[Ever_Cat]

How come only kayakers get pogies? Rafters deserve pogies too!

It seems that NRS used to sell Oar Mitts, but they are now discontinued (design flaw and poor reviews?).
https://www.nrs.com/product/24561/nrs-oar-mitts-closeout

I recently came across these bike pogies at Wiggy's (please keep the referendum on Wiggy's in the sleeping bag thread). At $100 they are pricey but they look like they may work on oars.
https://www.wiggys.com/cycling/pogies/

A search on Amazon comes up with a wide variety of bike pogies across a wide price range.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bike+pogies&i=sporting&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

The question about bike pogies is how well they will fit and stay on an oar. More research is required on specs.

Kayaking, biking and sculling all have multiple options for pogies, but from what I can find no one makes whitewater oar pogies. This seems like an obvious product, although with perhaps a rather small market.

Does anyone have any experience with oar pogies? What is a rafter with a penchant for off-season boating to do?

 

[MNichols]

I personally wouldn't use these on oars, I'd be too worried about them fouling me up. Kayakers are usually gripping their paddles constantly, not so much for the oarsman in a boat. If Wiggy's makes them, in my opinion they would be a top notch product, but I prefer these for the colder weather.


https://www.sealskinzusa.com/gloves/wp-xcw-down-mitten-black.htm


As I age, my hands stay warmer longer in mittens than gloves, and are way easier to put on and take off than gloves, they are waterproof, but you'll want to turn them inside out and let them dry when not in use.

 

[Will Amette]

I like those mittens. I don't like how wearing gloves alters the feel of the oar/paddle. I use pogies sometimes on my kayak paddle; they often are too warm. They DO let me touch the paddle with my hands, and that prevents fatigue from over-gripping. Do you have that issue when you row with those down mitts Mnichols? I have some NRS neoprene gloves; they are warm-ish, but they definitely affect how I grip the stick.


What I also want is a pogie for the T-grip of a CANOE paddle.

 

[MNichols]

I love them, I have neoprene gloves from NRS as well, which I wear for the big rapids, these mainly are for flatwater sections and lighter water, in things like Hance, Horn Creek, Crystal etc I want / need all the grip I can get when I need it, and these just don't have it as your hand can move around inside the mitten to some extent. I think they would be bomber for a canoe paddle situation, I've worn them during runoff this year captaining a paddle boat and my hands actually got too warm.

 

[Ever_Cat]

I should have mentioned in my original post that I have good neoprene gloves and mitts that do the trick and keep my hands warm when boating in cold temps. I just like the idea of wearing lighter gloves inside of pogies, but this is conjecture on my part since I have no experience with pogies in any circumstance. Hence my outreach.

 

[Will Amette]

There's a guy on my dive team (48 degree water) who wears nitrile gloves under his 5mm neoprene gloves. He thinks they really help with the warmth. I still haven't tried. Kind of poor-man dry gloves maybe, but I figure pretty soon they'll be damp from perspiration so it's uncertain to me why it works. If it does. They would get BEAT UP hanging on to an oar, though, inside a pogie unless also inside some other glove.

 

[theusualsuspect]

There's a guy on my dive team (48 degree water) who wears nitrile gloves under his 5mm neoprene gloves. He thinks they really help with the warmth. I still haven't tried. Kind of poor-man dry gloves maybe, but I figure pretty soon they'll be damp from perspiration so it's uncertain to me why it works. If it does. They would get BEAT UP hanging on to an oar, though, inside a pogie unless also inside some other glove.

This is a common technique in my snowmobiling crowd. Prevents the inside of your gloves from being wet but more than anything they aren’t breathable. They trap all the ambient warm air from your fingers around your fingers.

 

[MNichols]

This is a common technique in my snowmobiling crowd. Prevents the inside of your gloves from being wet but more than anything they aren’t breathable. They trap all the ambient warm air from your fingers around your fingers.

I routinely wear 9 mil nitrile gloves working on trucks, and lord to my hands sweat inside them, seems counter-intuitive to me, but then a lot of things I think won't work have been proven to me otherwise. I have never torn a 9 mil one, I'd bet they would stand up to rowing. I buy the ones I have at Garbage Freight for about 10 bucks a box of 50..

 

[MT4Runner]

This is a common technique in my snowmobiling crowd. Prevents the inside of your gloves from being wet but more than anything they aren’t breathable. They trap all the ambient warm air from your fingers around your fingers.

I routinely wear 9 mil nitrile gloves working on trucks, and lord to my hands sweat inside them, seems counter-intuitive to me, but then a lot of things I think won't work have been proven to me otherwise. I have never torn a 9 mil one, I'd bet they would stand up to rowing. I buy the ones I have at Garbage Freight for about 10 bucks a box of 50..

You sweat, but because it can't evaporate, you stay warm.

Neoprene is actually awful out of the water. The lycra skin is constantly evaporating when it's wet, hence it's COLD!

 

[dsrtrat]

I made a pair by cutting off one end of a pair of old kayak Pogies to see how they would work. Stitched and glued up the end I cut off. They actually work pretty well and the neoprene adds quite a bit of warmth.

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

The ones you want are "Skulling Pogies" made for Crew guys aka rowing teams...

Nylon waterproof outer with a fleece lining. They are for athletes so shouldn't be crazy hot or sweaty and they are designed for rowing so should be pretty easy to get on and off and have the sealed ends that you would want (rather then a kayak style pogie).

I too like to have direct contact with the oars and I've seriously considered getting some of these. I've also had good luck with fingerless gloves. The ones I have are Wool with Polertec lining and keep me pretty warm till they get fully soaked.

I've done Nitrile gloves before too...and agree that they are surprisingly warm just by themselves. With a thin neoprene gloves or some thin fleece I'm sure it would work great.

 

[MNichols]

The ones you want are "Skulling Pogies" made for Crew guys aka rowing teams...



Nylon waterproof outer with a fleece lining. They are for athletes so shouldn't be crazy hot or sweaty and they are designed for rowing so should be pretty easy to get on and off and have the sealed ends that you would want (rather then a kayak style pogie).

I too like to have direct contact with the oars and I've seriously considered getting some of these. I've also had good luck with fingerless gloves. The ones I have are Wool with Polertec lining and keep me pretty warm till they get fully soaked.

I've done Nitrile gloves before too...and agree that they are surprisingly warm just by themselves. With a thin neoprene gloves or some thin fleece I'm sure it would work great.

EM, thanks for that! Those look most cool and less likely to foul ya up than what Evercat posted from Wiggy's. I'm on a February grand trip and might just have to snag a pair. Would seem though that one would need to run a line up one sleeve and down the other like mothers do for their little kids to keep them with you in the event of a swim though, but....

 

[Ever_Cat]

Thanks EM for bringing me back to sculling pogies. Before a GC trip last January I looked into these. I called a company selling these and was informed that the diameter of the shaft sleeve would be too small (smaller diameter for sculling versus whitewater oars). However I just called a sculling company and it turns out that sculling and whitewater oars have the same diameter at the handle. Go figure. I gave up too early on my investigation of sculling pogies based on misinformation. I will definitely look into sculling pogies again and I think this is potentially problem solved.

 

[peernisse]

Some thoughts

I made some once from the shoulder sections of an old wetsuit and some duct tape. Worked fine.