Chosen Frozen

[Iguana Don]

New post Beachman, BTW it's no more irritating than reading a double post.

Question to all of the "Chosen Frozen"

How do you fight the affect of the cold water on your face, your definition of cold water (35 deg) & mine (50 deg) are needless to say quite different. My face starts to numb as well as my lips. Is it any different at 35 deg, or when you reach a certain temp are the affects the same. I usually have to take my reg out & work my lips to keep them working in the cold water. Or do most of you use full face masks?

 

[Mario S Caner]

Don,
The only time we hit water even remotely close to 35 is when we hit the second thermocline or so. This happens particularly when doing a La Jolla Submarine Canyon dive during a cold upwelling.

For me it's not really my face that gets cold, it's my forehead. I usually dive without a hood, but do wear a beanie when I know I'm going to have prolonged exposure to cold, deep water or when I teach a Rescue diver class(It's a local requirement) Otherwise I hate the feeling of having a hood on. I do however give the whole "do as I say, not as I do" speile to my students. As long as they are properly instructed as to the disadvantages/hazzards of not having the proper thermal protection on their heads, they can make their own judgment call.

Otherwise, I've never complained of being uncomfortably cold in the water around here... though I did get close when diving in southern Tasmania.

Mario

 

[Greg G.]

That's a good question, almost relative. I've never heard any hard and fast rule on what would be considered cold water. For some, it's anything below 80F. For others, anything in the 70sF and above is bathwater. The chilly waters of the Puget Sound (Seattle) are definitely cold by any measure, 45-55F year round. For me personally, if the water temp is in the 60s or below, I would consider using a thick wet suit or dry suit.

As far as keeping your face warm, that's not a factor because when you think about it, most of your face is covered and the only part that's exposed are your lips, which don't have much feeling in them to begin with, compared to other parts of your body. You're head and chin are covered by the hood, your eyes,nose and part of your upper lip are covered by the mask.

BTW, I got chilly yesterday on a second dive in SE Florida. Water temp 78, I was wearing just a dive skin. I guess that makes me an official warm water wimp? <G>

Originally posted by don

Question to all of the "Chosen Frozen"

How do you fight the affect of the cold water on your face, your definition of cold water (35 deg) & mine (50 deg) are needless to say quite different. My face starts to numb as well as my lips. Is it any different at 35 deg, or when you reach a certain temp are the affects the same. I usually have to take my reg out & work my lips to keep them working in the cold water. Or do most of you use full face masks?

 

[mddolson]

I use an ice divers mask.
3 mm skin 2 sides, under my hood.
Seals against my face and mask.

See the attached jpg photo.

In Canada only the bold will brave the cold, unprotected!

And you can use it to stop at the 7/11 for some extra cash (JUST KIDDING) LOL

Mike D

:blfish:

 

[Bubble Boy]

If you are still measuring the temperature in degrees farenheit or celcius then the water is not cold yet. Water is cold when you measure in inches or millimetres. thats for those of us in wet suits.

Mike's 7/11 mask in nice but it clashes with the dry suit. Its only November! No ice yet. Maybe in the morning there will be. LOL

Actually Mike's hood is the way to go. Remember water does not freeze at 32 degrees if its moving fast enough...saves cutting the hole.

 

[SwimJim]

I ice dive wet. Heck, I did some dives this summer where the bottom temp was thirty eight. If I know I'm going into seriously cold water the only change I make is to pump some warm water into my suit prior to entry.
The cold really doesn't bother my face. About the only skin exposed is my lips. After two minutes they go numb anyway and that takes care of the problem.=-)

Jim

 

[mddolson]

SwimJim bubbled: "If I know I'm going into seriously cold water the only change I make is to pump some warm water into my suit prior to entry."

This technique is fine for short exposures. But extended exposures should only be in a dry suit. You risk serious hypothermia. Last February my buddy and I spent two hours under the ice looking for a snowmobile. It was only 15 ft of water, but the air temperature had dropped to about 0°F during the week and the open spot froze over, and the accident occurred at night so the boys weren't too precise on the entry point. (missed it by about 200 feet.)

To top it all off , the new ice was too thin to raise the snowmobile, so we had to cut a new hole about 150 feet away from the thin ice, compass to the new hole and pull the snowmobile with lift bags to the new hole.

It was a sunny day, air temp about 5°F and water a balmy 33-34°.

Our suits and gear froze as we climbed out of the water.


MikeD
:blfish:

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Don,

You could wear this the next time you go diving in your shortie:

 

[lakesdiver]

Iguana Don once bubbled...
How do you fight the affect of the cold water on your face, your definition of cold water (35 deg) & mine (50 deg) are needless to say quite different. My face starts to numb as well as my lips. Is it any different at 35 deg, or when you reach a certain temp are the affects the same. I usually have to take my reg out & work my lips to keep them working in the cold water. Or do most of you use full face masks?

I just use a standard o'neill coldwater hood. With that & my mask, there's so little skin exposed, the cold doesn't really become an issue. Did our annual u/w turkey hunt in the local lake. 38F water. Cold was no problem...until we all got out of the water...