Bring on the warm weather please

Just thought I would vent. We had a pretty cold winter here in mid state Pennsylvania. Everything froze solid for a good two months almost. Needless to say, I have a spent a lot of hours on my Speedstroke paddling to nowhere, day dreaming of water.

Recently, the river thawed out but it happened so quickly and with additional rain was a nothing but a flowing hazard full of icebergs and downed trees. Needless to say, I finally got back on the water Saturday and Sunday at my local lake. Only problem was, I had to wade out a little to smash up the ice to get to my 550 onto liquid water! Sheesh

Just thought I would share some pics (because everyone like them). Feel free to vent if you want.

Lets see if I can get the other pics now. Duh

Ok, so only one at a time!

Whoa! That's dedication!
I'm about to head out into the ocean, 4-5ft waves, 59F water, 55F air.
Santa Barbara, CA.

Great minds think alike

I have a very similar setup to you kwolfe: Yellow kokatat drysuit, red NRS Ninja PFD, black beanie, sunglesses.

I almost went out on the Connecticut river around Springfield a couple weeks ago when it was mostly ice free but as I was looking a mostly submerged, almost invisible ice ber the size of a car floated by and I thought twice about it.

My limit for cold weather paddling is around 30* air. Any colder than that and even in a drysuit with thick underlayers, balaclava, and gloves, its not much fun. 35-40* with a little sun is balmy though!

Now if this damn tendonitis would subside before the warmth comes i'd start celebrating :/ That 65* teaser yesterday was pretty nice though!

These last two warm days have been amazing. Now if the sun would come up a little sooner.
This morning went as follows:
1) Up at 4:30am (let out dog, eat cereal, make coffee and pack up work clothes)
2) Out the door at 5am
3) Get to the lake and hustle to get on the water 5:45am
4) Paddle 5 miles in the freaking dark (headlamp for entry and exit)
5) 6:30 get back in car and get to work gym to shower and get my butt at my desk by 7:45am

Rinse and repeat. On the weekends I at least get to sleep in until 6-6:30.

I forgot to mention it was 44 degrees when I got on the water this morning. Felt great compared to 26!