enguin:This will be my third winter certified. The first I was acquiring gear and did my "diving" in the pool
ooldive:at the Y sitting in on classes with the instructor's permission. The second year I tried to get out every weekend weather permitting. The coldest day :cold:I had was at Rockport Back Beach - late January, 26* air, 37* water at 25', 4" snow on the ground. I used a Henderson 7/5 with a polyolefin dive skin and a 1.5mm pants and hooded chicken vest against the skin. I'm looking forward to the coming winter for several reasons:
[1] No trap lines in the water to get hung up on.
[2] No lobstermen watching your every move.
[3] No overhead boat activity to worry about when you get away from shore
[4] You have the waters to yourself - very few other divers out there
[5] Parking is no problem - very few tourists or even locals to compete with
[6] It is good to keep up your skills for when the 'diving season" starts again
[7] The plant life all dies back and most of the critters head to deeper water so there is not much to see in that department. But that allows you to see the ocean floor again without all that vegetation hiding it.
[8] Which allows me to create reference marks on the floor for future diving. I will put rocks on top of other rocks, make little ciarns[sp?], align cinderblocks in a certain direction. Of course by mid-summer they are all buried under vegetation again or destroyed by big storms.
[9] With the vegetation gone it is a great time to hunt for all those lost fishing weights in the shallows [lead is almost $4 a pound!] and even an occasional lure in good shape.
[10] Winter diving gives me a reason to keep up my exercising program at the gym. You need strong legs for shore diving around here.
[11] It gets me out of the house on those dreary mid-winter days.
[12] Like somone just said a few posts back - if you can learn to dive in Maine winter conditions you can probably get along most anywhere the rest of the year.
[13] Someday I want to dive Newfoundland and this is good practice.
[14] Many ocean residences are boarded up for the winter so you don't get harrassed for diving in front of their homes or walking through their yards.
[15] The viz is much better in the winter. Instead of the usual summer viz of 10-20' norm, it gets to 15-30' norm.
[16] My dives are shallow in the winter -I won't go below 40' for fear of a free flow. I can get a long time out of my steel 100 in the shallows. One long dive is enough for me - diving and all that goes with it can be exhausting !
I could probably think of a lot of other reasons but I have to get to the gym and then to work.........Joe
