Diving dry - What about your head?

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PerroneFord

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Since I've decided to go dry, there is a question that keeps creeping into my mind. Does your head/face get cold?

Most of my dives will be conducted in the springs and caves of North Florida. I already wear a hood so that's not a big deal. But with dives coming up this year in NC and in the Great Lakes, I find myself wondering if my head is going to absolutely freeze, and how my face with no thermal protection on it, is going to do.

Currently, I wear a 7mm hood and of course my head and face never get cold. I have heard about "ice-cream headaches" from diving in bitterly cold water. They say the sensation passes and you get used to it.

So how about it? I'd like to hear from you Lake Michigan/Lake Superior guys. Or maybe from some of the guys or ladies who normally dive warmer water like me, but enjoy diving in the Lakes. How bad is it really??

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
I did some one hour dives in 36f-40f degree water lately. You get used to it after a while, but only to a degree.

My first few dives this year were only half hour dives and I was chilled. Then we started lengthening the dives to one hour. I was fine until the last 20 minutes when I got the "brain freeze." When I came back to the surface, my face was starting to get numb. I could still feel it, but it was as if I held a massive ice pack to it for the last hour. :D Then there is the jaw fatigue. It's hard to relax in cold water, so I tend to clench my jaw.

I wear a 7mm drysuit hood, but I'm still shopping around to see if there is anything warmer out there. A few dives ago, after the dive, I fell into the ice hole without my hood and mask on, and by the time I walked to the car to get out of my gear, I couldn't feel my ears and the water on them was starting to freeze. :D

As far as diving around here, the surface does warm up, but it's usually friggin' cold at depth all year round. Unless I'm doing a shallow dive above the thermocline, I wear the same thermal protection year round.

I guess the short answer is wear a hood and get used to the smurf gloves. :D
 
We did ice diving using Henderson 7mm Hyperstrech hoods.
No Ice cream headach, just make sure it fits really good and your bubbles don't flush water through it.

Unless the water is below about 45 degrees your face wont get that cold. Some guys switch to full face masks on the ice dives.

But thats my feelings, living up north year round I take out the trash in a Tshirt and shorts once it hits 32 degrees outside.
 
I just did 20 minutes under the ice up here, and never had any ice cream headaches. I've done a bunch of 45 degree and colder dives in Lake Erie in the summers, and aside from the shock when you drop through the thermocline, it doesn't bother me. My biggest issues was the hands, so when I order my first drysuit, it will have dry gloves.
 
I was out in 42F this past weekend. I found out I could use another layer up top under my 7mm drysuit. I don't find my head getting cold. What little of my face that is exposed gets cold, but the vast majority of it is covered by the front of my 7mm hood and my mask. I don't find it bothersome....... No brain freeze yet......


Michael
 
do it easy:
I wear a 7mm drysuit hood, but I'm still shopping around to see if there is anything warmer out there.

You could try Otter Bay Drysuits for a custom hood, either 6.5 or 12 mm. I couldn't find an off the shelf hood that fit both my neck and head, so I had them make me a 12 mm. Much warmer now. Water hardly gets inside the hood at all, in fact on single dives the top of my head usually stays dry.
 
I dove this past February in Iowa with a water temp of 37 degrees in Bare CD4 with a Bare tech dry hood. The first dive I used a Henderson Ice Cap underneath the tech dry hood. I did find that I needed to go up one side in my hood when I used the ice cap.

hoods_nh30n.jpg


It was great and kept my head, face, and chin warm but I did not trim it far enough back and it caused my hood to slip around, get my mask balled up and I started a nasty leak that kept flooding my mask repeatedly. I ditched the ice cap on the next dive and I was down for at least 5 minutes before I got over the ice cream headache, it was brutal. I spent 20 minutes down on that dive , surfaced started to talk and my face, lips froze within seconds in the 19 degree ice hut. I used the ice cap again on the third dive after a bit of trimming and it went much smoother but still a little leaking. It was worth it though and I am sure I will have it mastered by the next go around. They are about $35-$50 depending on where you shop.
 
Thanks for the responses so far guys. Fppf, I used to live in the northeast, but I'm fully Florida now! No taking out the trash in a t-shirt in 32F weather. I have done a couple of dives in my 5mm Farmer top when the water temp was 56F. So it's not like I'm allergic to cold water. I will have plenty of thermal protection. But you can't necessarily extend that to your head.

do it easy, I have seen the ice hoods, which are essentially latex hoods that go under your drysuit hood. I'd imagine that they would warm your head up considerably. Also, I have been quite impressed with the Pinnacle Merino lined items and I know they make a 7mm merino lined hood in both drysuit and wetsuit applications. Might want to try one of those two solutions.

I'll be trying a dryglove solution sometime next month as I want to have that in place before my trip as well. I'm sure everyone will think I've LOST it down here in Florida when I take the drygloves for a test dive! :)
 
Jimmer:
I just did 20 minutes under the ice up here, and never had any ice cream headaches. I've done a bunch of 45 degree and colder dives in Lake Erie in the summers, and aside from the shock when you drop through the thermocline, it doesn't bother me. My biggest issues was the hands, so when I order my first drysuit, it will have dry gloves.

I used dry gloves also I my first few cold water dives but they are tricky and have a learning curve. I also found out that dry does not necessarily mean warm and if you do not have a good liner then it feels like you are pressing your hand on a cold window pane the whole time. I use the Bare Metalite gloves on my ice diving trip and they worked great until I left them on the bench and they froze to the bench. After I pried them off the bench and I stuck them in a bucket of warm water to de-ice them and put them on quickly they worked great and were much easier to manuever with. I have not completely given up on dry gloves yet but will definitely need more practice.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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