Cold water diving

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we did dive once in an 18' deep water storage tank at 41 F and 17 F air temp...drysuit, and wet gloves/hood....gloves froze to the metal railing when you grabbed it and had to pry it off!! Oh, and it was at night, with silt out/zero vis conditions so bad, our HID lights wouldn't penetrate but a few inches if even that!
 
The SO and I did two in Clear Lake yesterday here in the Cascades in OR. Air temp was about 50...but there was still snow on the ground up there. Water temp was 38 at the cold vents...we were both diving drysuit, wet hood/gloves. First dive was 24 minutes...second was 33. By the end of the second dive, my hands were claws and I actually had a bit of trouble hitting the inflator valve on the drysuit.

But the vis was to die for...:).

Cheers,
Austin
 
Coldest dive in a (neoprene) drysuit:
30 degree bottom, 36 degree surface in november at Smith/Trailbridge Res. in Oregon. That was DARN cold... and the only time I noticed a significant narcosis set in. The best part was a thermocline at 115, my feet were "warm" while my head was FREEZING!

Coldest in a (bag) drysuit:
Clear Lake, Oregon. Last Aug the bottom temp at the vents, (the lake is supplied by glacial runoff that pours through those vents,) was a chilly 38 degrees. This is nearly unbearable in a full bag suit with every piece of fleece you own underneath it. The only good part was the 75 degree air temp- I got a sunburn while nearly getting hypothermia...!

Coldest in a wetsuit:
41 on the surface/bottom, Woahink Lake, Oregon in Jan. That was too cold for words. I think I bought the drysuit a few weeks after that... We were breaking through bits of surface ice in the 29 degree air temperature.


Looking foward to trying underwater ice hockey next season!
 
well, I'll see how cold it is tomorrow for the Easter Egg Hunt - supposedly was 50 at surface 41 at 18' last weekend - plus we are having wind and cold snap - flurries today; lots of hot chocolate and a fire :)
 
...my first dive in liquid nitrogen...

Now that was very cold.

Especially in a 3mm shorty.

:D

Happy Bunny-Time!

DSD
 
my coldes was -1,7 celsius i dont know how to convert in farenheit the dive went with out any problems exep the first 2 meters were just ice needles but when you came undeneeth them it looked beutifull in the sunny day like clouds i would say,
most memoreble and almost got myself in trouble dive the air tempiture was -18 and it was quite windy we dont calculate winchill here so i cant tell what it was i just remember going into the 2.0 degrees celsius water felt warm the dive went well. at the finich of the dive when we got out of the water we did the terrible mistake of removing our gloves first about a second later everything froze solid we couldnt remove the suithose my friend pulled his hood over his hera and it froze stuck around his neck the suit zipper froze stuck at first we were pretty much helpless in the middle of nowhere but becouse we hid the keys of his car under a stone we were able to start the car and use the exost to warm up our hans enough to get most of the equipment of i leid down and was able to defrost the zipper on my suit so i was ok but he had to wear his into town coouse that hood was frozen solid around his neck preventing hin from taking of the drysuit after this we have been diving in the same place and in simmilar weather we found out removing everything in the water is the best solution and then hurry fast out and unzip each other i think that if we hadnt put those keys under that stone but maybe had in in the pocket of the undergarment or something we would probably have to cut the drysuit to get to it but our fingers were so numb im not sure if we would have been able this just shows you never know when danger comes knocking i have a funny picture somwhere where my drysuit is standing next to me leaning against my car frozen
 
Icelander:
my coldes was -1,7 celsius i dont know how to convert in farenheit the dive went with out any problems exep the first 2 meters were just ice needles but when you came undeneeth them it looked beutifull in the sunny day like clouds i would say,
most memoreble and almost got myself in trouble dive the air tempiture was -18 and it was quite windy we dont calculate winchill here so i cant tell what it was i just remember going into the 2.0 degrees celsius water felt warm the dive went well. at the finich of the dive when we got out of the water we did the terrible mistake of removing our gloves first about a second later everything froze solid we couldnt remove the suithose my friend pulled his hood over his hera and it froze stuck around his neck the suit zipper froze stuck at first we were pretty much helpless in the middle of nowhere but becouse we hid the keys of his car under a stone we were able to start the car and use the exost to warm up our hans enough to get most of the equipment of i leid down and was able to defrost the zipper on my suit so i was ok but he had to wear his into town coouse that hood was frozen solid around his neck preventing hin from taking of the drysuit after this we have been diving in the same place and in simmilar weather we found out removing everything in the water is the best solution and then hurry fast out and unzip each other i think that if we hadnt put those keys under that stone but maybe had in in the pocket of the undergarment or something we would probably have to cut the drysuit to get to it but our fingers were so numb im not sure if we would have been able this just shows you never know when danger comes knocking i have a funny picture somwhere where my drysuit is standing next to me leaning against my car frozen

-1.7 °C = 28.94 °F

And by the way. Its not cold to dive, its cold if you freeze!
 

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