what do you wear UNDER your wet suit?

we've kind of skirted this over the years, but i know a lot of our members wear wet suits when fishing the coasts.

other than rashguards for the upper body what else do ya wear?

The Hyperflex 50/50 shirt is constructed of 50% mesh skin neoprene and 50% UV Lycra rash guard material. The 1.5mm mesh skin neoprene chest and back panels block wind chill, maintains core body temperature and provides extra rash and harness protection. The Lycra arms, underarms and side panels offer unrestricted flexibility and pullover no-zip design works well with all types of boardshorts and harnesses. Perfect for warm water riding or a travel top for the tropics.

I wear this under my drytop along with one or more long or shot sleeve shirt that is not cotton.

willbd

ok, upper body rashguard. which i think a lot of folks use.

what about lower end? socks, booties, rashguard shorts?? besides trying to help out other members, trying to figure out if this is even worth me upgrading my used twice farmer john to something with more coverage.

ok, upper body rashguard. which i think a lot of folks use.

what about lower end? socks, booties, rashguard shorts?? besides trying to help out other members, trying to figure out if this is even worth me upgrading my used twice farmer john to something with more coverage.

it's 1.5mm mesh skin neoprene chest and back panels with rash guard.

As I spent the majority of the day on the water I couldn't help but think how much better it would be if I could feel my extremities.  Now, I may be new to kayak fishing but I have been fishing for quite a while and have bought just about every pair of gloves ever manufactured to try to beat the chill.  I still haven't found the perfect pair but when I do you will be the first to know.  The question that I actually need answers to hopefully avoiding the same white whale; what are the best things to wear on your feet for a cold, windy, and wet day?  Specifically socks, I have a dry suit, NRS booties(rubber soled), but damn if I couldn't feel my feet for a good three hours.

As I spent the majority of the day on the water I couldn't help but think how much better it would be if I could feel my extremities.  Now, I may be new to kayak fishing but I have been fishing for quite a while and have bought just about every pair of gloves ever manufactured to try to beat the chill.  I still haven't found the perfect pair but when I do you will be the first to know.  The question that I actually need answers to hopefully avoiding the same white whale; what are the best things to wear on your feet for a cold, windy, and wet day?  Specifically socks, I have a dry suit, NRS booties(rubber soled), but damn if I couldn't feel my feet for a good three hours.

A quality pair of fleece socks is what you want

For the feet issue, I'm also in a dry suit mostly with NRS Booties. Never use cotton!!
It kills. I'm mainly using a polypropelene sock liner(or any type of wicking material)
and also use either a wool pair of socks over them that are calf high. Again, any wicking type of thermal or wool sock as long as it has that wicking factor that takes the damp away from those precious feet. A real Biggie is to allow ample room so your feet are not cramped in your booties. Cutting off circulation will always keep your feet cold and maybe numb. If the feet or head are cold, the rest of the body will be and you'll be off the water quickly loosing precious fishing time imo.

I'm mainly using a polypropelene sock liner(or any type of wicking material)
and also use either a wool pair of socks over them that are calf high. Again, any wicking type of thermal or wool sock as long as it has that wicking factor that takes the damp away from those precious feet. A real Biggie is to allow ample room so your feet are not cramped in your booties. Cutting off circulation will always keep your feet cold and maybe numb.

+1 on polypro against your skin under any type of "dry" gear (top, pants, suit, waders...), then some type of poly weave, then poly fleece. Wool is good, but it requires a bit more care than poly. 

Under a wet suit? I dunno I wear a rash guard mainly because it makes it waaaay easier to get in and out of. That's the same reason I usually wear expedition weight polypro underwear (top and bottom) under my drysuit. In addition to insulation, it make it waaaaaay way easier to get in and out of. Took me a loong time and a lot of secret fish dances to figure that one out.

For your feet, neoprene socks with neoprene shoes work really well. Neoprene camp shoes like these work great:



They come off and on easily, have enuf sole to walk on and to pedal, and they are not too heavy. Best of all they'll keep your toes toasty warm combined with neoprene socks. (if they get too warm, stick them in the water) Get the shoes at least 1 size too big to go over your neoprene socks or two sizes larger for the neoprene stocking foot of your waders with fleece socks inside. The Muck boots are the best, but the generics work really well. The low cut shoe is not so good if you wade in 2' deep, shoe sucking mud though (DAMHIK), but its fine in pretty much any other situation.

