Are cold water divers better?

[oldflounder]

I think one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that maybe there is a difference in the mindset between the coldest and warmest water diver that doesn't have anything to do with being a better diver per se. I go in water in mid winter with tourists standing around the entry and they will say "Have Fun." That always catches my attention and I'll turn around and say something like "Trust me - it isn't fun -it's more like work - and it even hurts sometimes." And they say "Then why do you do it." My answer is "It's an adventure ..... a personal challenge ..... I'm staying tuned up for the summer."

Whereas when I go down to Florida it actually IS fun!!! Many divers there are better then I will ever be, but I feel like I am a better diver there than I am up here. It is just so much easier and more natural and fun with out all that crap on. As has been said - a good diver has developed the necessary skills to adapt to different diving environments in their "field' whether it be recreational, cave, wreck, deep, technical, etc., etc. Few of us are good in all these areas of diving no matter if you are a cold or warm water diver.

If there is a difference I think it might be that the learning curve is a little longer, steeper and beef-ier up here - but it still boils down to practice, practice, practice to get better no matter who you are.

 

[clay357]

Started out in cold water with low vis. I would imagine that it is easier to transition from cold water/low vis to warm water and high vis than the other way around.

 

[melanie.]

Diving in cold water has without a doubt made me a better diver.

The current, the cold, the low vis, the extra lead, layers of wetsuit that seems impossible to squeeze into for the second dive.. they all contribute to more challenging conditions. Add it all together and it gives me a learning experience on every dive. Take one away and I feel like a pro for a second (Lake Ontario with no current, turns out I do have some buoyancy skills after all)

But you can still get these conditions in warm-water. So it is what craziness that you subject yourself to that makes you a better diver, not just the cold per say.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

Take a cold water diver and a warm water diver and have them each trade places. Which one would have a smoother transition?

There's the answer to the OP's question.

-Mitch

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Oddly, I have better buoyancy control in a drysuit and heavy undergarment than I do in a 2/3 wetsuit. Then again, I have about 2500 more dives in a drysuit than I do in a 2/3 wetsuit ... skills really are relative to what you're used to ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Thalassamania]

Oddly, I have better buoyancy control in a drysuit and heavy undergarment than I do in a 2/3 wetsuit. Then again, I have about 2500 more dives in a drysuit than I do in a 2/3 wetsuit ... skills really are relative to what you're used to ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I don't find that odd at all, a good drysuit lets you establish a highly stable tripod (across the back and each leg) that you can balance like a ballet diver, both pitch and roll ... much harder to do in a wetsuit where you can not readjust your center of buoyancy except by breath control and moving your weightbelt up and down.

 

[drbill]

I've dived cold water most of my life. I always look forward to diving the tropics, not just for the beauty of the coral reefs but for the much greater ease of diving there. I can be ready for a dive in a much shorter time due to the ease of donning a shorty and wearing less lead. It's one of the reasons I've been diving my 3/2mm full suit for the last five months here despite cooler than normal summer temperatures. Some of this is psychological as well... knowing that suiting up in that suit will be much easier than pulling on my 7mm one makes me more anxious to dive.

 

[EastTNDiver]

This thread should be titled as "Are Coldwater Divers Crazy?"

Then the answer from us warm-water divers would be a simple YES.

Why would anyone in their right mind want to dive in their pajamas while wrapped in a thick Hefty bag wearing gloves so thick that you can't feel anything you touch.

Just a joke to kick this thread in a different direction, so don't get your thermal underwear in a knot.


FB-Florida Scuba Diver

The answer from us cold water divers is a big YES too...you haven't lived until you're jumping in sub-40F waters, with ice and snow all around...we're just crazy like that. But, I will say that after a winter of diving in a trilam encapsulated artificial down sleeping bag, taking a dive trip to the tropics is definitely how I spell R E L I E F!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The answer from us cold water divers is a big YES too...you haven't lived until you're jumping in sub-40F waters, with ice and snow all around...we're just crazy like that.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Rhone Man]

I think one thing that hasn't been mentioned is that maybe there is a difference in the mindset between the coldest and warmest water diver that doesn't have anything to do with being a better diver per se. I go in water in mid winter with tourists standing around the entry and they will say "Have Fun." That always catches my attention and I'll turn around and say something like "Trust me - it isn't fun -it's more like work - and it even hurts sometimes." And they say "Then why do you do it." My answer is "It's an adventure ..... a personal challenge ..... I'm staying tuned up for the summer."

I always remember my first cold water dive. It was in Aberdeen, Scotland in February and its was absolutely Goddamned freezing, and I was wearing an ill fitting borrowed wetsuit. Very low viz. Nothing to look at except rocks and seaweed. After the dive we had to clamber up the rocks and cross a field of sheep in our gear to get back to the car park. When we got there, we came across another group of divers gearing up. And the whole time whilst we are stripping down and they are gearing up, I could not stop grinning.

Eventually one of them asks me, "so why are you grinning like that?"

"Because you still have to do it!" I replied with a smile.