What do North American Divers do in Winter ?

I just got off my last trip for the year but I dont want to wait till next spring or summer to do more diving. I would like to find someplace to go in winter to kept up my skills. of course I'm a diver on a buget also. Mike

Uh.....


Not to be snotty, but, in the winter, I DIVE!!!!!!


Its called DRYSUIT, ARGON, and even drygloves sometimes...

and, if you have one, full face mask...

Its not that bad..

Same as Chuck. I dive through the winter in a drysuit. My gear goes in for service in January because that's when the last boat in my area gets hauled.

I haven't bothered with dry gloves, although that will probably change this year. I stick with the standard mask.

That said, before I got a drysuit, I dove until December in a 7mm farmer john. The biggest difference was that I tended to do only one dive so that I didn't need to sit out a surface interval.

Diving is a 12 month experience. I dive dry year round in New England. Rarely do I use dry gloves and I use a regular mask. Water went down to 30f this past winter off Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Coldest I've ever encountered. Made the reg go into free flow.

Sure the dives are shorter but a half-hour or so is better than not diving at all.

Before I owned my drysuit I only stopped for maybe two months, usually February and March.

DSDO

Alan

Here in the Seattle area we dive year round. Water temps don't vary all that much (from mid-40's in winter to mid-50's in summer) ... and for that matter our winter weather isn't all that severe either. Sure it rains a lot, but that only matters on your surface interval. Winter diving's actually better because the vis clears up quite a bit ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

GotAir once bubbled...
I just got off my last trip for the year but I dont want to wait till next spring or summer to do more diving. I would like to find someplace to go in winter to kept up my skills. of course I'm a diver on a buget also. Mike

Click to expand...

You should be able to find somewhere to dive.

http://www.scubaadventurer.com/arkansas.htm

http://www.charternet.com/diveboat/arkansas.html

http://www.scubaspots.com/Listings.asp?Location=Arkansas

http://www.listboats.com/scubaarkansas.htm

In West Virginia, there is a lake that serves as a cooling pond for a power plant so it stays pretty warm year round. Perhaps you can find something like that closer to you.

You can dive wet in some pretty cold water with a hooded vest and a few gallons of warm water. The drysuit is the real solution when you can afford it.

My virtually bulletproof answer is to volunteer at the local aquarium. I'm in the water at least a couple of times a month no matter what the weather is.

I'm no WWW either. I have a 7mil farmer john. in arkansas there's not alot of place's to dive that has good vis. so maybe I'll hook-up with someone and dive on there turf this winter. i really cant get enough of this diving stuff. I hooked pretty bad now which is a good thing. Mike

That's when Mike at Gilboa Quarry sees my smiling face. Some of the divers up here ice dive as well. I don't as it is overhead environment diving which I am personally not trained for.

I dive in a drysuit, wetsuit gloves, and a regular mask. I just wear a bit more insulation in the winter. The coldest that I have dived in has been 36 degree water and I was perfectly comfortable.

We have a wonderful spring here that is about 70 ft deep with another 25 ft of very thin and sulfurous mud through which the spring water boils up. (You can dive this last 25 ft but it will take the chrome off your regulator.) The water above this level is crystal clear water that is 52 to 54 degrees year round. It's a little cold in the summer but exceptionally warm by comparison to every thing else in the area in the winter. And you don't need a chainsaw to dive it. It is rather orchid shaped with plunging walls, lots of fish and ample vegatation in the top 30 ft.

Unfortuately, the South Dakota Dept of Game Fish and Parks, without soliciting any public comment decided to make it more "accessible". They replaced the pier that extends over the sulfurous and shallow mud banks out to the edge of the spring itself. As a result of this improvement in accessibility, you can no longer access the spring as no consideration was given to diving. And ironically divers consitituted a large percentage of the users of this spring in the winter months.

Come to Florida.
The springs are always 68-72 degrees.
If you make it all the way to the keys bring suntan lotion.
lol