(Extreme) Cold Weather Diving

[freename]

This morning was forecast to be a balmy -21 Celsius (-6 F) - obviously I decided it was a perfect day for a dive. Extreme cold alert? Bah! I set up most of my gear before I left, put it in my car, and drove off to the site. The conditions were perfect, the water looked beautiful.

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Not long after I arrived, my buddy showed up. We decided to go for it, so we started gearing up.

The first thing I noticed was how my dry suit seemed stiffer than usual. Tighter. Still, I got it on with no problem. Pulled out my pre-assembled tank and BP/W setup, put it on the bench. Continued getting ready. Eventually it came time to turn things on... and this is where it got interesting.

I turned on the air... and immediately, there was a problem. My inflator was frozen, and when I got it to work it started free flowing. I warmed it up a little, it seemed to be working, no big deal. Then I went to check my air pressure.

The full tank read 0 PSI. I was getting air, things were working... I just apparently had no pressure. Then my inflator started randomly free-flowing again... and, well, everything put together I decided to call the dive. I'm sure it would have been better under the water (the gear probably would have warmed up) but if I wasn't able to even read my pressure on the surface... well, one could argue my intelligence given that I had decided to go out on a day like this but I'm not THAT foolish to dive without knowing how much air I have on my back!

On the drive home, I started to think about what went wrong... how I might fix it for next time... all those fun things. Perhaps being ready to get into the water faster from land might avoid my problems - drive there in my dry suit, everything pre-assembled and ready to put on from the car... maybe it wouldn't be an issue.

But is this frozen SPG a common issue in cold weather? I'm letting my gear warm up right now, and will see if it remains frozen... but regardless, I'm curious whether there are any tips or ideas I might glean from this forum about approaching this dive in a more intelligent way. And, for that matter, whether anyone here has feedback on what gear works or doesn't work in such environments.

... other than, you know, just not diving. Canadians aren't born with the sense to stay out of the cold.

 

[Littlerayray]

My question to you is where was your gear overnight

 

[Littlerayray]

When I dive anything below 10c I usually keep my gear inside where it's warm preheat my truck once my trucks warm that's when I load my gear depending on how far the dive site is I usually wear my gear to the site and do a presentation pretty dive check before I leave the house I also quickly gear up and in the water ASAP
Once in the water that is when I take a breath from my reg and only when my 1st stage is under water if not their could be potential freeze ups once diving I take it easy and slow the harder you breath the more air that goes through your first stage the easier it is to freeze up
Stay close to your buddy if you do freeze up you can still breath but a 80ft tank that free flows will empty in less then 2 minutes
If you freeflow get your buddies attention grab his Octo and either you shut off your tank or have him shut it off wait a minute for the water to warm the first stage and then slowly turn it back on again check your spg do some quick math as to how much air you have left and either continue or turn back
Most importantly do not panic and stay close to your buddy I mean real close

I've had this happen went on a dive I was breathing harder then normal going from center park to the gaskin 20 minutes out halfway to the gaskin I got a slight free flow got his attention right away grabbed his Octo shut my tank down for about a minute turned it back on solved the free flow and because I was prepared I only lost about 200 psi

 

[dberry]

Are SPG's oil-filled like some pressure gauges? If so, temps low enough will make the oil too viscous to let the mechanism work properly.

 

[ZzzKing]

My question is, "Are ALL Canadians insane or just some?" 21 below? Sheesh!

From your post, it sounds like you are experienced and used the correct procedures. It was just too damned cold to be diving. You were smart to thumb it and not try to push on through.

In Texas, dives below 60f are considered cold.

 

[Littlerayray]

No in canada if you wanna do any warm water diving you gotta head south and the wrecks up here are awesome

 

[KDAD]

I'm confused. Why didn't you just do the dive until it got hard to breath and then push the lever on the j-valve like usual. No need for an SPG

Seriously, though if you really want to do this leave things in the trunk but in the car with the heat on so they don't freeze up. No guarantee that they won't freeze up on the way to the water or once you get in.

 

[freename]

My question is, "Are ALL Canadians insane or just some?"

I think it would be safe to say that we're all insane. After all, we're aware of what winter brings and yet still choose to live here... (well, some of us... I'm slowly moving to warmer climates myself - Toronto doesn't even have winter! But it still gets chilly here sometimes, I suppose...)

My gear was in my apartment over night; I made sure to not pre-pack my car just so I'd keep it warm. I assembled everything in my parkade (which was still a decent temperature, only -2C) except for the regs. Those I screwed in at the site, and the time between that and turning on the tank was minimal. Still, it seems it was enough time for whatever is in the SPG to have turned sluggish.

The SPG seems to work again, now that I'm back in the tropical heat of my place... so it must be that its innards just froze up. I wonder if there's a way to get around that beyond... just being faster than I was trying to be. Would different manufacturers use different fluids? Perhaps I need to track down a specially lubricated SPG?

 

[freename]

a 80ft tank that free flows will empty in less then 2 minutes

To be fair, I'm not particularly concerned about running out of air at this site - the deepest you can get is around 29 feet. And there's nothing around that might prevent me from doing a CESA type move if I ran out of air. I just... don't like the idea of diving with my gear not functioning properly.

 

[Patoux01]

I'd have checked it in the water. If it doesn't work out of the water but works down there, why would I not dive? However, if getting in the water is tricky, then I'd have thumbed it.

I'll just add this link, to correct the "less than 2 minutes". It's not a huge difference in the end though, but you get a tad more than 2 minutes at 100 feet. Life Ending Seconds • ADVANCED DIVER MAGAZINE • By Curt Bowen