A couple of good ones paddling gloves is nice when it's a little cooler in the water/air. Broadly speaking, paddling gloves can probably be divided into two groups; such as are attached to the paddle; Pogis, and regular gloves/mitts. Both groups are of course available in many variants.
Which gloves should you wear and which are the best?
Like most other questions almost completely impossible to answer. To begin with, you might settle for your usual finger gloves and pull on a pair of larger dish gloves on the outside. Then it depends very much on how frozen you are in general, and on your hands in particular. Some paddle around with bare hands in sub-zero temperatures and wind, while others put on both neoprene finger gloves and tome sleeves when it's below ten plus degrees and the wind is calm.
Thin toma scars protect well against wind and sun
A couple of short tom arms can almost always be left hanging in the kayak. On a really hot summer day, they can protect your hands from too much sun and salt splash. Keeps hands fresh and does not dry out during longer paddling trips. During the cooler season, the thin outer layers alone may be enough to protect against the wind. Good to be able to be bare-handed underneath and have a good paddle feel, the ability to take your hands out and operate cameras, phone or just take the candy out of the life vest pocket.
Neoprene gloves & neoprene gloves
Just like on the slopes, it gets warmer in a pair of thumb mittens than in a pair of finger mittens. The finger gloves, however, make it much easier to handle both putting on the canopy, taking pictures, grabbing the deck lines, etc., etc. There is everything from really thin neoprene gloves to really thick ditto. Just like with many other things, you may find that you "need" a couple of different ones in mixed thicknesses to suit different weather, winds and seasons.
Search for neoprene gloves on Amazon
Plenty of dry gloves, bring an extra pair
When the gloves are taken out of the warm wardrobe at home or out of the warm car, they are great, but after a much-needed coffee out on one of the islands in sub-zero temperatures when the on-land gloves are changed to the wet kayak gloves again, the latter are not as good anymore. With a pair of extra dry and reasonably warm gloves included in the pack, after the coffee/camp/lunch paddling, it's also good from the start. It can take a really long time to warm up a pair of chilled fingers. You can also try to keep your gloves warm by wearing them close to your body; inside the life jacket, inside the double waist, etc.
Heat the gloves with thermos water
If you don't have extra gloves, you can quickly heat your gloves by pouring thermos water into them. Helps really well. Although I myself prefer an extra pair of dry gloves, it's even better.
Regardless of whether you use special kayak gloves or regular gloves, you will probably find that even if the gloves are waterproof, they will almost always get wet inside no matter how you wear them, especially if you are out for a bit longer or if it is splashing a bit, and you might sweat too.
But toma scars are in most cases the hottest, for most people. Some people seem to think that you are stuck in the paddle with tom arms. You don't do that! It's the toms that stick and it's very easy to get out of your hands. On the other hand, some, a little too narrow, toma scars can be a bit tricky to get into. If they are both narrow and long, you have to use teeth, fellow paddlers and other tricks 🙂
Pogis in nylon or other thin fabric protects well against wind but does not warm much. Neoprene pogis warm very well, I have used my neoprene pogis down to minus 10-15. I think the important thing about Pogisar is that they are wide enough in the shaft so that they are easy to put on and take off. Furthermore, it is good if they are long enough so that they go up a bit on the sleeve, otherwise water flows in that way and cools it down. Then it is an extra plus if they can be spun up and attached to the paddle when/if they are not to be used for a little while.
From the left; in neoprene, way too short (quite common) to be good, this model too narrow to begin with but is widened with sewn fabric gussets | The middle one is made of quite thick neoprene, warm and comfortable and also long and wide enough, from OrustKajak, this model also has a small piece of velcro that makes it easy to roll up and fasten it around the paddle.| The one on the far right is made of nylon from Hiko (I think), good as wind protection and with a pair of thinner neoprene gloves underneath you can get by for a long time.