But what do I know? I live in Florida

...I have been fishing for quite a while and have bought just about every pair of gloves ever manufactured to try to beat the chill.  I still haven't found the perfect pair but when I do you will be the first to know.

What kind of hat do you wear?

My feet have been toasty. Merino wool socks from Costco, then a thick pair of poly pro socks, then waders with neoprene socks built in then wading boots. Sure, my feet barely fit in the kayak, but they are warm.

Thanks for the suggestions, as for my hat it was just your run of the mill baseball hat(gloomis logo).  I see where you are going with this and you might be right.  At the time I didn't notice because the only frozen things in the yak were my feet and a dozen green label herring.  Minus a few that lost there heads.  I think I might give the Fleece a try.  Fleece, dry suit socks, and NRS boots.  When I say it like that, there definitely sounds like there should be another layer.  Just don't know what kind of layer or if I need another layer at all.

Wearing fleece under a WETsuit isn't really going to help.  Wearing it under a drysuit is pretty awesome.  Sounds like you might be having some wind issues.  You could wear some wind breaker gear made from gore-tex or similar material like the Marmot Pre-Cip line OVER your wetsuit.  Blocking that wind will really help. 

The best solution is a drysuit.  I've come home drippig in sweat on a November or December day when it was about 30 degrees out and the wind was blowing 20+ knots and we were trying to troll in it. 

As for the head, get a wetsuit hoodies 3mm or thicker, or a nice Gore Windstopper fleece beanie.  You lose something like 60% of your body heat through your head.

Also, make sure your booties are snug, but not tight. 

part of my question was based on my wearing a farmer john with a rash guard on top but having to commando the lower end. to include the feet which ended up in a cheapie set of neoprene booties and not much else.

is there even such a thing as a set of rash guard shorts or long john style bottoms to go under the wet suit?

Lee's suggestion of a wind stopper layer over the wetsuit is dead nuts on. my first experience with the ocean in any capacity was ORC '08 @ PC and after dunking a couple times, i was glad i'd listened to spot, zee, polepole, bsteves and everyone else who worked with me on what gear to bring... had i not had that layer, i probably would have froze to death on my yak in 70+ degree air temps. 

OK I know this does not sound very manly but, I started surfing when I was 12 and have been diving since the early 70s. When I surf the lining inside of my wetsuit is enough but then you spend most of your time laying on your board. From my diving days I use to get chaffed behind my knees and crotch. A good friend of my who is a master diver took me aside and said "you ever wonder why I don't change into my suit with everyone else"? I told him, no I never really noticed. So he tells me he wears ladies pantyhose under his wet suit and he had a extra pair if I wanted to use them. Well we had 5 more dives planned and I was wore raw so I said what the heck sure. It worked great and another + was it made it super easy to get the suit off and a dripping suit back on. When I dive with a wet suit I ware pantyhose under my bottoms. DONT HATE ME GUYS

ACtually, you don't lose any more heat from your head that any other exposed part of the body---of equal surface area.  The reason it seems that way, there's a pretty goodly amount of surface area on your head---especially if it's bald, like mine!!!

from the debunkers website:

Closer inspection of heat loss in the hatless, however, reveals the claim to be nonsense, say scientists who have dispelled this and five other modern myths.

They traced the origins of the hat-wearing advice back to a US army survival manual from 1970 which strongly recommended covering the head when it is cold, since "40 to 45 percent of body heat" is lost from the head.

Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, at the centre for health policy at Indiana University in Indianapolis, rubbish the claim in the British Medical Journal this week. If this were true, they say, humans would be just as cold if they went without a hat as if they went without trousers. "Patently, this is just not the case," they write.

The myth is thought to have arisen through a flawed interpretation of a vaguely scientific experiment by the US military in the 1950s. In those studies, volunteers were dressed in Arctic survival suits and exposed to bitterly cold conditions. Because it was the only part of their bodies left uncovered, most of their heat was lost through their heads.

The face, head and chest are more sensitive to changes in temperature than the rest of the body, making it feel as if covering them up does more to prevent heat loss. In fact, covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other. If the experiment had been performed with people wearing only swimming trunks, they would have lost no more than 10% of their body heat through their heads, the scientists add.