For some of you this may not constitute cold, for some of you this is colder than you ever care to dive. Bottom temp was 63 and 61° - for me and the average temps I dive, this is very cold and constituted putting something on to cover up. And its not the "oh i'm freezing" squeal, but the fact that cold water makes the shoulder I've had rebuilt 4x really ache and takes the fun out of diving at that point.
Anyway, this past Saturday at our annual Venice Beach Saturday After Thanksgiving Turkey Fry I thought I'd try something new. I had new boots and gloves to break in, borrowed a XXL farmer john (so it'd fit my shoulders, the rest is bunched up), pulled on a hood and off I went for one of the noisiest bubble sound dives of my life. BUT it was fun and I got to play in the water for a while till the cold created ache and took the fun away. I noticed during the dive that I felt far to floaty and uncomfortable (had to borrow a weight belt from a friends son to clip on to create some ballast below the butt) - the worst was feeling like i had a corset on.
For the second dive later in the day I opted to drop the lower half of said farmer John, and because it was noisy, left the hood behind to. Other things to note are that the temp dropped 2° between dives, the sun had moved across the horizon a bit angling towards sunset, and since I was outside all day, probably a bit fatigued.
It was on said dive #2 that I began experiencing some interesting new phenomina I'd not yet experienced without BEvERages playing a factor - nausiated feeling, dizzy or spinning, irrational thought ("Oh.. i can get over this, its just the bottom moving), and my coordination for retrieving teeth from the bottom was nearly farm animal stupid ("Oh.. look at my gloves not working right to pick that up... my fingertips can't even feel it.."). Then clarity.. "HOKEY SMOKES! I'm exhibiting characteristics of hypothermia!" Or at least thats what I believed at the time... I found my buddy, Scuba_Jenny who was also buddies with NetDoc and thumbed her to the surface where I told her what was up and i was calling it a day.
Even after an hour on the surface I was still somewhat loopy with my equilibrium but improving by the minute. I don't really count this as an accident or near miss. I do chalk it up to good training (thanks NetDoc!) and having the presence of mind to recognize boundaries and push limits which may have had this become an accident or near miss. For those wondering, a dry suit is on my wish list, preferably a shell type thats more loose fitting than the others I've seen.
What do you all think? Was I right in my diagnosis of what was going on? Accident or near miss?
Dive safe.. dive WARM!
Anyway, this past Saturday at our annual Venice Beach Saturday After Thanksgiving Turkey Fry I thought I'd try something new. I had new boots and gloves to break in, borrowed a XXL farmer john (so it'd fit my shoulders, the rest is bunched up), pulled on a hood and off I went for one of the noisiest bubble sound dives of my life. BUT it was fun and I got to play in the water for a while till the cold created ache and took the fun away. I noticed during the dive that I felt far to floaty and uncomfortable (had to borrow a weight belt from a friends son to clip on to create some ballast below the butt) - the worst was feeling like i had a corset on.
For the second dive later in the day I opted to drop the lower half of said farmer John, and because it was noisy, left the hood behind to. Other things to note are that the temp dropped 2° between dives, the sun had moved across the horizon a bit angling towards sunset, and since I was outside all day, probably a bit fatigued.
It was on said dive #2 that I began experiencing some interesting new phenomina I'd not yet experienced without BEvERages playing a factor - nausiated feeling, dizzy or spinning, irrational thought ("Oh.. i can get over this, its just the bottom moving), and my coordination for retrieving teeth from the bottom was nearly farm animal stupid ("Oh.. look at my gloves not working right to pick that up... my fingertips can't even feel it.."). Then clarity.. "HOKEY SMOKES! I'm exhibiting characteristics of hypothermia!" Or at least thats what I believed at the time... I found my buddy, Scuba_Jenny who was also buddies with NetDoc and thumbed her to the surface where I told her what was up and i was calling it a day.
Even after an hour on the surface I was still somewhat loopy with my equilibrium but improving by the minute. I don't really count this as an accident or near miss. I do chalk it up to good training (thanks NetDoc!) and having the presence of mind to recognize boundaries and push limits which may have had this become an accident or near miss. For those wondering, a dry suit is on my wish list, preferably a shell type thats more loose fitting than the others I've seen.
What do you all think? Was I right in my diagnosis of what was going on? Accident or near miss?
Dive safe.. dive WARM!