Staying Warm while Whitewater Rafting

Video Transcript

"You also need to kind of keep your head warm and because you wear a helmet. You need to find something that’s going to fit underneath it, so a wool cap would be fine. They make these beanies that are very specific to whitewater, fit nicely under your helmet and they do a great job keeping the heat in the head there. Hands, it's also a struggle to keep your hands warm so a good pair of gloves is what you’re looking for, these work great, they help your hands stay on the paddle, they’re designed this way so that your hands do not fatigue trying to keep the hands bent on the paddle, they’re already bent for you which is nice. Wool gloves will work fine too, dish gloves with wool gloves inside taped to your wrist are fine out there as well, perhaps not as classy as this, but still quite functional. And then to keep your feet warm which is a struggle, because rafting your feet tend to be wet the whole time. A good pair of neoprene socks will work inside that booties that we showed you earlier. These offer a lot of warmth. You need to make sure that these are on, not too tight, you want all this stuff to be sort of loose so you’re not constricting blood flow, you want nice wool socks inside here would be great, outside here if it’s super cold and then your neoprene socks would be good. If you’re wearing the dry suit with the Gortex booties, then just wearing a nice pair of wool socks or these inside the Gortex booties will help keep you warm and toasty while you’re out there on the river on a cold day. "