Here in sunny Southern California we do sea kayaking year round. In the
winter one might have to switch from a short sleeved paddling jacket to a long
sleeved one - but that's about it. I teach classes in sea kayaking and kayak
surf technique year round here as well. In the winter we will typically get the
better surf from the winter storms, and the tourists have all gone home, making
winter the premier time for the more hard core kayak surfers.

As for the down verses synthetic sleeping bag, this has been much debated on
these newsgroups for years. A large enough group of paddlers seem to get by
just fine with their down bags that I have to believe that they do not pose a
significant problem in this sport. The one caveat to this is for those people
who do a lot of extended camping in very rainy and wet conditions. The bag will
get wet not necessarily from being in the boat, but from perspiration and just
general use in very damp conditions and can be difficult to dry out. In such
extreme conditions I have to believe that the paddler would be better off with
a synthetic bag.

Scott
So.Cal.