March of 2020 right before the lockdowns.

That is very interesting thank you. I am a fair wether paddler mostly due to the pain opf cold hands. I tried neoprene gloves but found as you did that they were counterproductive so I shall investigate pogies.

I have been kayaking for 55 years and still do 40-50 in a week, on the rivers and sea (Uk) regardless the season … pogies are the way to go … no doubt about it 1

Thank you for this!

All pogies are terrible for whitewater because they interfere with the paddle feel. I am working on an alteration that will prevent pogies from bunching up between my finger tips and palm.

Pogies are the way to go! Had a similar experience my first time wearing gloves as well haha, made the switch to pogies and now I can feel my fingers!

I didn't even know these were a thing until you did this video! Revisiting it now because Southern Hemisphere winter is coming...

I use thin neoprene gloves inside my pogies so my hands don't immediately freeze when out of the pogie to take pictures etc. When pogies are too hot and no pogies is too cold (or maybe only cold going into the wind) I find one pogie works really well - i slide it to whichever hand is cold and if neither hand is cold I can have both hands out with the one pogie in the middle and it doesn't interfere.

In England some people have discovered that pogies are good for cyclists too. And I can believe it. I went out one night on my bike and couldn't find my propper winter gloves. So I put wooly gloves on and put a plastic bag over the top. It worked better than some propper winter gloves. First line of defence. Keep the weather off, wind and wet.

Agree also to wetting them a bit ….

save the penguins!

Ik hou zelf niet zo van peddelmoffen (pogies in het Engels blijkbaar) omdat je er soms lastig in en uit geraakt. Dus als je wildwater vaart en je aan een tak ofzo moet vasthouden is dat soms lastig, ook voor je camera moeten je handen er telkens in en uit. Wat ik vaak doe is vaseline op de bovenkant van je handen doen zodat het water er gemakkelijker af loopt en dus minder koud is. Wel opletten dat het niet op je peddel komt want dan wordt die glad en heb je niet meer zoveel grip.

what do you wear underneath the pogies just in case you do have to do a wet exit?

I think your gloves were too tight, get a size bigger and they should work just fine. I use both pogies and gloves, pogies while paddling, but the gloves are strapped to my PFD in case I get dumped. if you are 5-10 minutes (or more) from shore, you will need something to protect your fingers while swimming.

40-50 km a week ….

Neoprene DOES NOT work better when it's wet, that's not how it works at all. Neoprene keeps you warm because it has tiny pockets of air inside the rubber and that's what provides the insulation. This myth originates the phrase "wetsuits work by trapping a thin layer of water inside". That's partially true, but only in the context that it traps the water RATHER THAN allowing it to move freely. If the wetsuit is too loose then cold water water flushes through the suit too easily, underneath the neoprene, then it negates the effect of the neoprene's insulation. So you need a tight suit to trap as little water as possible on the inside. This is where the myth originates from, but it's not the water doing the insulating, it is the neoprene itself, the tiny pockets of air inside it. Neoprene does keep you a lot warmer dry and out of the water than it does in it. It's rarely well suited for insulation other than water sports because of other factors - like being bulky and not being breathable, but it is used sometimes. ---- Btw i've paddled with gloves in winter, even in hail storms, and never had this issue. It probably depends on the gloves, i use a well fitted "Palm Hook" designed to follow the curve of the handle. I don't like the restriction of pogies locking your hands in place on the shaft. It's personal preference, they both have pros and cons. And don't forget the old saying "if your feet are cold, put on a hat", as you say your body cuts off circulation to the extremities when it gets cold, so if your hands got cold the issue might be that your head, neck, legs, or torso weren't protected enough so your body was cutting off the extremities to keep your core warm.

I'll search online for 'paddling mitts' or something so that I can be sure there's no receipt or bank record of me combined with the word "pogies". A quick etymology search reveals yet again why we shouldn't allow Americans to name *anything* .