I love my solite 8mm custom booties. They are worth every penny. I also rock the 5mm mystic lobster glove. And the 7mm Xcel drylock mitten when it’s really cold. All great products for kiting. Great video!

When trying to "sqeeze" a little more warmth out of your exisitng neoprene gear, I've found using an extra double sided velcro straps around critical areas like wrists and calves helps keep the water out, or at least reduces how much it collects, especially if your wetsuit is just a little too big!

7mm xcel drylock booties. I Pour warm water out when done kiting. Feet warmth never an issue. Hands are another story and you nailed it-- all gloves seem to be a compromise at best. The warmer the glove, the worse the dexterity

Great content as always. One hack that I found very useful is to duck tape the overlaps between the wetsuit and the booties and mitts/gloves. This further reduces the entry of cold water and helps you stay warm. I use 4mm high-top booties in near freezing water temperatures and have had no issue. A full-face hoodie is also a must. A Neo-tuque just won't cut it. (For our American friends who just experienced a blast of winter down south, a tuque is a Bennie.)

Neoprene socks make a huge difference. Velcro Straps ($5.00 Canadian Tire) to cinch down the wetsuit over the boot tops works surprisingly well :)

I have found a 2mm neoprene sock under your boot really helps keep the warmth in. A 2mm sock and a 3mm boot are warmer than a 6mm boot.

I started learning in December and was so excited i didn't let the cold bother me , just a 3mil suit and thin booties no gloves all thru the winter.😁

I use 6mm gloves for winter kayaking. They're curved but still limit dexterity. My 6mm wetsuit has inner cuffs that seal it into my booties and gloves. It's toasty but down gear inside my dry suit is lighter and more flexible with same toast-factor☺

Thank you for the video, I would like to see more videos about whether to use drysuit or wetsuit

I kite through the winter in Vancouver in temperatures approaching zero degrees. I also have a medical condition where my hands can get painfully super cold even in the summer on a cold lake so it is really hard for me to find a glove that works. I discovered that if you wear thick wool socks in a bootie that will make a huge difference without having to buy a winter bootie. However if you want a bootie that will keep your feet warm, the 7mm bootie by Bare will leave you smiling. The 5mm "Omni Red" five finger glove by Bare is also great. However it was not designed for kite boarding so they will not last long. Also your hands get tired gripping the bar the first few sessions but after that they soften up. I think mine lasted about 30 sessions before one developed a hole. The lobster gloves have good reviews but the company that sells these gloves sold out so that wasn't an option to buy for the winter. The problem with a strap on the bootie is that it is just another thing that kite lines love to wrap themselves around. I always cut them off. I bought a 7 mm Bare wetsuit on black Friday for $300 and love it. Was never cold in it and it did not feel constrictive in any way. They are nothing like a Neil Pryde for fit, but for a winter suit for $300 I was happy. Love your videos!!!!

As you mentioned the key point is to be able to get out your booties by yourself at the end of the session. I am not very flexible, and thought sometimes that I will go back home attached with my booties and my wetsuit...🥴 But I can guarantee that it is not such an issue this year, as I am spending winter in the French Caribbean’s 😜😎

One thing to mention about gloves - over or under suit. I would say it really depends on riding style/ability , e.g. often falling with a hand forward will leak more water into suit in case of sleeve over glove. Also some gloves have a velcro. Otherwise sleeve over glove makes more sense, since water will not drain from suit right into glove.

Excellent video as always! For me after 10 years struggling of cold and sometimes ice water kitesurfing, I find the solution for myself. Now I use Dx Shel Waterproof Winter Warm Gloves it very similar to Gore-Tex. And also I heard that it is really warm to use gloves for a triathlon. Do you ever try?

i will stick with my neopren socks together with 3mm boots. If its really cold i will just combine both, for spring i will go socks only and still have a very close "barefoot" feeling. Just need to be careful to not walk on stones or otherwise they will rip

Surprised you guys didn't talk about arm pump, maybe flysurfer bar pressure is just that light. My personal go to in the cold is NP 5 mm lobster claws and Xcel drylock 7 mm booties, the drylock keep my feet dry which helps a lot with cold. Once it gets to around 14 degC I switch to the NP 2 mm open palm mitts.

Thanks! Great video and advice on boots and gloves. I have Atan Hot Mistral 6mm and 3mm boots and I like the “barefoot” feeling. I may be brainwashed to think that because they advertise “Barefoot” as their unique selling point (USP). Would need to do a blind taste test to really know.

