I should have seen this coming. I’ve been paddling all fall and winter to this point, almost without missing a day, and although I’ve got a couple of pairs of boots and gloves that I rotate, I’ve been sticking my hands and feet into them repeatedly for over 8 weeks. And now, in early January, I’ve got an infection on the baby finger of my right hand and on the fourth toe of my left foot.
I want to be clear about this. I don’t leave my wet neoprene sitting in a pile after paddling. I go straight home and hang up my wetsuit. The boots and gloves go on a little drying stand that sits over one of the heating vents so warm air blows not just onto them, but into them and dries them out quickly.
It’s not uncommon for hockey players up here to get infections from equipment that sits in their damp, musty hockey bags between games. You even hear occasionally of professional players who have to miss games because of staph infections they got from their equipment, and they have a training staff that hangs up, dries and cleans their equipment for them.
With the emergence of MRSA infections and their increasing incidence this week’s Tip of the Week is to take time to clean and disinfect your neoprene on a regular basis. You don’t want to risk getting an infection, especially one of the MRSA variety which in its worst form can be life threatening. Unlike the usual Tip of the Week, where I am confident enough in my advice to consider it expert, in this area I am quite inexperienced. There is a big difference between telling people to disinfect their boots and gloves and actually providing them with sound information on how best to do it. So I’d like to make this week’s Tip interactive and hear from you. What do you do to disinfect your neoprene? Please use the comment feature below to tell me about your approach to this.
For the record yesterday I didn’t paddle, as it was -12 Celsius outside before wind chill. It seemed like a good day to pass on paddling and address some other things, like a good strength session in the gym and some neoprene cleaning. Lacking access to any products specially designed for the task, I just put 5 buckets of cool water into a Rubbermaid bin and added a full cup of white vinegar and a generous squirt of dishwashing soap. I then washed one 4/3 wetsuit and two pairs of boots and gloves. I let them soak for a bit, then gave them a good working over in the tub with my hands (infected hand kept dry in waterproof gloves) followed by a thorough rinse in cold water. Then I hung up the suit in the warm basement next to the furnace and the gloves and boots on the drying stand over the heating vent. Things are dry today and smell better than usual and seem cleaner. Whether or not they are germ free remains to be seen.
I figure it is a tricky balance between getting the gear fully clean and disinfected and maintaining the integrity of the neoprene by not damaging it. Again, I’d like hear your strategies for managing this balance so please share your comments.
Once the infection sets in, and bear in mind I am not a doctor, I think you can still paddle but need to keep the infected area from coming into contact with the neoprene. I put a medical examination glove on my hand before putting it in my paddling glove and wrapped a clean plastic bag over my foot, sealed with tape at the top to keep water out, before putting my foot in my boot. These methods seemed to work really well on my last two paddles so I will continue this until the infections have cleared. I’ve also seen a doctor who has suggested a protocol for dealing with the infection itself. When in doubt you should always see a doctor.
So this week’s Tip of the Week is to clean/wash/disinfect your neoprene on a regular basis. Now I’m waiting to hear your tips, so please share them.
Thanks and happy winter paddling!
