Ironies of paddling, part one

Before nearly every kayak class, students (and sometimes instructors) ask the same thing: "What should I wear?" This isn't a matter of fashion or appearances. It's an issue of comfort and possibly safety. Matching our gear to the temperature of the water and, to some extent, the air is a skill developed through experience and often as a consequence of poor decisions we've lived to regret.
The irony is this: When you're paddling day after day, you don't need much of a wardrobe at all. Every day you put on the clammy neoprene you wore the day before. Every evening, you change into the same pair of lightly worn clothes you wore the previous evening. And best of all, nobody you hang out with cares because they're all wearing the same things over and over, too.