I’ll be down on Amelia Island, and I’d like to try a few things we never do when we go down there, so I was looking at these kayak nature tours. Only, it’s going to be at least in the low 90’s when I’m there. I’m in South Carolina, yes, but generally we go from air conditioned house to air conditioned car to air conditioned office in the summer.
Anybody care to weigh in as to how hot it feels on the water in a kayak? Does the water cool you off or not? (It’s a calm, salt-marsh-tour sort of trip, not the kind where you can expect to get wet.)
We kayak/canoe a lot down here, and it can get hot, especially if the tour guide requires you to wear your lifevest (and most of the ones we’ve been on do).
One thing I can recommend if you’re driving and not already committed to the kayak tour, is stopping at one of the natural springs (Ginnie Springs is a awesome). You can go on an unsupervised float, which will last about two hours without paddling, and the fresh water springs are crystal clear and 72 degrees all year round. There’s even places around there that will rent a kayak or canoe to you. Tie a floating cooler full of beer to the back of your raft/canoe/tube, and it’s just about the finest two hours of summer you can have.
Zsofia, do it do it do it. I went on one of those kayak trips on a trip to the Florida panhandle last May and it was the highlight of my beach week. We were out in the morning, roughly from nine to noon. It was hot, to be sure, but if you take along some water and wear sunscreen, you’ll be fine.
Well, I made the reservations without his knowledge or consent. I called the kayak people and asked how bad the heat was on the water, and the guy said it wasn’t too bad, and I asked him to please consider the fact that he kayaks in July for fun and that we don’t, and he laughed and said there’s a swim break halfway through and that the 9:00 trip isn’t too hot at all. But wear a hat.
I wear a very lightweight longsleeve shirt (sometimes) and lightweight long pants. Sounds goofy, but in hot weather, if you just keep them wet, it keeps you cool (er). A sponge comes in handy for this. It also keeps the sun off your skin, which if you were using sunscreen you would keep washing off. Also some kind of cloth hat with a wide brim, keep dunking that in the water frequently as well.
Do a search for green wave forum for lots of florida paddling info.
Well, the thing to remember is when you’re on the water kayaking you generate a bit of a breeze. We airboated twice around the Everglades and it wasn’t too bad at all.
We went, and it wasn’t hot at all. It was lovely, in fact, although we were hauling the kayaks out of the water when the Huge Crazy Storm hit. We had a blast, though - I highly recommend it to anybody. There were even a bunch of kids on our trip and they had a good time as well. Of course, we did have the 9AM trip, so the 2 might have been a bit too hot - 9 was perfect, though.
Only, don’t be the incredibly stupid lady on our trip and take your keys on your kayak, and then lose them over the side. Don’t do that.
By the way, on the way back my boyfriend and I were talking about getting a kayak.
I think most of the kayaking here is scary-ass whitewater stuff, though. Where we were on Monday was flat as a pond, even when the storm was on its way. I’m sure there are some good classes, though.
Where are you? Anywhere there are whitewater rivers, there tend to be flatwaters, too. I like a mix of both. If it is hot, I just “fall in”! You should be able to find a local paddling group just about anywhere that will tell you where your style of trip would be.
I started out just wanting to go down some lazy rivers - but I’m getting quite hooked on whitewater - it tells this old lady she’s not quite too far gone yet!
I called the kayak people and asked how bad the heat was on the water, and the guy said it wasn’t too bad, and I asked him to please consider the fact that he kayaks in July for fun and that we don’t, and he laughed and said there’s a swim break halfway through and that the 9:00 trip isn’t too hot at all. But wear a hat.