Surfing in Interesting Climes: Cold
Winter surf methodology
W inter surfing made eas-- uh, tolerable.
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Photos by J. Scott Klossner, except where noted
Revised for Winter-Spring '02
Where tideline meets snowline
Any particular gear?
Yes, indeed. I bring a lot of gear to the beach in winter. It's a little safer to leave stuff on the beach, because there's usually no one there. When I give the list, it's going to seem excessive. Remember, my goal is not to simply avoid freezing to death or hypothermia. My intention is to be totally comfortable. I want to go to the beach, surf for one to two hours, get out and change, hang out on the beach, talk to people, take pictures, maybe go get some tea, whatever, in complete comfort.
In summer I bring a little backpack with a wetsuit and a bottle of water. In winter it's different. I bring a good sized internal frame pack with hip belt support that is divided in two compartments. One compartment holds my wetsuit gear and a big towell, the other compartment has skiing type gear to put on after the session. I still bring the bottle of water. Being properly hydrated helps keep you warm.
Wetsuit gear
The consensus among most designers of gear for mountaineers and surfers is that keeping the core of the body warm is the most important goal, as it will lead to greater heat in the extremities. That makes perfect sense in surfing, but some leeway must be given for weight. 6mm wetsuits are warm but very heavy. In fact, 5mm wetsuits will make you feel like Iron Man, and I mean his weight and not his strength.
Bring extra gear and make adjustments
One basic concept I will try to convey, is to develop a sense of listening to your body as you surf over the course of the winter, and to try to adjust not only your gear, but the length of your sessions.
There is an adjustable relationship of the thickness of gloves and boots to your wetsuit thickness. If your core feels toasty, you may be able to do with accessories that are thinner than your wetsuit and thereby gain some paddle speed and maneuverability. For example, with a 6mm wetsuit you may be able to have 3mm gloves and 5mm boots.
Trying to outrun an icy lip
Likewise, you may be able to come down a millimeter in your wetsuit if your gloves and booties are thick, you use a face mask and hood, and the day is on the warm side.
If you feel comfortable but not toasty, you will probably need to go up on the accessories. A typical setup would be a 5mm wetsuit and 7mm booties, and either 5mm or 7mm lobster claw gloves.
If you have maxed out on your gear but still feel cold in the middle of your body or legs, you will have to shorten your session time. A half hour will have to do. Start looking to purchase a thicker wetsuit.
The wetsuit is the most important item.
In the winter of '00-01, the water temperature dropped to 38 in early February and went a degree or two lower by early March. A 6mm seemed to be about the right thickness. I used my 5mm may for short sessions. The winter of '02 was far more tolerable.
One word of caution. I know a lot of surfers who love to get their wetsuits to fit loosely. They want to be able to peel the thing right off, and they don't want to feel constricted. This may be okay for your spring suit, and it makes it easier to loan to your beefy friend. No go for your winter wetsuit. It has to fit snugly. What you want is a nice sponge of warm water sponge-bathing your body, not rivulets of icy water running down your back. If that last one sounds familiar, go buy a new wetsuit and get it to fit right. Try on a bunch of them if necessary. Getting in and out of the thing easily is your LAST concern. I'll tell you how to do that anyway, with a few tricks.
The wintersuit I use for Long Island is a 5mm Billabong zipperless, a design that has made winter surfing much less of an iron man exercise and more like surfing. It is very stretchy and paddling is quite easy, if you ignore that you're carrying perhaps twenty pounds of water sponged against your body. The suit has an attached hood with a visor that keeps the water off your face somewhat. It's good in water down to 37-38 degrees, which is about how cold it gets here. A 6mm might be better in high windchills or if the temperature is below 38.
I use 7mm booties, and again, they're pretty snug. They go right against my big toe.
I like 5mm lobster claw gloves. The design allows two fingers to move independently and three fingers to group together, greatly increasing warmth. I've seen 7mm lobster claws and they appear to still allow hand function, although I haven't tried them.
I also have a good pair of five finger 5mm gloves. They're ok for December and March. These grip better and seem lighter and easier to paddle with.
A face mask?
My experience has been that a face mask makes all the difference. The skin on the cheeks and chin is very susceptible to frostbite or frostnip, and that is exactly what is left exposed in most wetsuit hood designs. A facemask means comfort even when the wind is blowing right on your wet face.
For some reason, I never see face masks in surf gear catalogs. There may be surfing specific face masks but I haven't tried any. I use a neoprene face mask, bought at a ski store. I have always had to cut the mouth out a bit on the ones I use. There are several designs. Currently I use one with the fleece collar.
