Are cold water divers better?

[VooDooGasMan]

Hank you spearfish, that is a whole different love of warm water. Cold water spearfishing is not even close to what you have, If you did not have so many days to spearfish you would learn to like the conditions.

With America the way it is, I think if I leave I will never come back ever. I could spearfish everyday where you live hank, like you do and after 178 days i would realize how stupid I am for not being there 20 years ago.

 

[Hank49]

I guess I could get used to colder water as long as it has good vis. A lot of nice marine life is a real plus.
I guess I must be a sight oriented being though because very bad vis is not fun at all for me. I may as well lay in bed, close my eyes and dream about diving. I dive on our pipe and have to put my pressure gauge inches from my face to read it. It's like being in a sensory depravation chamber. (I've never been in one but that's what I would guess it's like)
We had 100 foot vis here Sunday. I could see my son laying on the bottom (also some of the fish he was after) with his camo wetsuit at 90 feet while I was waiting on the surface. And it was about 82 F.

 

[EnjoyTheSilence]

There must be some difference. It´s obvius that it´s more difficult (need more exercise) diving in 4 degrees C with a drysuit then diving in warm tropical water with a tiny bodysuit. I takes more practise to master buoyancy with a dry I think. And you have not only the BC to think about. You must also "feed" the drysuit with air to. I think I must be one of the few divers in sweden that don´t even own a drysuit.
The reason I don´t use a dry is simply beacause its easier with a semidry...That and the fact that I don´t dive very deep and only during the warmer months...

 

[KeithG]

The quick answer is "YES, cold water divers are much better".
Smarter? hummmm, not so much....

Being A WWW I believe I have done about 4 different dives - and then repeated them many, many times in many different locations. The skill set I required is about as limited as it gets (and no I do NOT follow the DM...).

There are a bunch of challenges I avoid that are commonly associated with "cold water diving": i.e. cold water, low viz, big waves, big surge, making sure the chainsaw is full of gas so I can cut a hole in the ice (puts the save a dive kit in a whole new perspective...)

I fully recognize that there are some skills that I would need to learn / improve / discover if I was to start diving closer to home.

But I am real happy to be able to dive warm and see stuff (literally) beyond my reach.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Yes, cold water divers are better.
That's why we giggle at some of the silly issues warm water divers have.
If those warm water divers tried to dive where we dive they wouldn't make it.

But I'm still jealous of people who get to dive in warm water.

 

[DMDavid]

Us warm water divers often laugh at all the gear worn by cold water divers.
We wonder what in the world you're looking at in those cold murky waters.
We wonder if you get to dive as often as us warm water divers that dive 24/7/365.
We wonder if you didn't have to spend so much money on cold weather gear if you would get
to travel to warm destinations.
And above it all we wonder what it's like to not have a single beauty diving along side you in her bikini or topside
on the boat enjoying the afternoon sun with a couple of margaritas.

But then we figure it's all about the diving and not really about who has the bigger speargun.

 

[TSandM]

I guess I could get used to colder water as long as it has good vis. A lot of nice marine life is a real plus.
I guess I must be a sight oriented being though because very bad vis is not fun at all for me. I may as well lay in bed, close my eyes and dream about diving. I dive on our pipe and have to put my pressure gauge inches from my face to read it. It's like being in a sensory depravation chamber. (I've never been in one but that's what I would guess it's like)
We had 100 foot vis here Sunday. I could see my son laying on the bottom (also some of the fish he was after) with his camo wetsuit at 90 feet while I was waiting on the surface. And it was about 82 F.

I'm with you, Hank, actually. My "mood" underwater is proportional to the viz. Diving the spectacular walls of northern Vancouver Island makes me giddy with happiness . . . but we're talking 50+ plus of viz there, even though the water is very cold. On the flip side, diving sites in the San Juan Islands, which are almost as colorful and rich with life but have typically marginal (10 - 20 foot) viz is not anywhere near the thrill. And nowadays, diving in really low viz is something I pretty much have to make myself do, and usually only because I'm committed to helping with classes.

If you can't see anything, why are you there?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Sometimes I go underwater just to get away from everything ... to "decompress" from all the other things in life that I have to worry about on a daily basis. Not being able to see anything isn't a distraction in that case ... in some respects it's an enhancement. Of course, during those dives, I'm enjoying my alone time, and don't have to worry about watching out for anyone else. I usually have my camera with me ... and as long as I have a few feet of vis, I'll usually find something worthy of a picture ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[oldflounder]

I'm with you, Hank, actually. My "mood" underwater is proportional to the viz. Diving the spectacular walls of northern Vancouver Island makes me giddy with happiness . . . but we're talking 50+ plus of viz there, even though the water is very cold. On the flip side, diving sites in the San Juan Islands, which are almost as colorful and rich with life but have typically marginal (10 - 20 foot) viz is not anywhere near the thrill. And nowadays, diving in really low viz is something I pretty much have to make myself do, and usually only because I'm committed to helping with classes.

If you can't see anything, why are you there?

Sometimes I go underwater just to get away from everything ... to "decompress" from all the other things in life that I have to worry about on a daily basis. Not being able to see anything isn't a distraction in that case ... in some respects it's an enhancement. Of course, during those dives, I'm enjoying my alone time, and don't have to worry about watching out for anyone else. I usually have my camera with me ... and as long as I have a few feet of vis, I'll usually find something worthy of a picture ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I'm not sure but I think TSandM was specifically asking Hank why he dives if he has 0 viz when he dives on the pipe. I was curious myself as to what kind of pipe this is and why it requires monitoring in 0 viz when the next day it might be 100'. Sorry Hank --- just nosy!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Us warm water divers often laugh at all the gear worn by cold water divers.

Actually, you'd be amazed at how little gear I really use.
I bet I use less gear than 98% of warm water divers.

We wonder what in the world you're looking at in those cold murky waters.

We're looking for dinner.

We wonder if you get to dive as often as us warm water divers that dive 24/7/365.

No, and it pisses me off. But I wouldn't be able to anyway because I have to work.

We wonder if you didn't have to spend so much money on cold weather gear if you would get
to travel to warm destinations.

I think the TSA has pretty much ruined my desire to fly to tropical destinations.

And above it all we wonder what it's like to not have a single beauty diving along side you in her bikini or topside
on the boat enjoying the afternoon sun with a couple of margaritas.

Well you got me there. We have the single beauty part but instead of the bikini they're stuffed into 7mm (14 mm on the torso) of thick black neoprene.

But then we figure it's all about the diving and not really about who has the bigger speargun.

Big spearguns don't work well up here. Vis is too low.