What to wear for a cool and cloudy day of kayaking
Kayaking is a personally rewarding experience. Among other things, it allows you to be in constant contact with nature, enjoy beautiful landscapes, and maintain a balance between your mind and body to be able to navigate in this small boat.
Being an outdoor water activity, the weather conditions greatly influence kayaking. As you may have noticed, the climate is constantly changing; And it may be perfectly sunny at the beginning of the day, but then the picture changes to something completely opposite.
Do not worry. Although the day is not sunny, it does not mean that you will not be able to practice this sport, you just have to adapt your clothing and your resources for this climate. Of course, you must check the weather conditions to ensure that you can go out on your journey and that you will not be in any kind of danger.
Here are some tips on what to wear on a cool and cloudy kayaking day.
Kayak clothing for cool days
The clothing on a kayak day is as important as your equipment. For these reasons, we mention the type of clothing you should wear.
Shirt: Always use a long-sleeved shirt, preferably made of polyethylene, so that you can keep warm because if you wear short-sleeved or flannel-style shirts, the breeze will make you more exposed to the wind and make you very cold after a while.
In addition, these shirts serve to keep you relatively dry and help prevent your skin from receiving the few UV rays, which although the day is not sunny, exposure is just as harmful to the skin.
The pants: The pants must be suitable for this sport, especially in this case where the weather is unpredictable and there may be precipitation. The best pants are those that, like shirts, are made of polyethylene, which keeps you dry, is light, and allows you to keep your body warm.
As kayaking is a water sport, you are prone to getting wet or even falling into the water, either by pleasure or by accident, that is. Therefore, it is essential to have clothing that allows you to maintain your body heat and in turn, does not make your weight when you resume your navigation.
For these reasons, cotton garments are not recommended at all, as they absorb water, take a long time to dry, and tend to get heavy.
Footwear: Protection for your feet is important, especially if it involves sports that tend to get them, as these tend to concentrate the temperature they perceive and transmit it to the rest of the body.
For these reasons, you need neoprene shoes, which is waterproof material specially designed to keep your body temperature stable. It is essential that you keep your feet warm when you kayak and even more so in times as unstable as cloudy and cool days.
Gloves: Gloves fulfill a double function in climates like this during the development of the activities that this sport demands; Since it not only protects your hands from exposure to climatic factors by keeping them dry and warm; It also acts as anti-slip when mastering the paddle, allowing you to have greater control in each stroke and avoiding the imbalance with which you can fall into the water.
Hats: Your head is a fundamental part of your body; therefore it is important that it is also protected. We recommend wearing a latex hat and a fleece brief over it. This type of material adapts to any temperature and prevents the breeze from going from cooling you to chilling.
It is always good to have a plan B in each situation, that is why we recommend you bring an extra change of clothes so that you can change in case, due to one situation or another, the clothes you have been wearing from the beginning, are no longer consistent to continue sailing in your kayak.
Equipment: Just as the appropriate clothing is important to go kayaking on sunny and cloudy days, there are other equipments that you should not forget, among them are the following:
- Always carry your first aid kit with you.
- Take with your foods and fruits that provide your body with vitamins and energy, to recover after a long day of sailing.
- Stay hydrated at all times, always carry the necessary amount of water, preferably natural.
This activity is quite comforting and relaxing, always have your security measures and never carry more weight than you should as this can harm your strokes and therefore your navigation: you exhaust yourself more than you should.
As an additional tip, you can consider bags adapted to this sport, which function as a life jacket, because if in any case, they fall into the water they do not sink. In addition, they are very functional because they make it easy for you to store your tools, allowing you to have greater freedom in each movement. You can see more information in our kayak accessories section.
Thank you very much for sharing!
