When it comes to cold water safety, there's a huge difference between waterproof gear and watertight gear. That difference boils down to whether the gear protects you when you're actually neck deep in cold water.

 

Manufacturers and retailers are notorious for blurring this important distinction. They frequently promote paddling jackets as a reasonable and economic choice for paddling on cold water.  That's dangerously misleading, because paddling jackets aren't remotely comparable to wetsuits or drysuits. 

 

Although they work fine as raingear, or to shed an occasional splash of water, they're totally inadequate as immersion protection because if you capsize, water immediately floods in - because they aren't watertight.

 

​A paddling jacket isn't a completely useless piece of gear, but its uses are very limited.  It's no good for thermal protection when you're in the water, but it can help to reduce heat loss by evaporation and convection if you're paddling in a wetsuit that absorbs water - or standing on a windy beach.  Then again, so can a plastic garbage bag.

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See Raingear vs Immersion Gear in our Gear Guide