Ice Diving with wet suit?

[Queen]

That's the way we did it in the old days. Wore 1/4" farmer john with hood and gauntlets. Heated water on a Coleman stove to be poured into the suit before a dive--heat lasted about 5 minutes. It was fun at the time, but it would take a very large payment to get me to do it today.

Ditto that! We did our SAR dives that way in the late 70's early 80's, IIRC only one guy on the team had a drysuit. We (being young and stupid) ragged on him for being a wuss. :cold:

 

[mstrdvr]

I have done ice wet in several occations, I use a 7 mil semi-dry with a 7 mil hooded shorty and have managed just fine. Steve AD made a good point about nearby shelter , a portable warming house is not hard to build and relatively cheap. Warm water in suit before diving is another good idea.

 

[DOkie]

That was wearing a 5mm with a 3mm core warmer underneath.

As for the temp, I am completely capable of reading the temp guage on my bottom timer. Where we do our ice dive training, is a very shallow, (17 foot) quarry, with no significant motion in it. The 2 ice dives I've done there had temps of 42, and 44 degrees. As I'm sure you're well aware of, it's quite possible to make a dive in the middle of summer, that drops into the low 40's and high 30's. Around here it's not just possible, it's expected any time you drop past 80 feet in Lake Erie, most of Lake Ontario, or somewhere like Tobermory.

Dont forget Lake Superior!!! I've had MANY dives there in the summer that have been colder than ice dives.... Even Lake Michigan can surprise you sometimes when you've got two thermoclines to go through!!!! Hard to belive I know, but when you've got 10+ divers with the same temps, ya gotta go with the facts!!!

 

[shoredivr]

On this dive http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/228895-where-did-you-dive-today-49.html last weekend, the air temp was -6C (-12c with the wind chill factored in) and the water temp was 32F. We had a tent for divers to change in plus hot water. Of the 10 divers we had 3 in 7mm wetsuits. They survived it ok...

Me, I dive dry.

 

[NudeDiver]

...They survived it ok...

Who wants to merely survive a dive? That's the bare minimum one should accomplish. How about being comfortable, having fun and enjoying the dive? What about making a second or third dive?

 

[Steve in Seattle]

Yet another nod to the "larger" divers.

The major issue between responses here isn't likely the size of their "manhood", but likely the mass of their skeletal muscle.

Muscle produces heat, and even fat cells do as well. Larger men will have more blood volume for retaining heat, and less surface area to volume ratio hense decreased heat radiation losses.

In the Puget Sound, the best diving is winter diving. We never see ice flows of course, but even in 30F air temps you'll see smaller women almost hypothermic with an "average" suit, while some obese men can dive in a farmer john... AND NO VEST. I'm serious, my PADI instructor swears hes had several clients go without sleeves or hoods to 60' without issues in the winter here. He's dove for 40+ years, worked at the PADI college, and would NEVER consider such a thing himself.

Heat generation (muscle mass), heat radiation (round better than "bean pole"), and heat retention (suit thickness AT DEPTH) will all play a piece of this.

Personally I can't imagine why ANYONE would go without a dry suit AND thermal underwear in anything but tropical waters... but I was born in winnipeg, raised in northern Sask, and have had more than my share of -40 weather thank you very much. Diving shouldn't be about proving you can handle a cold spell a FEW MINUTES long. If you really have to have such a challenge, go play pond hockey for a few hours in -20C weather, or live in -45C weather for a week or two every winter.

I'll stick to a dry suit.