our crew has ever used gloves or bootys......Well there was this one time one of them stole some emo slippers from a kid on the boat.

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Closed toe bindings. When you fall keep your hands out of the water. None of our crew has ever used gloves or bootys......Well there was this one time one of them stole some emo slippers from a kid on the boat.

This. There's no better cure for the feet in cold water. I haven't found a glove that I like in cold water, so the thing of keeping your hands out is really about as good as you can do IMO. If it's really cold, a neoprene hood can help with brain freeze, but at a certain point you kind of have to question how fun it really is.

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You all are lucky!!! None of my crew will even go out if the temp is less than 70 degrees..

Bummer man. Our last trip out the spray off my ski that was hitting my face was giving me a cold headache like I was housing some homemade ice cream. LOL.gif

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Thanks for the feedback, I am going to visit a local dive shop tomorrow... Water temp in lakes are running about 55 to 58 degrees right now.... We might go out this Saturday, might be close to 60 degrees.... Unfortunately all of our boards are open toe, so I am going to try and find some booties at the dive shop.

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Our last trip out the spray off my ski that was hitting my face was giving me a cold headache...

Spray should not be hitting you in the face. Get your weight forward, stop tail riding. Put 2/3 of your weight on your front foot, 1/3 on the ball of your back foot. That will level the ski out, it will stop spraying you in the face, and it will turn much better too. :thumbup: You want your ankles, hips, and shoulders all stacked inline with each other.

Skied today. Water ~ 40° / Air 53°. Nitrile gloves under the ski gloves work well until it gets really cold. Gonna look into those NRS gloves...

Edited by NorCaliBu
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In West Virginia, we kayak whitewater throughout the winter in sub freezing temps. In Jan and Feb, you can snowboard the morning and kayak the afternoons. With Goretex drysuits (Kokatat) and neoprene hoodies and gloves/pogies, it's warm and comfortable even on some of the coldest days. Lots of cold weather boating gear can be found at NRSweb, NOC, or Colorado Kayak Supply. For wakesurfing, I think booties are better than freezing your feet, but for open toed wakeboards, just go with 2 or 3mm wetsocks.

Edited by kayakwv
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Closed toe bindings. When you fall keep your hands out of the water. None of our crew has ever used gloves or bootys......Well there was this one time one of them stole some emo slippers from a kid on the boat.

While boarding last winter, I remember giving five to a DUDE that had gloves on when we passed each other.

Fman was the rubber under the zipper cut all the way across or was the opening smaller then the full zipper opening?

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While boarding last winter, I remember giving five to a DUDE that had gloves on when we passed each other.

Fman was the rubber under the zipper cut all the way across or was the opening smaller then the full zipper opening?

Opening was smaller than the zipper opening, and I am bummed, my drysuit has a pinhole leak in it under the right leg area. I can visually see it, and Barefoot International is closed until Jan 10th. Figures I would get the 1 out 100 that has a leak in it. My sons seems to be leak free, but the neck is a little tight. Its definitely not as good as summer time riding, but its pretty nice considering the water was 48 degrees and outside temp was 60.

Still need to find some good gloves, we used 3mm diving gloves but its hard to hold the handle... might try to find some 1mm.

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Bummer about the leak. Hopefully they set you up w/ a replacement. If not, there was a recent thread on here about a "patch" product, that was very effective.

You might try putting a soccer ball in your sons neck seal for a few days. It may loosen up a tiny bit.

Edited by davemac
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While boarding last winter, I remember giving five to a DUDE that had gloves on when we passed each other.

Fman was the rubber under the zipper cut all the way across or was the opening smaller then the full zipper opening?

um ya that was me.... but I'm not a boarder either. I also remember a certain member that tried dish gloves. :lol:

Travis,

Go hit up Waterski World for a set of Nevin neoprene gloves. Work great and keep the hands from being cold. In fact I used them today..

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