What do you consider cold?

[art.chick]

Ha Ha! There are so many people in my local crowd who refer to the waters in Southern California as "cold water diving." Right now is the chilliest time of year (when I went out last week, the water was about 53F) It can get to 65F. Many Californians simply won't dive in CA; they wait for vacations to take them to 75F+ climes. So I thought I was pretty gutsy diving all winter here. I am impressed at how many inland lake divers are willing to cut a hole in the ice & brave serious low temperatures. So I guess I'm not as tough as I thought!

 

[Butch103]

Hmmmm.. that would be nice .....but I made three dives this week and the temp was only 51.8 degrees, not too bad at all really.....the dives were all below two different dams and the spring runoff is still rather heavy ...........should warm up to mid 60s in the summer.......

 

[ads]

It isn't cold until 45f, it's only cool from 46f to 68f and thereafter it is fairly warm.

DSDO

Alan

 

[luckydiver3]

In a wet suit, any thing below 70 is cold, in a dry suit I can stand 40-50. If you need tools to get to it, then it's WAY to cold.

 

[Bobble]

Brrrr... I went diving this yesterday (Sunday) and the water temp was 15°C... but I didnt notice how cold it was until I got out of the water...

 

[kodiak]

I lived and dove in Kodiak for years, average water temp was 36-38 degrees, and could get colder in winter. Salt water freezes at 28 f and ive been in w/ice and snow on top. Never been in a dry suit.

 

[hoochykoochy]

Did my OW dives in water that was 7 deg C, in a 7mm wetsuit. Standing waiting to enter the water the hailstones were actually hurting my face. It was a relief to get in the water!!

 

[Blargh]

Originally posted by hoochykoochy
Did my OW dives in water that was 7 deg C, in a 7mm wetsuit. Standing waiting to enter the water the hailstones were actually hurting my face. It was a relief to get in the water!!

nice where was that then ? Stoney ?

 

[WisGal]

my lips felt like they were being poked with end of a needle and then they went numb. Thank goodness it only lasted for a minute or 2 then went above the thermocline. I believe the temp was between 35 and 40.

 

[dc4bs]

Hmm... My coldest was in January. Cold snap in NJ got air temps down in the teens and very windy. The water was high 30s to low 40s and we went in wetsuits. I dove with a .5 Ml 'microprene' suit under a 7/5 goldcore suit.

My new drysuit I had orded 7-8 weeks earlier FINALY showed up at my LDS that week and I dove in that for the rest of the winter. Yeah! (what I'm wearing in my prfile pic)

We were pouring hot water into or wetsuits before the dive and had to be carefull walking around the cars as the water coming out around our ankles was freezing almost as soon as it hit the ground.

Three of us dove wet and one dry that day. The one dry thought we were nuts and we agreed He couldn't believe we stayed in almost 1/2 an hour (it felt warmer IN the water).

We left the cars running with the heat on full blast while we dove and had towels on the seats so when we came out, we dumped the gear in the plastic tubs in the back of my blazer and just jumped straight in and headed for hot showers at home.

I don't plan on ever doing that again but it was quite 'interesting' to do ONCE.
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