Freezing My Ass Off...

[Stoo]

I haven't read this entire thread, so this has no doubt been said 50 times already, but go dry. There really is no comparison.

I used to explain a drysuit to students like this: Wearing a drysuit is like standing in your living room when there's a raging blizzard outside. You touch the window and you can feel the cold out there, but it's no big deal. A wetsuit is like standing outside in that storm. Every puff of wind is sucking the heat right out of you and no matter how good the wetsuit is, you are still immersed in that "blizzard".

So get yourself a drysuit and enjoy diving. Really, you'll wonder how you lived without it. (Our water is currently 37° - 38* currently. We have six dives planned for the weekend, almost all of them greater than 100' deep. Try that in a wetsuit.

 

[Neilwood]

People do dive in 8 deg C water in a 7. I have.

I think Lowviz was restating the OP's self confessed low tolerance for cold as per the fist post of the thread.

@lowviz thanks for that - think I might have to look at the thicker hotwool though.

One thing to try to do if a new suit (dry or wet) is not an option due to time is to minimise flushing of the current suit. Make sure that gloves/booties/hood are sufficiently thick and either tucked over or under the relevant openings in the suit - that makes the zip the one remaining point for flushing. Wearing a rashvest/shorts/underarmour etc might help as well.

One thing a number of divers I have watched is to use latex gloves within their neoprene diving gloves - provides a barrier to flushing next to the skin for not much money.

 

[lowviz]

People do dive in 8 deg C water in a 7. I have.

I'm quite aware of that, l'il girls do too. See pic.

@OP:
You asked for advice. You are heading into fundies with precious few dives, gear issues, and environmental protection issues.

Advice: Postpone your course.

"Just show up, you'll be fine." You won't be fine. I've taken and done well in many courses but did two epic fails on high-standards skills based courses. Two different instructors, one I'll never return to and for the other, I can't wait to get back.

"I'll just try harder, give it 110%" Forget it. All the trying that you can possibly come up with doesn't equal half a dollop of muscle memory. Time to get out of Dodge. Come back when you have a few bullets and you are on a horse you can control.

 

[Stoo]

People do dive in 8 deg C water in a 7. I have.

They do all the time here... and much colder. They're using farmer johns of course and the trimmings.

You can recognize them because they only come out in July and August, dive short and shallow mostly and they shiver a lot.

 

[Stoo]

Warm water to pour into the suit is a help...

There is some debate about this. The introduction of warm water prior to a dive causes vasodilation of course, and it likely isn't going to stay in the suit. The diver jumps into cold water, with dilation galore, and no hot water remaining in his/her suit. I can't see that being helpful.

 

[TMHeimer]

There is some debate about this. The introduction of warm water prior to a dive causes vasodilation of course, and it likely isn't going to stay in the suit. The diver jumps into cold water, with dilation galore, and no hot water remaining in his/her suit. I can't see that being helpful.

This would fall in line with what I think I read about being more physically active diving being counterproductive regarding heat loss (whereas on land it helps greatly). I may agree that it could help if used between dives and not immediately re-entering the water, and of course after you're done for the day.

 

[BRT]

They do all the time here... and much colder. They're using farmer johns of course and the trimmings.

You can recognize them because they only come out in July and August, dive short and shallow mostly and they shiver a lot.

I've done it in a single layer 7mm. With ice on the log I sat on to suit up. You can do the first dive but the second is no fun for me. I like my drysuit and I love coming out of the water into the winter air and pushing the inflater button.

 

[Storker]

@Neilwood (and the OP if they decide to go dry): while some kind of good topside (wool) undergarments are just fine for a neo suit, it just doesn't cut it with trilams. In cold water you need a proper diving undersuit with a trilam. I've seen people improvise with fleece made for topside use, but that's very suboptimal.

Now what brand and model that undersuit would be is a whole 'nother can of worms I won't open here. I use a 200g thinsulate/fleece thing and am fine with that. However, I use and would strongly recommend a good thin wool set underneath as a base layer, due to the superior properties of wool if you get damp or wet¹. That's where the wool netting is pure genius, but a polypropylene netting set with thin merino outside might do the trick as well. If you're still getting a little chilly, layer between your base layer and your undersuit. The torso is most important since that's your biggest surface. I layer with wool terry, and I have a 200g set: longs, crewneck shirt and short sleeve T-shirt. That gives me flexibility, and I've been fine in 4C water for 45-55 minutes with that setup.

The last two things to be aware of is to have a good, thick, really snug hood (I have the Waterproof 5/10mm) as has already been mentioned and not running your suit too tight. While it's generally advised to use minimum air in your DS, no undergarments can do their job if there's no air in them. It's the air that insulates, not the garment itself; its job is just to keep the air in place. That balance is something every diver must find for themself. I use a couple of kilos extra in the winter to accommodate that extra air I need to stay warm, and I'm not the only one who does that.

EDITED TO ADD:
¹ I've had a few rather wet DS dives due to my dryglove rings being a little finicky and prone to leakage. Even being soaking wet up to my shoulder hasn't made my dives really cold, in ~6C water and with run times of 30-45 minutes. On one of those dives, we had a half-hour ride back to the shore in an open boat, with around freezing temps and snow in the air. My left hand was dripping all over the deck for the whole ride from water slowly leaking out of my soaking wet left arm, and I wrung my glove liner three times to get out the water which soaked down into it from my undersuit. Still just moderately uncomfortable. I'm pretty certain that this was because of my wool netting base layer that doesn't cling and keeps some air next to my skin even when soaked, and that I'm always using wool glove liners. I'm a great fan of good wool underwear. Plus good insulation on the core and the head.

 

[diver 85]

I'm looking for suggestions on how to stay warmer when diving. I live and mostly dive in So Cal.

I'm a real cold weather wimp.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Move to the Caribbean--the REAL Caribbean...........

 

[2airishuman]

I'm looking for suggestions on how to stay warmer when diving. ..

We were diving in about 56F water, but we were doing Reef Check, which meant long dives (~50 mins to 1 hr) and we were barely moving around. I got cold to the point of it probably being dangerous, and I just could not warm up on the surface intervals. Others on the boat were cold, too, but I think I had it the worst. I was just shivering a lot and people kept asking if I was okay.

I live in Minnesota and dive local lakes. This week I was in Canada on a fishing trip and did a 40' dive at 46 degrees, that lasted almost an hour. I was plenty warm. I have a 7mm freediving wetsuit from freedivestore.com. Two piece, no zippers, integral hood, unlined. Cost less than $300. I'm going to get a dry suit someday after I have a dive where I am cold, which hasn't happened yet.

My advice is to look at the freediving suits if you want a wet suit that will deliver the maximum amount of warmth. They are somewhat more difficult to don and doff than scuba-oriented wetsuits -- you and the suit have to be wet and it helps to use some sort of lubricant. I use hair conditioner.

I do not get cold easily, so you might not get the same results. Fwiw.

I think wetsuits are great. Nobody ever had to call a dive because the wrist seals on their wetsuit were leaking. Nobody ever has a problem with P valve sticking in a wetsuit. I don't have any problems self-donning my wetsuit. etc.