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I gonna differ here
I don’t judge it by temperature
I want;
Sunshine
Relatively steady wind
Good waves or dead flat

2 out of 3, And yes, I’m spoiled

Flyboy wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 23, 2021 2:33 am

. Below 6 C air temp starts to get unappealing.

Agree. If my fingers with gloves on still go numb (and that's in about 5-6C) then I can't be arsed. Would instead rather wrap up warm and ride my FS MTB.

120 deg. F or 48 deg. C. (air temp. + water temp.). I'm older and get cold easily. I now use a 4/3 wetsuit. In my younger windsurfing days I used to use 100 deg. F. Had many days where my hands, face and feet were numb afterwards (I hate wearing gloves and booties).

Also, after your session you have to beware of hypothermia as you are not generating as much heat from exertion as when you are kiting.

I wear a a good 6/5/4 suit, 7 mm booties and 5 mm lobster gloves. I don't use a specific temp but instead just do shorter sessions when it's colder.

This session was -3 degC air and 6 degC water (but the slushy parts of the water were more like 1 degC), I only lasted about 45 min.


Always plan for the swim, not the kite.

Slappysan wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:24 pm

I wear a a good 6/5/4 suit, 7 mm booties and 5 mm lobster gloves. I don't use a specific temp but instead just do shorter sessions when it's colder.

This session was -3 degC air and 6 degC water (but the slushy parts of the water were more like 1 degC), I only lasted about 45 min.


Always plan for the swim, not the kite.

Best answer. Think we’ve tried everything up here in Iceland and what Slappysan said is what we’ve settled on in the wintertime. That and a stripped out caravan with a 4kw Webasto blower as a changing room

We kited today in east central Illinois, nice Southerly wind around 20-25 knots so on 9 and 10m kites. Water and air both about 10C. Short session as inevitably even with neoprene gloves and booties my hands get very cold and painful (arthritic to boot) and my feet get numb. I was warm otherwise with a 3mm shorty under my 3/4 wetsuit. Final session of the local season for me, next week off to Cape Town instead.

Foiling session today on Lake Erie. Water 9 C, air 8 C. 5/4 wetsuit with 2mm vest underneath, 2mm gloves, 3mm booties, PFD with a neoprene hoodie on top. I was perfectly warm while kiting. Little unpleasant face-planting. I've noticed that when you come off a foil you often fall face first in a way that results in some water flushing into the opening in a front zip suit.

What most of us here seem to ignore is the danger of low temperatures and an equipment failure, leaving you swimming in cold water (too) far out at sea.
Even if you feel comfortable in low temps, no one will be able to swim for longer than very few minutes in 5 °C water (unless you wear an offshore rescue suit maybe). Don´t forget this!

Loads of us have had a cold long swim to drive that point home! Like Slappy says. Dress for the swim, not the ride.

I definitely take the cold temperatures into account. I mostly ride the coldest days at the safest spot near me thats shallow, and you don't ride too far from land.

Here's some tips I put together on cold weather gear that might be helpful to some