what to wear to cut down on windchill

[BajaVaya]

As a whitewater and surf kayaker, I use a kayaking jacket over a "farmer john" wetsuit. Whitewater is usually snow melt and colder than almost any local surfbreak (even when I ran the Grand Canyon, 95deg air 40deg water -- roasting body, freezing butt). A good whitewater jacket has a neoprene (3-4 mm) torso and highly flexible arms, which I find the perfect combo for jibes. Add a 3-4 mm farmer john and you have 6-7mm around your vitals, but 2 mm on the arms. (And it doesn't feel like a black full-body straight jacket.)

BTW the mesh on the wetsuit is thermal conductive so although a 2 sided wetsuit is more robust, a single sided is warmer ("smoothie" in surfer-talk). Better winter surfing wetsuits have a smoothie torso and double sided extremities.

My suggestion: follow carl's advice ie, a heavy vest (2-3 mm, also it doesn't restrict your arms). Wear a "rash guard" ie, fabric inner liner as FredBGG suggests and I heartily endorse a heavy duty rash guard with smoothie neoprene torso to keep you warm as toast -- and won't break your wallet. (I use one at PSC in winter.)

From a whitewater kayaker: Those shells are mainly intended for "touring kayaking" who rarely get their upper body wet -- for that use, they work well. I have found them to get soaked when you eskimo roll (ditto fall off your board) and then the evaporation will make you colder than not wearing one. Kayakers avoid all that mountain bike stuff, that cotton wicks up the chilly and turns your body covering into a wind-driven personal refrigerator.

Given that so many windsurfer (and most kayaker) deaths were due to hypothermia, I am a little impassioned, so please forgive my wordiness.

PS. Best source -- eBay.