Pre bent finger gloves I feel like fill out my grip more & I'm not a big guy. But what are the advantages to pogies? Do you have trouble ever loosing grip on your paddle and finding it again?

Edited by imageAK - 18 Apr 2015 at 4:19pm

I think Geomorph is Spot On.

Pogiez all the way. They keep my hands much warmer than glovez. Your fingers are consolidated like mittens which keeps them warmer, and your hands also heat up the portion of the shaft they contact. Also, they protect your knuckles in tight rocky places where sh*t could damage them baddly, like getting them caught between your boat and some rock you end up grinding against...keep those hands supple for caressing the lady!

I find that the modern models out there are easy to punch my hands in and out of, and you can always shove them out of the way temporarily. With some adaptation though you get used to them.

I only remove them in August when it is absurdly warm.

Gloves are a good backup for portagez, or if you gotta get out in the middle of a stream to unpin a boat and your hands are imersed, but for me my hands really seem to almost get colder wearing neoprene gloves, but maybe I just need the right pair.

One horror story I heard once that stuck w/ me was an account of a guy who found himself needing to swim at the base of Spirit Falls one winter. He had neoprene MITTENS on, and couldn't get his spray skirt off. I'm pretty sure he survived the ordeal but the incident may have brought him to the brink of drowning and/or hypothermia. Someone here probably vividly recalls those details, but that someone isn't me. Probably on the Jason Rackley site...
Anywho mittens are out.

Yeah, there's probably lots of options out there I haven't tried.

I will say that after waaayyy too many years of paddling cold water, my fingers and hands aren't doing so good toward the end of a long cold day. Its the first part of me to get cold. Based on this, I suggest taking care of your digits over the long haul better than I have.

A few winters back there was a swim at P.O.W. and we chased the boat into the rock garden below the rapid. It got pinned in the middle of the river. No big deal. I was jonny on the spot and eddied out behind it. Basicly the grab loop I needed was submerged. Fuqua had thrown me a rope from the bank. Anyway, that was a situation where a pair of neoprene gloves woulda been helpful. My hands got cold really quick fishing underwater to clip the rope to the boat. That was a wake up call of sorts as I realized that if we were somewhere more remote where the extraction was more involved, I could have compromised the group since my hands were going really numb...

A dry bag with a different pair of non neoprene gloves (even some ploypro glove liners) would be ok for off river stuff. But this stuff is case by case scenario- I don't like getting carried away taking too much sh*t along with me.

Its good to consider "what if" scenarios, but its probably just as good or better to sharpen one's boating skills and make smart decisions. Avoid trouble in the first place. Especially in the winter. Days are shorter so you should be smart enough to adapt your habits to that.

Staying out of trouble to begin with has served me well 95% of the time. If that means portaging an extra rapid to make it off the river before dark, so be it.

As a skinny little runt, I also find that bringing food with me on winter trips is key to offsetting the calory burn a little. Head lamps are good for winter boating too. Sorry to the extent I got off topic.

I like Pogies. Try takin a leak or crackin open a beer with gloves on.

Thanks jP they were right on the way!

I vote gloves after a few slips onto slippery rocks

Pogies for sure for kayaking!  If you keep your paddle during a swim you can just pop them back on and swim back to shore.  You can always tuck your hands in them if you take a break on a cold day.  I also keep gloves in a dry bag for longer river side stops and have hand warmers available if I get really cold.

And for the rafters out there I might suggest trying a combo, using a mit for the hand holding the t-grip and a pogie on the paddle shaft. This way you keep both hands warm and can easily use your free hand in the pogie to pull off the mitten from the other hand in the event you need to deal with a knot or anything that requires fine dexterity.