Where I am it is cold all year round, don't need to stop, just keep going. Only 45F today.
Diving in winter months
- Thread starter Spencermm
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
I dive more in the winter. No plankton blooms, more parking, better visibility, fewer boats on my favorite sites offshore..
northen diver
Contributor
My diving time actually picks up in the winter due to other interest in the summer time. The local quarrys here in Ohio are also crowded in the summer time with many students stirring up the viz and Lake Erie is stirring in June-August with heavy boat traffic with the boaters having NO IDEA what a dive flag is.
Winter diving equals not so many divers or boats, the fish life is very lethargic, so you can get some really good pictures of the wild life, the viz is much better and I tend to eat a whole lot better than in the summer time. My kids actually do well in the cold water. In Ohio the temp of the water at depth in the summer time is around 46 degrees and in the winter it is around 37 degrees. Not a big difference. The only real difference is to have a warming place for in between the dives. I used a tent for years, but now have a 16 foot trailers with heaters that I use for warming up between dives.
Someone mentioned the surface support. The only time I need a "surface support" is during Ice diving, which is only about 2-3 weeks out of the year, if we're lucky enough to even have ice on certain years. Other than Ice diving, no much else is different from fall, summer or spring diving for me for having extra people.
My diving drops off considerably during the winter months. For me, that's mid November through early April down here in Texas. I dislike very cold water and unless I'm going in with students or for a very good reason, neither of which happen much over the winter, I'm pretty much on hiatus. I will go down to Cozumel a couple of times during the break so I'm not completely out of it, but compared to the warm summer months there's little to no diving for me.
The water temp has little or nothing to do about it. Puget Sound winter water temps are generally only 5 to 8 degrees colder than summer temps.
It's the topside weather that creates the greatest obstacle. Wind, rain, snow, etc. can make it miserable to gear-up. And, especially the wind, can make the water conditions unsafe to dive (heavy surf, etc.).
About 1 minute. It takes me a little longer because I wear a wet suit in the winter.
Some of our best vis comes in the winter. However, the dive boat doesn't go out as often so I generally get in 20-30 dives a month in winter vs 30-50 in summer.
altitudemike
Contributor
I'm just waiting for the water to freeze solid enough so I can cut a hole in it to dive again.
Similar threads
