What to wear on the river - wetsuit or drysuit

This is about what things are nice to wear on the river. If you are going on a trip, bring these things if you can, for your comfort and happiness.Note, there are two quite different ways of staying toasty on the river:

  1. Warm-when-wet i.e. wetsuit and thermals, or whatever you can codge together from your normal clothes, with a cagoule covering. Keeps you fairly warm……well, keeps you from freezing :-) If you are new to canoeing this is what you’ll probably be wearing, read below for hints of what to take
  2. Warm-and-totally-dry i.e. drysuit, similar to divesuit, or combination of dry trousers/salopettes and very good dry cagoule. This is what posh kayakers and gear freaks wear. If you are a total beginner, then thats probably not what you’ll be wearing, unless you’ve borrowed one from someone who loves you.

So, here’s the more detailed list, for the Warm-but-might-be-wet

method.

  • Cag (Cagoule). If you can get hold of a canoeing cagoule or borrow one from the sheds, then do so. If not, then bring a thin waterproof
  • Warm layers If you own any thermals, bring them. ALL!. Thermals are nice to wear because they help keep you warm even when wet. Thin(ish) fleeces are also handy - especially if your cagoule is a good one and tracksuit bottoms or thermal trousers (ooooh lovely) are also good to wear,
  • Wetsuit If you’ve got one, then bring it. The club has a few in the sheds that you can borrow. Wetsuits are designed to keep you warm when wet!. Note, they don’t keep you dry! They help keep a thin layer of water next to your skin, which will keep you warm, surprisingly.

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