With a pair of thin gloves, for our part it has been the short ones from padler.dk for the last 7-8 years, and then a suitable set of neoprene finger gloves you can handle most imaginable weather conditions. We only use thick neoprene pogis when it is colder than approximately minus five degrees. Another thing to keep in mind with thicker tome scars, yes, to some extent even thinner ones, is that they don't chafe. Some are a bit too tight and the seams are a bit silly and it's no fun if you want to paddle for a few hours.
A disadvantage of Pogisar is precisely that they are fixed on the paddle, if you should trip, you take your hands out of the gloves and are completely unprotected if you don't have any other gloves inside. If the water is cool, the hands cool off very quickly, so if you use gloves, it makes sense to have neoprene gloves underneath or in any case very easily accessible. Then it's the case that if you have tom scars without something underneath, your hands are only when you tinker and don before you get in/out of the kayak; put on the hood, etc.. if it's cold outside, you quickly cool down. Another disadvantage of the tom arms being fixed is that you cannot move your hands along the paddle without taking them out, moving your hands along the paddle is perhaps mainly used with Greenland paddles but can also be useful with Euro and wing paddles.
What do we use now?
The gloves we use, and have used, mostly in the last 8-10 years are:
- thin neoprene finger gloves from Langer
- short Pogis from Padler
- medium thickness neoprene gloves from Hiko (Slim)
- Thick neoprene gloves from Chotas.
- Thicker neoprene pogis, I have a pair from old OrustKajak which I still think are good. Pia has a pair from Padler.dk that are not so thick but still clearly make sense.
SnapDragon otherwise makes good winter pogies, even if they could have been a little longer. If we were to complete the glove collection, it would perhaps be a pair of thumb-type neoprene gloves, such as the NRS Toaster or similar.
Do you have to wear special paddling gloves?
No, must, must & should we want to avoid of course 🙂 In fishing shops, at Biltema, Byggmax, at XXL, in boat shops, bike shops etc. you can sometimes find lots of good and sensible gloves that can be great for paddling. But keep in mind that a good grip (good surface) and a good feel (not too thick) gloves/mitts are enough for the model.
Buy paddling clothes at The outdoor expert
Briefly about the gloves we use or have used:
- Neoprene gloves from the brand Langer. They are very thin and supple, perfect feel regardless of the paddle. And you can put on chapels and fix and donate with them on. For me, these work down to a few minus degrees, of course it depends on how much it's windy too. These are also very nice in spring and autumn and even on windy summer days.
- We also use Hiko Slim Gloves quite a lot, a bit thicker than Langer and a bit more durable. Very beautiful.
- Hiko mittens with pre-bent fingers I used before, the first few tours it was a bit scary with the pre-bent fingers; I almost got a cramp in my hands, but gradually the neoprene became softer and the gloves more comfortable. These are a bit warmer than the Langerhandskarna.
- NRS Thumb Gloves. These warm clearly better than finger gloves, however, they are not as comfortable and do not provide as good a grip/feel. And it's difficult to put on a well-tightened neoprene hood with these on and the same applies when the cafeteria door has to be opened behind the back 😉 Kept the heat for me down to minus 5-10.
- Chota's finger gloves, we've probably had these for ten years. Very warm and with a superb grip on the paddle. Among the warmest finger gloves I've used.
- For a while we used a pair of Hiko gloves with an open palm. The idea is probably to get a little extra feel for the paddle that way. But we were never particularly impressed by them, the idea is otherwise quite good.
- Orust Kajak neoprene pogis - was developed by old Orust Kajak. Long and wide. Easy to get in and really warm. Also a velcro loop so they could be spun up and fastened around the paddle. Awesome. Could be a little shorter and maybe have a little more shiny neoprene on the front for less ice formation.
- Thin nylon pouches - probably the most common type of tome arm. Takes up no space to carry and protects well against wind/sun. Often a bit unnecessarily long and we don't really like that they are constantly lying against the hand. Better with a little shorter and with stiffening.
- Short tome scars from padler.dk. The favorite for sure. Short means that they are easy to get in, slightly stiffened means that they do not lie against. Short means that they do not protect as much from the side.
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