Face mask is a nice touch. Winter solstice, Dec. '99
Self portrait by Keith Johnson
One strategy I use is to sit in the lineup with the face mask on, then pull it down for the ride. That means my face is warmed up, so the paddle out can be done with the mask up or down, and brain freeze isn't so bad. Brain freeze duck dives are lessened with a face mask.
A lot of the time I keep it pulled down on my chin. Even then it adds warmth to my neck and chin. But when I'm starting to feel cold between sets, having the facemask up over my nose and cheeks can add easily a half hour to my endurance.
What other surfing gear helps?
Add length to your board. In other words, if you are a shortboarder, ride a funshape during the winter. Instead of being in water up to your armpits you will be in water up to your waist. Big difference in warmth. You'll need the extra volume anyway to float you with the extra weight of the wetsuit. Funboards are not as easy to turn as shortboards, but you'll be doing the style you're used to in winter.
For longboarders, if you're riding a nine footer, go to a ten footer. Winter surfing seems to suit a longboard more. I can get my entire body out of the water by knee paddling or sitting on the board, thereby extending my endurance.
Kudos to the shortboard riders out there duck diving and sitting submerged up to their armpits. Again, I think this is a very different winter surfing philosophy than mine, and I will link to their websites if I find any.
It's nice to make that shoulder, but if you can't, huddle up
While surfing in 39 degree water may seem like it would be ridiculously cold, in reality it isn't. You're well insulated in that hi tech suit. You're pretty active, paddling around a lot, and having fun, hopefully. As the water heats up in spring to a toasty 50 degrees, it can feel downright hot, and time to change to a 4/3 suit. Where it really gets tricky in deep winter, and dangerous, is when you exit the water and have to change on the beach. With no car you are exposed to the elements and have to get that wetsuit off.
Changeover gear
This article follows one east coast surfer who has no car. If you are riding trains or buses to the beach, you can follow the same routine that I do. Even if you have a car to carry gear and retreat to, learning how to change on the beach gives you more options and will allow you to enjoy the outdoors more than the warm but cramped changing environment of your car.
Meanwhile, the jetty takes another hit
Almost as important as wetsuit gear is the dry gear that you will change into. Unless you are going to walk straight into your car, house, or friend's house wearing your wetuit, you will need at least some of this. Read the following section, maybe you can pick up the tip that will ease the aching hands that have been bugging you all these winters.
Polypropylene and other synthetics
Here is what's in the other compartment of my bag, the compliment of winter clothing that I have chosen especially for a surfing changeover: poly propylene (plpr) long johns, plpr undershorts, a plpr short sleeve shirt, a plpr long sleeve turtleneck shirt, two pairs of plpr socks, one thin and one thick, two pairs of thin plpr gloves or glove liners, a pair of good windproof gloves or big wool mittens, a fleece hat with face mask, a wool sweater or fleece jacket, and a parka or outer shell jacket. I like boots as they have some air space to keep my feet warm.
I told you it was a lot. But the options give me lots of layers to play around with. Sometimes my hands are colder than other times and the extra gloves help. The change of socks is a good idea. I usually wear synthetic fiber slacks, but wind proof ski pants might be nice.
No death fiber
Avoid cotton. A cotton shirt is nice if you need to cool down for some reason, like you go into a friend's beach house and it's boiling in there. Otherwise, leave it in your closet. Cotton has been called the "death fiber" for its tendency to hold water and freeze against the skin.
Poly pro is great. You can put on a plpr shirt without even drying off and next thing you know, you're dry. The new models don't feel or smell as gross as the old shirts did, so go out and buy some. It's interesting to watch the water wick off. You can have two plpr shirts on, a fleece (which is also plastic or synthetic) jacket, and a gortex shell. The sea water or sweat ends up on the inside of the gortex, beading up and running off or evaporating. Meanwhile your skin is dry and toasty.
Longboards and winter go well together
The poly pro made by Patagonia called Capilene is very good. Get one or two short sleeve shirts and a long sleeve. Also EMS has good underwear and shirts. Hot Chillys and Lifa are other brands that I have found to be good.
How to winter beach-change in relative comfort
First, I usually search for some rocks, a wall on the boardwalk, or some other shelter, and escape the wind. If there's no wind, I change right on the beach. I use two towells, one large thick towell to cover me with, and one small one, a baby blanket actually, to stand on or sit on. I keep the blanket and perhaps an extra third towell in my board bag. This combination keeps me off the freezing sand and keeps the wind chill to a minimum.
