I mean, is it really some kind of gear revolution though, or did you just finally stop being cold on one dive and now it feels like a big deal. Plenty of guys run wet gloves in that same water and come up fine, so I wouldn't read too much into one good day on a loaner pair. Sounds less like you flipped on the gear and more like you just got tired of being miserable, which isn't really the same thing.

Kept a cheap kitchen scale on the counter for years mostly out of guilt, like not using it made me less serious about baking. Then it clicked that a scale only helps when the thing you're weighing stays consistent. Flour doesn't. Humidity, how long the bag's been open, whether it got packed down in shipping, all of that changes what a cup weighs from week to week. So weighing gives you a false sense of control, a repeatable number that doesn't actually repeat the same dough. What changed my biscuits was paying attention to how the dough feels and looks, not chasing a number that shifts on me anyway. The scale still earns its keep for stuff like bread where the ratios actually matter, but for quick breads I just trust my hands now.