Hey, great Video like always! I personally disagree with one trick though, to put the booties and gloves underneath the wetsuit. When I do that splashing water from my board is getting inside my wetsuit all the time. If you have a trick to prevent that I would love to know, but maybe that is just board specific...

Thanks for your video, I tried 5mm lobster gloves but they were not precurved and started to feel pain in my arms after 45minutes of ride due to the effort I had to make just to keep my fingers around the bar. Don't you have same type of issues with yours ? For boots, I'm using the ATAN ones and clearly the feeling is sooooooo cool ! For instance I had no need to keep my board to be able to place the feet in the pads while I had to with previous boots.

You haven't mentioned another option which is open palm gloves. 2-5 mm thickness, very flexible and easy to manover with it. If you fall in the water you can remove the cold water easily and your fingers get warm again within a few minutes. I love them.

Great vid, but from my experience gloves and shoes that are lose tend to feel a lot warmer due to better blood flow. Also when on the beach in between sessions and your fingers are getting all stiff and swollen it's not easy to put the gloves back on and they will feel a lot tighter. Would totally recommend sizing up rather that down on gloves especially

Great video! I use to work in a scuba diving shop for 3 years as a technician with my primary role being repairing suits (drysuit, wetsuit, etc) and the info is spot on. Thought I would throw this option out there... dry gloves! I have them installed on my drysuit (OR Soul) and have been using them since the start of winter last year. Not a problem with them yet and I've had some hard crashes. Here is a link to see how they fit on the suit: imgur.com/a/m0i1p9f You can see the gloves are insulated so they are super warm - my hands are almost sweating when I come back in. The gloves themselves are also thin so I don't have any forearm cramping like I get with neoprene gloves. Only downside is that you have these 4" (or so) hard rings sitting on your wrists. So far they haven't gotten in the way while riding and I don't really notice them, though I have been using them for diving for 10 years now.

I had hoped you would cover open palm gloves. I have heard some people who say they can keep warm on fingers better with open palm than with normal gloves🙏

Coming from Ion Ballistic 6/5 I now have Wetty barefoot pro 5 mm, which are amazingly warm and comfortable (the Ion not at all and the quality was terrible). Also the Wetty boots are shaped like socks which give better control (much better than the split toe concept)

You need to keep toe nails short while wearing wetsuit boots. If your big toe nail is touching the end of the boot then it can get levered off the nail bed. It happened to me during a 6 hour long session windsurfing in May . Well i actually started to feel slight pain in my toes after maybe 3 or 4 hours but there was 24 knots wind & i didn't know why there was pain and wondered it i had stubbed them on a rock or something; so i kept going. My right big toe nail survived but the left was probably a wee bit longer or rubbing more anyway and was loose two months before eventually breaking off. Looks like i am going to survive. I've read that this is a common problem for marathon runners, cross country running in wet shoes or even in ski boots.

Jet skiing in cold water typically 5 MM for everything

When wearing a drysuit, do the ankle gaskets go over the boots or under?

2:45 did I just see three woo3 casings :D

I haven;'t found a good solution for hands for wingfoiling yet. Your hands require more dexterity than kiting with the wing, they're very exposed held out away from your body, and they seem to get cold faster. I don't know if I could wing in mittens, for instance. The only solution I've found that works so far is going south for the winter.

If you take smaller size gloves, isnt there a higher risk for cramps in the forearm? I had alot of issues with that. Now I got 3mm open palm gloves, no cramp, much more grip and still pretty warm (water temp around 7°C). But laying in the water for a long time is cold.

i have a question, what is better for light wind 9m kite and hydrofoil or bigger foil kite and TT?

I noticed you're wearing waterproof?/windproof? pants and jacket over your wetsuit in the super cold video shots. Could you explain what you have on and why? It seems like maybe you're trying to mitigate evaporative cooling? Thanks!

Can I wear 4mm wetsuit and wetsuit gloves and wetsuit hood and wetsuit boots for boogie boarding in cold water

hi

Brrrr! I guess on snow you're using a snow board; not a kiteboard - so snowboarding boots and gloves?

but now the 1 million dollar question; wear your boots over wetsuit or wetsuit over boots? what's the best? and why ?

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I am all about High end booty..... wait.... did I get that wrong?