Surfing Waves

so today I was out, and after about an hour, my feet were f'ed up. I tried to walk outta the ocean, and it felt like I was walking on glass because my feet were so cold. Apparently it was like 55 degrees (about 12 deg C).

So I went to the surf shop and dropped 50 bucks on some o'neill 5 mil booties. After that, I went back surfing, and my feet were nice and warm for the rest of the day.

So my question to you: how cold for YOU does it have to be to bust out the

1.) booties-

2.) gloves-

3.) hood (it would have been nice so I didn't have a perpetual ice cream head ache due to duck dives)

4.) stop surfing (I hope the answer to this is 0 deg kelvin)

how cold depends on ho your body reacts to the cold. If you need it wear it.

...I know....this is a personal preference question....

that's why I capitalized "you"

I wear my wetsuit and booties all the time unless I am in Costa Rica as the water is freezing ass cold most places I surf. I don't own gloves or hood so I never wear them.
I will surf in any weather and in any temperature. I don't get to go that much so when I get a chance, I go. ANytime.

It has to be really good clean firing surf if I am going to go in with a wetsuit.

Anything less than 25C requires a wetsuit for me as well!

I've been out surfing in Irelanda couple of times without booties in winter and that would have been around 9degrees c. but that was probably a bit stupid.
Usually anything under 13-14degrees and i would preferably wear boots an the rest of the winter kit but i dont get cold that easily.

I used to resist boots/gloves/winter suit for as long as I could, but more recently Ive made sure Im warm even if it is hard work paddling. Maybe Im getting old

Actually, I think its 'cos Ive worked on my paddling strength and now the thicker neoprene doesnt take quite as much out of me.

Surfing in the cold is great. Surfing when Im cold sucks.

The boots 16C
Gloves about 13C
Hood about now 11C
Stop surfing never, think i've been close to hyperthermia a few times, the north sea gets down to about 5C by Feb, and air temps of minus degrees. Keeps the crowds down a little tho.

I always wear boots.
Hood is more for cold winds than anything else.
Wettie if it ain't summer.
You can tell it's cold if I am wearing gloves... How cold is that? Dunno...


-doug

Don't know temps over here, but oct/nov you dig out the old winter suit. Like you just bought a pair of winter boots. Got my gloves on too now, and gimp mask will be following fairly soon, prob dec time.

Use to kite surf and we went out on New Years Eve when it was 5 degrees, but the windchill must have taken it into the minus figures. We went out for about 10 mins!

i hate boots and gloves and i really hate my hood so i resist them until its 10 degrees or less

i hate wearing gloves, and hate wearing a hood even more, but boots are ok. Basically when my feet start going numb i start wearing the boots.

Try this- when it starts getting cold and you feel your feet going numb, try running up the beach after you surf, notice how awkward it is without the flexibility in your ankles due to the numbness. Thats when you need boots, a lot of surfing is in the ankles so keeping them warm and flexible is essential.

I start layering up with surf gear about november. Probably because its always kinda cold here.. suppose it depeneds where you surf, its always slightly warmer down in devon etc.
Plus i totally agree about the ice cream headache.... only today I noticed how the cold goes sraight to your head.
Damned winter!

I try never to use gloves, but it's almost already impractical. I'm usually in pretty poor paddling shape, and I hate having to lift up gloves filled with water up ever stroke....

But I worked on my paddling yesterday, and today, about a mile or so each day on my shortboard (which is for sale)

im in boots now but thats cas i cant b assed to rewax my 9ft longboard,

I always have a winter wettie on, always have boots on cos I'm a bit of a woose, start wearing gloves as soon as I find it painful to stay in the water for more than an hour and will probably put the gimp hood on next time I'm in the water as I'm spending too long gasping from the shock of the cold water every time I come up.

i currently have nothing and the water is cold, jsut a wetsuit.
im probably gonna get gloves for X-mas because my wetsuit is a bit bigger then me to make it last longer so when i slam into a wave a bunch of water comes down my arms. The gloves would stop that.
Also it was really annoyig because even 30 minutes after getting out i couldnt close m pants button! I couldnt really feel my hands.
Also my feet burn after i get out and i walk, mostly because we were going up a cliff thing on ghetto stairs.
I dont feel like getting booties but i just might...

northswell wrote:The boots 16C
Gloves about 13C
Hood about now 11C
Stop surfing never, think i've been close to hyperthermia a few times, the north sea gets down to about 5C by Feb, and air temps of minus degrees. Keeps the crowds down a little tho.

That's pretty much how I do it too.

60°F
55
50

It can depend on the air temp and winds too...

Driftingalong, did the swell ever work out for ya'll up there?

I went Friday, wasn't too impressed, and I went sunday, and apparently Saturday was a glass off...

Funny how that happens....goes back to the age old saying...

"you should have been here yesterday..."

tomcat360 wrote:Driftingalong, did the swell ever work out for ya'll up there?

It worked out for those who were here...

I didn't get back from Balt. until 7:30pm Sunday.