12 year old son getting too cold,so cal,water temp

[saintsfan]

55-58 deg. i am trying to figure out the best way to keep him warm,he can last only about 20 min then its time to head in.I am leaning towards a 2 mil shorty under a 7 mil wetsuit and of course a hood,I am using rental wetsuits for him so he wont outgrow them every 6-8 months so i am limited there.any suggestions would be appreciated,any ideas on how to keep your face warmer I dont have any ideas for that

 

[scubasean]

55-58 deg. i am trying to figure out the best way to keep him warm,he can last only about 20 min then its time to head in.I am leaning towards a 2 mil shorty under a 7 mil wetsuit and of course a hood,I am using rental wetsuits for him so he wont outgrow them every 6-8 months so i am limited there.any suggestions would be appreciated,any ideas on how to keep your face warmer I dont have any ideas for that

Are the wetsuits he is using 7mm with a vest of some sort? What part(s) of his body are getting cold?

My 15 yr old uses a Henderson Hyperstretch that seems to fit well enough, but he says that the rental suits (which fit less nicely) are warmer for him...It is his arms that are cold to him. We dive is water just a slight bit colder than what you are diving in, at Monterey.

When he is cold, is he wearing gloves, boots, and a hood? Not sure about how to keep the front of your face warmer...assuming he is already wearing a hood.

 

[TKOS]

If he can get a shorty under that wetsuit then it is probably a case of being too lose and letting to much water flow through it. Since you don't want to invest in a custum suit (makes sense for a 12 yo) then adding another layer that is hopefully tighter might help. Worth a try anyway since it is just rental equipment.

 

[Diver Lori]

Face. I drysuit dive in BC & the Great Lakes. I apply a thick facial nightcream to my face immediately before hitting the water. Rub it in well and it does help quite a bit, especially with chapping afterwards. Keep in mind there are ingredients in the face cream that will degrade your mask skirt over time.

 

[IBKuz]

maybe two and fill it with hot water. Bring a food cooler also. At site, pour hot water in food cooler and place your boots, gloves and hood into the cooler with the warm water. Bring a thermos of soup broth or herbal tea and have a cup before diving (this might not be good for people who get sick easily, you can even use just hot water). Just before you dive, put on warm equipment and go right in (you can also pour some of the water in his suit, just make sure the water is not too hot, warm is better). When you come out, have some more hot liquids, this should allow him to stay in the water longer. We do this up north in the spring and fall and it seems to do the trickfor me. As to a cold face I have no tricks for that.

As a side note my wet suit is a full 7mm, with a full 7mm shorty with hood (I'm a bit of a wus when it comes to cold but I don't mind a bit of the restrictive nature of so much neoprene as long as I'm warm). Maybe you can look around at different LDS to see if they have any.

Ian

 

[saintsfan]

If he can get a shorty under that wetsuit then it is probably a case of being too lose and letting to much water flow through it. Since you don't want to invest in a custum suit (makes sense for a 12 yo) then adding another layer that is hopefully tighter might help. Worth a try anyway since it is just rental equipment.

thats part of the problem he's pretty thin so the wet suit suit i rent for him fits him best but not perfect thats why i am thinking a shorty underneath th help fill in the voids

 

[saintsfan]

Are the wetsuits he is using 7mm with a vest of some sort? What part(s) of his body are getting cold?

My 15 yr old uses a Henderson Hyperstretch that seems to fit well enough, but he says that the rental suits (which fit less nicely) are warmer for him...It is his arms that are cold to him. We dive is water just a slight bit colder than what you are diving in, at Monterey.

When he is cold, is he wearing gloves, boots, and a hood? Not sure about how to keep the front of your face warmer...assuming he is already wearing a hood.

his face,chest, back,arms and legs or every where get cold,i do think its too much flow in the wet suit and a shorty will help snug it up

 

[TKOS]

I hope it works. It doesn't help not having any body fat. I know I am pretty skinny and without a proper fiting suit I would get cold pretty darn quick.

 

[Hobbs]

any suggestions would be appreciated,any ideas on how to keep your face warmer I dont have any ideas for that

Apart from the obvious facemask wich I would not recomend, there is a little rubber "thing" you can attach to your regulator. It presses against your lips, isolating them from the cold water. the one I have is made by aqualung and i think they supplied them with their glacia second stage...
but you could easily make one out of rubber or neoprene yourself.

also I use a coke bottle or equivalent to fill it up with warm water to bring with me on wetsuit dives.. it normally holds enough heat to be useful on a dive to pour warm water in your suit before the dive..

good luck

 

[Scubaroo]

Don't forget that as a 12 year old your son probably is a much smaller person, and just has smaller reserves of body heat to fend off the cold! So if you're trying to extend his dives to times that *you* can tolerate, you might be simply pushing or extending his body's ability to stay warm, regardless of how much insulation you throw at the problem. Best of luck, wish my Dad had introduced me to scuba at such an age!