Today was cold and it snowed in the morning. After last weekends experience with bare feet, I decided to invest in a pair of neoprene gloves and socks. They kept me warm and I was on the water for about one and a half hours. The socks were really good, they were filled with water and it sloshed about all the time, but my feet were warm the whole time. The gloves were not quite as good, probably because I was holding the handle and this would have squeezed any warm air, or water in the neoprene out, thus neglecting the insulating effect. After an hour, my hands were starting to get very cold. About six others were also on the water. One of them even braved it without gloves!
I went over the slider a few times, fell off the kicker twice and messed up two starts. That was when my fingers were starting to get numb. The annoying thing about falling off the kicker was that the cold water had plenty of time to leak through a hole in my wetsuit just under my left arm. I could feel my left hand side of body begin to freeze. Something to get repaired before next weekend. I also fell off the slider as I tried to come off it and land in switch.
