I use the Mountain Surf creek mitts too. Which for the guy looking these
are pogies. I can't believe I forgot to mention the Mountain Surf brand.
They're the only one's I found that don't need teeth or help getting them on
like Wilko mentioned. I have some for kayaking as well as canoeing.

Courtney

"Grip" wrote in message
...
Wilko's telling it like it is. One almost has to go through all these
options before figuring it all out. It's good advice. I personally use
Mountain Surf creek mitts, they make them for canoe paddles as well. I
have
buddies who use the open palm mittens and love them, I plan on getting a
pair as well.
"Wilko" wrote in message
...
As long as the water is still moving, that sounds like prime paddling
weather to me. :-)

From my site:

Paddling mittens/gloves/pogies

The problem with pogies is that they usually either require teeth or the
help of someone else to get your hands in them. If you do get your hands
in them easily, so will the water... Pogies are of no use when you need
to scout a rapid, as they stay attached to a paddle. I also find that
when I need to get my hands out to grab someone or something, they get
so cold so quickly that I lose some of the control in that hand. It's
also not easy to get your hand back into them if you need to get your
hand back in in the middle of a rapid. I have a pair of Walmart neoprene
hunting gloves, but they are only used for when I handpaddle in the
winter. The fingers are encased seperately, keeping them less warm. The
fingers cannot touch the paddle, making you involuntarily grip your
paddle harder, tiring your fingers. If you use gloves that don't have
pre-bent fingers, you're also forcing your fingers to push against the
neoprene even more, trying to keep them around the paddle shaft. I also
find that with gloves I can't feel the buttons on my waterproof camera,
which results in pictures not being taken. Plenty of reason for me not
to use gloves when paddling with a normal paddle.

Pre bent open palm mittens circumvent the problems of both gloves as
well as pogies:

You keep all your fingers together, keeping them warmer. You keep in
direct touch with your paddle, keeping better control, and not having to
squeeze extra hard to keep a hold of your paddle. You get to keep your
hands warm, even if you go for a swim, lose your paddle or when you're
scouting a rapid. You don't have to fight against the straight glove
fingers keeping your fingers around the paddle shaft. It's also easy to
pull one or more of your fingers free of the end of the mittens, so that
taking pictures is rather easy.

Whatever you chose to go paddling with, make sure that you can still
find and use the panic loop of your spraydeck with them! BT Regular
David Mackintosh got very close to dying in the spring of 2002 when he
got stuck upside down in a nasty hole and he couldn't pull his spraydeck
with his surfer's mittens.

HTH

Wilko

Richard Hart wrote:
Hi folks. I was wondering what your opinions are regarding
gloves/mitts
for
canoeing in winter weather. natural? synthetics? gloves/mitts?
brands?
leaded/unleaded?
Thanks.
Richard
Whaletown



--
Wilko van den Bergh wilko(a t)dse(d o t)nl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://wilko.webzone.ru/