Palm Talon Glove Review
After a few Km of down-winding we
had to turn, accepting that the free ride we’d been enjoying was over and now
the paddle would get much more difficult. Straight into an increasing wind,
wind-speed had been forecast for 20+ kph, it felt much stronger. So much so
that standing and paddling hard meant no forward motion, drop to knees and
start to move. Throughout this the gloves were completely unnoticed performing
exactly as they should, I had warm hands and wasn’t thinking about them at
all. Until the wind picked up again and
I decided that prone was the way forward, stick the paddle on the deck and make
like a surfer. At this point I took the gloves off. That was a mistake as I
immediately found out just how cold it was, gloves back on! Again the Velcro
fastening caught on the softer material on the palm but they went on easily
enough in mid river, certainly easier than a full, wet glove would have.
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| A pair of Talons |
With temperatures dropping and the onset of
winter I found I needed a new pair of gloves for paddling. Last year I was
using an old pair of wetsuit gloves that had a bit of grip on the palms but
that didn’t really do the job and I found that the paddle shaft would slip in
my hand when putting some effort in.
Last year a mate turned up for a paddle with some open palm gloves and
swore they worked. His hands were warm enough throughout a pretty cold session
in the sea and having seen some good things written about the Palm Talon I took
the plunge and bought a pair.
I’d normally go to a local shop and try
gloves on but to the best of my knowledge nowhere near me stocks Palm, or if
they do their websites need to be updated. So I bought unseen from a well-known
internet supplier.
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| Open palm |
The gloves are made from a 2mm ‘ThermoFibre
titanium neoprene’, that means is that they feel nice when you’ve got them on.
The back of the mitt is two-tone, black with grey over the thumb, the palm is made of softer material and textured to give
some extra grip. And of course there's a big hole. They have a Velcro and elastic closure around the wrist. I’ll
come back to that later. The fingertip end of the mitt is partitioned with
spaces for the index and middle fingers, the ring finger and little finger are
together in one partition. The thumb is
largely enclosed.
Sizing is always tricky when buying
on-line, there are size charts available that are copies of the information on
the Palm Equipment website here http://palmequipmenteurope.com/content/size-guides
which also explains where to measure your hand in order to determine the ideal
pair for you. On many retail sites that information the where to measure information
is missing. I went for ‘Large’.
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| Look lose but aren't. |
Actual fit felt a little lose in the
quickly-unpack-and-try-them-on-in-the-garden test. And in that first test one shortcoming,
for me anyway, of the Velcro strap was immediately apparent, the elastic wrist
strap has Velcro on both sides, the loop part of the closure. This is
sandwiched between two other bits of ‘hook’ Velcro, a very secure fastening but
the hook sections catch on the softer material that the palm of the gloves is
made of when doing them up and I fear that after a few uses the thumb will
start to look a little tatty.
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| Grip where it's needed |
First use was in challenging conditions
early one December morning at Bantham in South Devon, a paddle in a very stiff
wind on my race board. Air temperature was 6 degrees Celsius, wind chill making it 2 - 3 degrees, it
was bitter getting changed in the carpark. The sea state was ‘rough’ so we
elected to stay on the river, from our launch we headed downstream towards the
river mouth to see the state of the surf. With the gloves dry they felt a
little odd at first, certainly warm enough and keeping the wind from my hands,
I normally get cold hands so this was A Good Thing. Within a few minutes I’d
stopped thinking they were odd and forgot all about them, also A Good
Thing. Then, in the interests of a
through test, I got wet. This was not because I got caught in a sudden gust
that sent me sideways pushing my paddle under the board. Definitely not that.
It was a conscious decision to leave my board and see how the gloves performed
and where better to do that than in some quite cold water, between 10 and 11 degrees Celsius.
First thing I noticed wasn’t that the water
was cold but that the water filled the glove. That’s a pretty obvious statement
as they have a big hole in them but I’d not considered it until it happened.
This means that the end of the mitt fills quickly but then drains as quickly
when you grab your paddle or put your hands on the deck to get back on the
board. What didn’t happen was that feeling of cold hands.
When wet there was a different feel to the
glove, hard to describe and nothing unpleasant, or cold. As with the start of
the paddle I quickly got used to it and stopped thinking about it as we turned
to get the wind on our backs and quickly progressed up river.
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| Grip where it's needed |
Paddling prone is probably outside of the
design considerations of these gloves but it is something that happens, paddles
break, conditions change and we have to adapt to suit. So must our kit.
The good news is that although they felt
strange when used that way, they fill and empty on each stroke, my hands were
still warm, I was really surprised and very pleased to find that out. Conditions
worsened around the next bend so much that we were reduced to walking at the
rivers edge pushing the boards. Once in slightly calmer conditions around the
next bend I was back on my knees and then my feet. As before the gloves were
not noticed, I didn’t think about them once after I’d started to paddle again.
Back to the slipway we’d launched from and only when I picked up the board did
I think about the gloves again noticing that the handle on the board was tighter than usual.
My conclusion – they work. They work very
well in the conditions I’ve tried them. I’m confident that in colder conditions
they’d continue to work and will try that theory through the rest of the
winter.