Wow! It's way too hot around here in the National Capital Region of Canada (Ottawa/Gatineau) and lots of other places. We're in a heat wave. I would call it an oven! A sauna!
The only place to hide is in some cool water, air-conditioning, the woods, a cave, or in a friend's basement.
This isn't weather that motivates me to head out to paddle unless I can jump out often and swim with my boat.
How to Stay Cool with your Boat!
Swim with it. It's fun.
Why should your boat have all the fun. It's in the water. You're not!
I'm swimming with my boat in a pretty little lake in Canada and loving it. But I don't want it to get away.
Come back here boat! Wind takes it away quickly when I snap a shot from the water.
Then I Cowboy Scramble back into my boat. It's so easy for me now. I do it just about every time I paddle or five or six times per paddle if I need to hop out and cool off.
Just make sure to stick your paddle deep into the water underneath you before rolling to make sure your head isn't meeting up with rocks and dead heads. You do that right? Something to think about. And something I'll also have to remember when I start rolling. I'm still learning. Or rather, I should book a lesson soon and start trying! I get lazy in the intense heat of July.
Balance brace your kayak
This is something I just learned a few days ago from a local Greenland roller and kayak instructor and I love it! I'll be posting more on this with pics and video of me doing it too in my Maelstrom Vital 166.
It is so relaxing, fun, and a great way to cool off.
When you balance brace (if you are flexible enough), it allows you to stretch out your body without getting out of the boat. You can gain tremendous confidence in yourself, your body, and your boat handling skills, especially if you are still "Rolling Challenged" like me, or if you just plain don't like the feeling of being upside down in a kayak!
Don't worry if flexibility is an issue. Be patient with yourself and work on things slowly. Don't force what's not there. Your right side may be awesome! Your left side efforts may feel like it's not your body at all! Yep, that's me. Even if you do yoga!
Wear Rash Guard (get it wet before paddling), a hat and lightweight paddle gloves
When it's hot and sunny, I do the opposite of most people, I mean the people who paddle in swim suits and T-shirts!
I wear long sleeve, crew neck, body glove, UV Rash Guard and swim in the water with it to get it wet before I paddle. I do this in lakes and rivers. In the summer, I don't paddle water I don't consider clean enough to swim in. I don't know if I'd want to do this with salty sea water.
This keeps me cool, comfortable and protected from the sun for an hour or two before I need to cool off in the water again.
In this grueling heat, a paddle buddy complained about being too hot paddling in a T-shirt! And he could roll.
The next day I said, "Go to the paddle shop and get yourself some long sleeved Rash Guard with a crew neck. I'll show you how to stay cool in this heat!"
Sometimes on hot days, you are in long stretches of river water that is too shallow to swim or roll in, has too much current to dunk into, has unfriendly shorelines, or is too rocky to get out and swim or roll in.
You need another way to stay cool when paddling.
The hot sun hitting your skin or a cotton shirt is not the way to do it. And paddling in soggy, baggy cotton is not comfortable!
In the summer heat in Canada, and especially when I paddle heat I can't stand in Florida, I wear long sleeve Rash Guard with a crew neck. What's that?
It's great gear for paddling made out of Polyester and Spandex and has UV protection from the sun. I like the long sleeve shirts that fit like a body glove. The shirts have flatlock stitching that doesn't rub on my skin while paddling and are very comfortable and cool.
What did my paddle buddy say the next paddle? "Hey, this stuff is amazing!"
I've been paddling with my white and pink Rash Guard for years and love it even though it is slowly turning a soft shade of gray in spots where my black spray skirt hits it. Buy a light color for summer. The bugs are attracted to dark colors and light colors attract less sun. A light color makes for a winning combo!
I always wear a hat - it's amazing how many people don't! Sometimes it blows off and I have to retrieve it. A paddle hat that you can dunk and wet in the water can keep your head cool for a good long while.
Paddle Gloves - I've also taken the habit of wearing lightweight neoprene paddle gloves in the hot summer to keep the sun off. The gloves stay wet when I paddle and keep my hands cool.
You can pick up a lot of sun on your hands year after year. Waterproof sunscreen only goes so far, and I don't like it on my hands when I paddle.
If I want to catch sun, I wait until I hit a beach and can get it evenly.
I hope you manage to stay cool and hydrated! It's way tooo HOT!
Happy paddling!
The BaffinPaddler
