i can hear the ridicule and insults coming already, but that aside, when wearing gloves and booties, do you pull your wetsuit sleeves and legs over them?
Don't feel embarrassed, I had the same questions and just had to learn through trial and error. Yes cover your boots and gloves with your sleeves and legs of your wetsuit to prevent flushing and filling with water (particularly the gloves). I don't know about you guys, but I have alot of trouble with my 2nd glove and being able to roll the wetsuit armsleave over top of the 2nd glove. I can't get any grip on my wetsuit with my gloved hand, I can only do it bare handed. I always need a buddy to help me out with rolling down my 2nd wetsuit sleave over top of my glove. I must have poor hand-dexterity or something as others don't seem to fumble around with this like I do. Then again, I take about 2x as long to get out of a wetsuit as most people I surf with. Getting the rubber to stretch over my ankles gets me hung up everytime. And I even have a 100% stretch wetsuit.
One basic tip - roll up your wetsuit sleeves & legs before your put on the boots & gloves. Then you just have to finesse the sleeves/legs over the top of the boots/gloves.
thanks all. i bet if i had explained how i tucked by sleeves/legs into my gloves/booties, and how they filled up with water and made me feel really heavy in the water the other day, that would have elicited many more responses consisting of "kook," "moron," and so on.
If you roll your sleeves up, then roll it over again (so it's like double rolled), then you push the one roll over the tip of your gloves, making it really easy to pull down the rest of your sleeve without the gloves getting bunched up or anything... I was out at the OCMD inlet yesterday and I didn't need gloves or booties.
Many people did this when first starting. You're a newb for sure but a kook is more about lack of etiquette than skill.
Exactly. Its ok to be a newb and ask these questions. Just don't ever get an attitude or lose respect when respect is warranted. Don't be embarrassed to ask questions when you're starting out. Plenty of us are willing to help newbs, but kooks can GTFO.
Double rolling....good point. I always single role but for thick gloves it makes sense. It is always a pain getting that second glove covered by the your sleeve in winter because of the thickness of 5 ml gloves. 3s and 2 and easy.
you use a plastic bag. put the gloves on before the sleeves then put the bag on the glove slide it through the sleeve and bam you have a perfect seal.
Did NJ yesterday without gloves and it wasn't preferable, but it was doable. Boots are definitely still required.
I was out yesterday in North Mommouth NJ for 2+ hours with 2mm 3/4 finger-length webbed paddle gloves, a 3/2 full suit and boots. Hands were a little cold but definately doable.
My body and feet were so warm that my hands managed not to become frozen. I'm going to wait until the air/water are around 70/60F to use my 3/2 again.
and the story gets even better...after using my gloves and booties on saturday (for the first time) i must have left them on the ground near the car while getting out of my wetsuit and drove off without picking them up. so yesterday, i went out with NO gloves or booties, and while it was cold (not so bad for hands, but feet started to hurt) i managed to last an hour before bailing. if anyone happened to pick up my gloves and booties off of ocean avenue in avon on saturday, i'll promise you a lifetime of good karma if you let me know. usually i only feel like an idiot in the water, but after doing something that dumb, i've felt for an idiot for a couple of days now.
