Cold water diving - comments?

fisherdvm · Mar 25, 2007

I couldn't bear the temptation. The ice had just melted off our lake about 1 week ago, so I took my Henderson hyperstretch 7/5 mm and overlaid it with hyperstretch core warmer 7mm. I used a 5 mm wet hood, and 5 mm wet boot, with a 5 mm wet gloves.

I noted that I had great difficulty gripping my nose for clearing - How do you cope with this wearing gloves? Do you cut the finger tips off two fingers?

Second, my neck was freezing cold at first, eventually, I adapted to it. Is the only cure to get a hood that goes under the suit?

I found that I was comfortable, and my guess is the water temperature is between 40 and 45 degree. I might do more wet dives in the great lakes this summer, as the lead load was only 24 lbs compared with 20 lbs when I dove with the drysuit.

mannella9 · Mar 25, 2007

Where did you dive at? Where you from in Michigan?

fisherdvm · Mar 25, 2007

Gravel pit lake that is behind our house - in Troy, MI. Did a little navigation review around the lake... It was good practice to get the kick count and relearn the skill. I got to remember to hold the compass with both hands to get an accurate bearing.

do it easy · Mar 25, 2007

You'll get used to the gloves with a little practice.

You might also find that you don't need to squeeze that hard, as long as you can block your nostrils.

Regarding the cold spots, any part that gets cold will soon go numb so there's no need to worry. Just kidding- a well fitting hood with a tucked in bib will help. But please, for my sake, don't wear a bibbed hood without tucking it in.

1_T_Submariner · Mar 25, 2007

I don't grip my nose to clear. I don't think I would cut the tips off this would allow too much water circulation.

Maybe a different mask would allow more room?

Heffey · Mar 25, 2007

A gallon of warm water poured down the neck into the wetsuit before the dive makes a big difference in water that cold. I get serious neck and shoulder cramping from the cold water inflow when I leave out this step

dave4868 · Mar 25, 2007

fisherdvm:
I couldn't bear the temptation. The ice had just melted off our lake about 1 week ago, so I took my Henderson hyperstretch 7/5 mm and overlaid it with hyperstretch core warmer 7mm. I used a 5 mm wet hood, and 5 mm wet boot, with a 5 mm wet gloves.

I noted that I had great difficulty gripping my nose for clearing - How do you cope with this wearing gloves? Do you cut the finger tips off two fingers?

Second, my neck was freezing cold at first, eventually, I adapted to it. Is the only cure to get a hood that goes under the suit?

I found that I was comfortable, and my guess is the water temperature is between 40 and 45 degree. I might do more wet dives in the great lakes this summer, as the lead load was only 24 lbs compared with 20 lbs when I dove with the drysuit.

I don't dive wet anymore, but I remember the difficulty of getting bulky fingers around my nose to pinch for clearing, especially with certain masks. I have a similar problem now if I'm wearing two liners in my drygloves.

5mm neoprene gloves should be pretty easy, so you might just need practice. You can expect that sometimes the pinch might only be partial or more of a push, but it should work.

As far as keeping your neck warmer, you're right, a tucked-in hood keeps water out much better than a non-tucked hood.

However, you could also add some neoprene neck bands under the hood for warmth.

I made some neck bands for ice-water drysuit diving.

Probably be a lot easier just to get a tucked-in hood.

Dave C

TheWetRookie · Mar 25, 2007

Dive dry, dry suit, dry gloves, dry hood, Nice toasty warm

spectrum · Mar 25, 2007

fisherdvm:
I noted that I had great difficulty gripping my nose for clearing - How do you cope with this wearing gloves? Do you cut the finger tips off two fingers?

Heck no, your fingers will go numb immediately. Having started in cold water I never gave it much thought. My wife did end up ditching her purge mask because she found it hard to grip around the valve in the bottom of the nose pocket.

fisherdvm:
Second, my neck was freezing cold at first, eventually, I adapted to it. Is the only cure to get a hood that goes under the suit?

Better still a hooded vest but you need full coverage with some sort of overlap. A hood with a face seal trimmed to slightly overlap you mask skirt is also a big help.

fisherdvm:
I found that I was comfortable, and my guess is the water temperature is between 40 and 45 degree. I might do more wet dives in the great lakes this summer, as the lead load was only 24 lbs compared with 20 lbs when I dove with the drysuit.

Whatever keeps you wet. To have only had 20 pounds of lead diving dry vs. this wet dive I am assuming that you only had a mild temperature undergarment when diving dry.

Pete

mannella9 · Mar 25, 2007

What kind of depth and vis you get there?

Cold water diving - comments?

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