Keep the wetsuit on while packing up
If you have any packing up to do, like taking off your fin or packing the board in the bag, do it with your wetuit on. The wetsuit is pretty warm even with some wind. The main advantage to this is that you won't get your gloves wet while trying to deal with wet gear in dry clothes. It may be a little clumsy using your wetsuit gloves, but it's worth the heat you will save.Changing over hands and feet: some tricks
As compared to my experiences dressing for cross-country skiing and winter skating, dressing for winter surfing has some peculiarities that need to be dealt with. When you take off a wetsuit in freezing air, it seems particularly dangerous. It feels like the water that is soaked into you is going to freeze under your skin. It's especially bad for your hands and feet.
First thing I do on the beach is put on a fleece or wool ski hat. I have a fleece one with earflaps and an attached face mask that works great.
Many surfers have complained to me about freezing their hands and feet. This routine will end that problem. The first trick is to only take one wetsuit glove off. Leave the wetsuit glove on your good hand. Towell your other hand off real well and put a thin plpr glove or glove liner on it. The glove will probably get wet, but you can change it later. When you finally take the wetsuit glove off your favorite hand, it'll be less likely to get cold.
A new trick I've been using is to bring some thin wetsuit gloves, like 1.5 mm. They are summer gloves, but for the change and equipment breakdown, they work well, and are warmer than thin plpr gloves. Pull off your lobster gloves, towel off just a little, then put the thin neoprene glove on. Perhaps just put one on and leave the other lobster on. This should keep your hand warm and give you plenty of dexterity. After I'm all done packing up I put on my dry gloves.
Next trick is for the booties. Thick booties can be hard to get off. I bring a shoe horn in case I get in trouble. Usually I can push the cuff down to the heel with both hands and it comes off. Take a bootie off and try to towell your foot off really well. Dry between toes. With the big towell on, you won't get cold while doing this. Next, put a plpr sock on. Then do the other foot-- bootie off, towell, sock. When you take your suit off, you will pull it right off over the socks. You can change your socks later, as they will be damp. The combination of carefully drying and covering your feet and using one hand in a glove and one in a wetsuit glove I found will give you the best chance of not getting frozen hands or feet.
As I take off wetsuit gear I put it into a plastic bag, using the wetsuit gloved hand. Facemask, leash, etc, go into the bag. This handling of wet gear is the sort of activity that makes the tip of keeping one wetsuit glove on such a good one. It's the messing around with dry gloves and wet gear that leads to frostbite.
Getting the suit off
Now, get ready to take the wetsuit off. Take the last glove off, dry your good hand, and put the other glove on it. After getting your wetsuit half off and drying, keeping the thick blanket-like towell over you like a tent, put on the short sleeve and long sleeve shirts. The layering aids the drying process. Put your hat back on. Then get the suit the rest of the way off. The tight suit slips off easily over the thin socks.
A little more towelling and next go on the plpr underwear and long johns. Briefs or boxers? Neither, if they're cotton. Cotton underwear will really drop your core temperature. Go buy some poly pro undies, or just use the long johns bareback if you have to. A sweater, pants, and jacket are added for outer layers of insulation and a shell.
Change socks and gloves to backup pair
At this point you can change the socks which got wet from pulling the wetsuit off. If you did a good job towelling your feet, you wont need to do this. Now the shoes can go on.
Check how you're doing
Now you can stand on the blanket fully clothed and take stock of things. If your hands are cold, you may change the damp gloves for the mittens. If your hands feel good, you may switch to the second pair of glove liners.
If you find your hands have gotten really cold, one trick is to take off your gloves and stick your hands up under your clothing and warm them in your armpits. This is an old mountaineer's trick. They would advise using someone else's armpits!
After the effort of dressing it's time for more water to rehydrate and a high protein candy bar or some trail mix type of snack.
Finishing packing up
At this point I have traded my protection from the near-freezing water for protection from the below freezing air. I wrap the plastic bag full of wetsuit gear in the big towell and I put it in my backpack. It won't freeze and make my back cold.
Another longboarder and some bootie footprints: I'm not alone
The beach may have snow on it. Slipping on the ice while walking off the beach is not how you would picture yourself getting hurt surfing, but at Rockaway in February it's a real possibility. Most likely the sand is snow free but the wind may be kicking up cold sand and blowing it cruelly at you. It's a way for the City's besieged ocean to get in a few more licks at you before you leave. Once you climb over the stairs on the boardwalk, the heated train isn't too far away.
You can find more information about winter gear on Surface Motion's Winter Surfing Gear Page.
