TheKrikkitWars wrote:Seriously, MTFU and accept the minor risk of injury...
I dont know about you but when i scrape my knuckle paddling, its usually in the same places due to how i hold my paddle and how i brace. When doing a lot of creeking the scrape continues to bust open IF it gets hit. If the minor wound is constantly open and getting wet in rivers, the chance of staph infection is greatly increased. Staph and/or MRSA that gets a little out of control on an extremity as small as a finger could easily lead to AMPUTATION of that digit. I dont know about you but in my time of paddling and raft guiding i've seen and heard of many bad cases of staph.....MTFU?, i think id rather pay $15 and save my self the pain, I'll Man up when its time to run some $HIT!
(BTW, I am not saying that you are gonna get staph infection if you dont protect you fingers, i havent worn gloves for 3 years and havent gotten it...just saying its possible...and could be far from minor
TheKrikkitWars wrote:Seriously, MTFU and accept the minor risk of injury...
Yeah each its own but I don't see that as a very smart answer either. He who's name shall remain unspoken would have said something like "girls" everytime someone would bring the topic of protective gears.
BTW I am also looking at buying elbow pads and the last time I was stucked flipped on my offside in shallow water waiting for a deeper spot to pass under the boat and roll I did hurt my elbow a couple times the pain wasn't so bad really but my drysuit got a pretty bad tear I still have to patch a better way. Just for that I am also ready to wear some padding at the price these suits are let alone the blood underneath.
i don't like to wear gloves because of the loss of dexterity, though i definately loose knuckle skin from time to time. It's just a risk i'm willing to take.
icold weather paddling is nice because i wear a pogie on the paddle shaft and that thing is great for punching rocks.
I always wear elbow pads though, that go to my wrists (661 2x4). and usually use my forearm rather than my shaft hand to brace off of rocks.
i don't like to wear gloves because of the loss of dexterity, though i definately loose knuckle skin from time to time. It's just a risk i'm willing to take.
That's why I think a slightly armored pogie would be the bizness, you can feel your paddle with Bare hands and the 'armor' on the pogie would protect the neoprene and your knucks. And you'd have warm(er) hands!
I should probably have said "I'm seeing a solution which is massively out of proportion to the problem here..." But that lacks the acerbic laconism of "MTFU".
I don't have a problem with protective gear, I use elbowpads from time to time (and my arms have the scars from when I've forgotten that I'm not wearing them). But is it really that hard to see a rock coming and hand it off or take it to the elbow/forarm where your pads are rather than smack your knuckles into it?
I'm really struggling to see the point in knuckle protection, even on very shallow rivers knuckle scrapes are pretty dam uncommon, unless you're regularly running things on your head using your hands and paddles as a face-guard; In which case working on running things right side up would make more sense than buying gloves.
And as for staph infections:
Always clean and [if appropriate] dress any wounds asap, no matter how trivial they seem (My personal favourate has been to irrigate with saline, dry and apply povidone iodine as it tends to dessicate the wound, causing it to seal quicker, for larger wounds that would scar, hydrocolloid dressings are the bomb, and offer far better protection from water ingress than any normal dressing).
Check for inflammation, redness, heat and weeping on the site of any wounds that haven't been cleaned and see a doctor if you see anything unusual and its pretty certain you'll catch them before it progresses to requiring even minor surgical intervention, let alone amputation*;
*That's only usually a problem with deep fleshwounds or infections which have been left untreated; as Necrotising Fasciitis requires penetration past the skin into the interior tissues; and even then Amputation is only indictated if penetration of necrotic tissue reaches close to the bone with the associated risk of bloodborne infection, usually debridement and antibiotics are sufficent.
Joshua Kelly - "More George Smiley than James Bond"
CBoats Moderator - Not necessarily representing the CBoats staff though...(I'll use words like "moderator", "We" and "CBoats" to make it clear when I am)
I've busted my knuckles a number of times on shallow stuff, typically where a low brace meets rock instead of water, or more particularly where my shaft hand knuckles meet rock. That has been one place where the bent shaft on my "Climax" (Maxwell Johnston) paddle has really made a difference - the bend has your grip behind the main axis of the shaft.
sbroam wrote:I've busted my knuckles a number of times on shallow stuff, typically where a low brace meets rock instead of water, or more particularly where my shaft hand knuckles meet rock. That has been one place where the bent shaft on my "Climax" (Maxwell Johnston) paddle has really made a difference - the bend has your grip behind the main axis of the shaft.
Good point. A budy told me also that when he rolls on shallow stuff he opens its shaft hand, pushing only with the palm. He doesn't wear gloves.
Each its own; I'll rather have gloves on and keep a solid grip there myself.
I used to have a thing for wearing gloves paddling but that has all changed in the last year. I really appreciated thin gloves in Mexico this winter, 1 to protect my hands from the sun and 2 I got a wicked blister first day trying to shaft wrap.
And then really thought about ordering some good creek gloves after loosing a big deep chunk of skin and flesh off my thumb nuckle this July. It was over 2 months ago and just finishing healing up now. It has bothered me all summer and it was just a quick touch on a rock during a must make roll.
I have not found any chicks that dig scars and my hands are full of em from pulling wrenches, and general abuse and the last fight I was in was 20 years ago in high school
take it from someone with a large scar on my t-grip hand thumb....
if you're jacking your hand up regularly you aren't paddling very well. sorry, but it's true. everyone gets banged up occasionally, but if you're constantly busting your thumb open, you probably aren't styling things.
like i said, i have a big flat spot on my right thumb, where on my left the wrinkles are. it's not from styling rapids...
(The Thor Quadrant elbow gards are also some of the best and at $25 a pair can't be beat)
Acosi man thanks for posting this!
I was on the look and finally just got both of these gloves and elbow pad delivered this week. They are great!
Just from the picture I thought the gloves would be a bit bulky / overpadded and I was looking at using them only for the more hardcore runs, but no they feel very comfy, flexible and thin, the plastic rubbery pads are integrated in the fabric so they don't move or anything. No robocop feeling I think I might very well use them just anywhere I paddle now. Silicon grip dots in the palm look more though then the grip on the MEC paddling gloves I used for past three years that was peeling off quick, at about the same price.
Elbow feels good, nothing so special but at that price i'm still impressed.
right after i posted this i said to myself...'someones gonna tell me to stay up' 
