Cold Water Die-Hards vs. Warm Water Wimps

[KOMPRESSOR]

She ain't going there for the warm water ... and ya don't need sunscreen in a cave ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Yeah, I am quite certain she won't even bother to get a tan while she's there!
-She's the "Cave Woman"!

 

[Teamcasa]

The training in cold water diving can be tougher, but does offer a more hardened diver, but I think that you will have more fun in tropical waters, due the the fact that there are better things to see in warm, caribean waters, and that there are huge discofort factors in cold water.

I'm not to bash a new member but this simple not true. I have been in tropical oceans, Mexico and three islands of Hawaii. I have also dived up and down the California coast and the Pacific side of upper Baja. They all have something special to offer.

 

[Walter]

Warm water diving is EASIER

I think this is actually a pretty common misconception.

 

[TSandM]

Okay, Walter, you're right; warm water can have currents, difficult entries, etc. that make it challenging. But all OTHER things being equal, it's more of a nuisance to pack yourself into multiple layers of undergarment, a dry suit, and a ton of weight, and haul all that to the water. That's the kind of easier I meant -- Less physical work.

Oh, and Hank, if Seattle had caves, I'd stay home . . .

 

[vel525]

I think when some people said that there is more to see in warm water than cold water it's probably because when they think of cold water they think of quarries and lakes. I think people forget that there are plenty of cold water ocean diving with TONS to see.

 

[matts1w]

I really hate that term "warm water wimp." Why does it have to be "wimp" versus "die-hard?"

I grew up diving in the North Channel of Lake Huron and Indiana lakes. It was cold. Diving in cold water did not make me tough.

I now live in south Florida and dive in warm water. I also work and live in a shed in the Caribbean or a hut in the South Pacific during the summer. Diving in warm water does not make me a wimp.

Chucking everything I owned and leaving behind 30 years of friends, family, and complacency to live on the warm ocean is the toughest thing I have ever done. It was far harder than jumping in 48 degree water to look at some brown fish.

I am much happier being a "warm water wimp" with the guts to live than I was diving cold water in Indiana and Canada.

 

[Hank49]

That's the kind of easier I meant -- Less physical work.

.

That's a good point and you probably have to want to dive more to go through all that. I may be getting lazy in my old age...and I AM a certifiable warm water....diver...be careful with that "wimp" s#*t , but where I live now makes it harder to dive. I don't just go and jump on a boat, dive, come back, rinse my gear at the dock, put it in a car a drive home and hang it up to dry. I load all the gear (tanks, water, ice, fuel, food, fishing gear etc) hook the boat up, drive it across the farm, launch it, pole it out of the shallow canal head out. Coming home is washing ALL that....the salty mud from the canal that's all over the trailer and wheels, all the gear, the boat, tanks, refill the tanks, clean fish....I spend as much or more time prepping and washing afterwards as I do being on the water. To dive for 2 hours takes 8 of prepping, launching, boat traveling and cleaning etc. This diving can be tough....

 

[Walter]

But all OTHER things being equal, it's more of a nuisance to pack yourself into multiple layers of undergarment, a dry suit, and a ton of weight, and haul all that to the water.

All other things being equal, I agree, but that's rarely the case.

That's the kind of easier I meant -- Less physical work.

Sometimes.

 

[Neff]

I got the "bug" in the red sea and then only dived in warm waters for a few years. I went to greece to do my OW but returned to our colder murkier british waters, just because I wanted to dive more often than just when I could afford a holiday. I've joined a club back here and dived in some conditions where I cannot see my own hand unless its touching my mask. I dont yet own a dry suit, have to put 2 lots of 5mm one on top of the other, feel like Mrs Michelin X ! Its still brilliant but ...... I went back to warm waters to do my AOW last summer. There must be hundreds like me, who enjoy both lots of conditions but dont have the gear ( yet ) to dive when it gets really cold. I agree with the others that said it takes all conditions and lots of experience to become a good diver. Whilst we are on the "cold" subject.... I have heard differing opinions about dry suits neoprine v membrane I dont know which to get, I get very cold. Does anyone have any advice or opinions on dry suits

 

[paradicio]

I think when some people said that there is more to see in warm water than cold water it's probably because when they think of cold water they think of quarries and lakes. I think people forget that there are plenty of cold water ocean diving with TONS to see.

I hope that is the case amongst divers, at least.

However, among the non diving community...all to often when walking towards the water with all of my gear on I get stopped and asked "You're going diving there? Is there even anything to see down there?" It was that attitude that kind of got me into u/w photography. I wanted to be able to bring up evidence that "YES" there is A LOT to see down there, and it is very beautiful.