first cold water dive!

Hey guys.. just giving the northwestern divers a shout out! Here for a couple weeks visiting family (I live in Singapore) so my bro in law has demanded some diving. We're diving the t-dock kb mukilteo tonight, I think keystone jetty and edmonds underwater park tomorrow..

Not looking forward to freezing my butt off but hoping the dives will be good!!

Good luck man!

Well we just got back.. needless to say it was a bit crazy. Pretty much everything you're NOT supposed to do.. new dive site, at night, unfamiliar equipment, current, low vis.. haha but all in all it was pretty good. Just having trouble establishing buoyancy in a 7mm wetsuit with 30lb (I wear 6.5 back home!) of weight, and gloves where I couldn't feel my equipment.

Luckily my brother knew his way around. We got to see a nice GPO, two wolf eels, some massive shrimp and other goodies. It was ridiculously cold, and we couldn't see more than 2ft on our descent but it cleared up once we got to the bottom (thankfully). It was extremely cold but not as bad as I thought! More tomorrow!

Good for you! You'll appreciate the regional diving that much more when you get back. You might need a long dive weekend in Bali just to shake the chill off.

Almost 14kg (30lbs) with a 7mm (single or double?). Are you sure you need that much?
Enjoy your cold diving.

BB its a farmer john and 30 lbs is the norm, I dive a j type and use 22 lbs just as warm for me.

Racerx, hang in there a couple of dives and it ain't nothing but a thing. Keystone is a easy great dive, edmonds is where you might feel it a bit from pushing around all the weight as you cover some distance at shallow water.

Yeah it was a double. I think The weight was about right..not too bad. Still trying to figure out the buoyancy a bit but way better today.

Voodoo now you tell me lol. Froze my BUTT OFF in Edmonds today.. We were so cold and tired (surface swam out to the buoys) by the end we called it a day and didn't do keystone. It was a cool dive but super cold this round even though water temp was supposedly the same. We did a 50minute dive though and last night only about half that with the current and all.

Interesting experience all in. Totally a believer in drysuits now haha. Wish I looked a bit prettier underwater but saw some cool fish and nudis today so that was fun.. Bali is sounding good

Congratulations on braving the cold water! Our diving really does have a lot of rewards, but you work for them.

I do hope you are using a 7mm Farmer John setup, so you have 14 mm on your core? A simple 7mm suit really is not enough for around here.

A few tips for staying warmer: One, don't get cold BEFORE you dive. Wear a hat in this kind of weather, and a heavy coat, right up until you change into your neoprene. Two, get out of the neoprene as much as possible between dives. You'd think the stuff insulates, but having that wet material against you really doesn't. Three, carry hot water to put into your suit as soon as you redon it (or even before the first dive) so that you won't have that initial "flush" of icewater as you enter. Four, if you are intending upon two dives, don't prolong the first one until you are really cold. Going back into the water with what I call a "thermal deficit" is a recipe for a very short second dive. Remember that you are not really warm until you sweat; just because you've gotten the feeling back in your hands and feet doesn't mean you are really rewarmed!

Anyway, have fun with the rest of your diving here!

Racerx it is colder today, air temp, the good thing is you came at some good vis conditions, we have some sunny days this week so keep diving.

Ts- yeah it was the farmer John.. Good advice on keeping warm. Should've posted ahead of my dives! Ha

Voodoo & all: thanks for the encouragement and input has definitely been a cool and very different experience to our dives back home in every way