ZombieZombie
Registered
My wife and I have done about 75 dives- almost all in warm clear waters of the Caribbean- various Mexican sites and Key Largo- and some dives in Oman.
We have tried some California diving in Catalina and it was a shock to dive in cold, murkey water. We put it down to lack of experience then. Today, about another 40 dives later, we tried diving in Dutch Springs in PA. It's a spring fed former quarry and the LDS equipped us with 8mm of wetsuits (2x4mm), gloves,and hood.
However, the experience was quite poor. Although not a terribly hot or humid day, geared up in the sun, everything felt very constricting and claustrophobic. Weighting was a disaster with my wife dropping like a stone and me being unable to sink at all. I ended up ripping off the hood, gloves and top 4mm shorty. At least I could now sink but going below the thermocline at 30' was just too cold.
Our question- is this a common problem that with proper training, wetsuit fitting, and experience will go away and we will eventually start to enjoy diving in these types of locations? Or is it just a 'man up and embrace the suck' situation for people who enjoy swimming in cold chicken soup?
Living in Philly, I hate the idea that we have to travel to dive. The Jersey shore and dutch springs are pretty much our only local options.
We eventually got some value out of our dives today- practicing air sharing, shooting SMBs, and controlling depth during safety stops- but we didn't venture below 30' in a 100' lake. Any advice would be appreciated.
We have tried some California diving in Catalina and it was a shock to dive in cold, murkey water. We put it down to lack of experience then. Today, about another 40 dives later, we tried diving in Dutch Springs in PA. It's a spring fed former quarry and the LDS equipped us with 8mm of wetsuits (2x4mm), gloves,and hood.
However, the experience was quite poor. Although not a terribly hot or humid day, geared up in the sun, everything felt very constricting and claustrophobic. Weighting was a disaster with my wife dropping like a stone and me being unable to sink at all. I ended up ripping off the hood, gloves and top 4mm shorty. At least I could now sink but going below the thermocline at 30' was just too cold.
Our question- is this a common problem that with proper training, wetsuit fitting, and experience will go away and we will eventually start to enjoy diving in these types of locations? Or is it just a 'man up and embrace the suck' situation for people who enjoy swimming in cold chicken soup?
Living in Philly, I hate the idea that we have to travel to dive. The Jersey shore and dutch springs are pretty much our only local options.
We eventually got some value out of our dives today- practicing air sharing, shooting SMBs, and controlling depth during safety stops- but we didn't venture below 30' in a 100' lake. Any advice would be appreciated.