This is for all you nice, but cw-clueless folks from warm water regions who come up to dive the Great Lakes. No sarcasm is intended, believe me - this was prompted by something that happened today to divers with many, many more dives than I have. It could have gone very, very badly (thought for a horrible few moments that the lake was about to claim a couple of solstice sacrifices).
Gentle reader,
Lake Superior is cold and very, very deep. She doesn't do warm very well. Later in the summer you might get a nice layer that reaches 50-60F or warmer but right now the water in many places is about 39F top to bottom, even on beautiful sunny days like today.
Cold-water regs and good exposure protection are not "optional". This means dry or 7/7mm wetsuits, with appropriate acessories (cold water hood, thick gloves/mitts and good wet/dry boots) and the lead to sink 'em. You may as well leave the 3mm suit at home, unless you plan to use it as an underlayer. Are your regs considered ok for very cold water? If not, consider renting locally.
Watch your depth. Vis is likely less than you are used to for a given depth. A thick wetsuit will compress more than you might expect and the resulting negative bouyancy, if not corrected for, will send you even further down. When your suit compresses, you will chill more easily. You may get narced a lot more easily by being cold. You *might* even end up thirty-plus feet below where you wanted to stop, blue from cold, too narced to notice either your depth or your shaking, trying to deal with your buddy's free-flow while slowly continuing to slide down on a steep slope of rock.
Thanks for listening, folks. I'll step off the soapbox now and let the more experienced among us add to, subtract from or fold/spindle/mutilate what I've just written.
Gentle reader,
Lake Superior is cold and very, very deep. She doesn't do warm very well. Later in the summer you might get a nice layer that reaches 50-60F or warmer but right now the water in many places is about 39F top to bottom, even on beautiful sunny days like today.
Cold-water regs and good exposure protection are not "optional". This means dry or 7/7mm wetsuits, with appropriate acessories (cold water hood, thick gloves/mitts and good wet/dry boots) and the lead to sink 'em. You may as well leave the 3mm suit at home, unless you plan to use it as an underlayer. Are your regs considered ok for very cold water? If not, consider renting locally.
Watch your depth. Vis is likely less than you are used to for a given depth. A thick wetsuit will compress more than you might expect and the resulting negative bouyancy, if not corrected for, will send you even further down. When your suit compresses, you will chill more easily. You may get narced a lot more easily by being cold. You *might* even end up thirty-plus feet below where you wanted to stop, blue from cold, too narced to notice either your depth or your shaking, trying to deal with your buddy's free-flow while slowly continuing to slide down on a steep slope of rock.
Thanks for listening, folks. I'll step off the soapbox now and let the more experienced among us add to, subtract from or fold/spindle/mutilate what I've just written.