Water temps in January

[Ed Marshall]

I'm headed to Cozumel in January and wanted to see what people thought about exposure suits for this time of year. Everything I've read seems to indicate winter temperature ranges of 78-79 degrees. Up until now my dive experience has been exclusively in Lake Travis, here in Austin. The summer water temps there begin at 85 degrees and drop to about 75 at 60-70 feet. I usually wear a 3 mm shorty and it is a little chilly below the thermocline, but you get used to it quickly. From this, I'm assuming the same 3 mm shorty will be just fine in Cozumel. What is your opinion? Thanks in advance for any input!

Ed

 

[redacted]

I'm headed to Cozumel in January and wanted to see what people thought about exposure suits for this time of year. Everything I've read seems to indicate winter temperature ranges of 78-79 degrees. Up until now my dive experience has been exclusively in Lake Travis, here in Austin. The summer water temps there begin at 85 degrees and drop to about 75 at 60-70 feet. I usually wear a 3 mm shorty and it is a little chilly below the thermocline, but you get used to it quickly. From this, I'm assuming the same 3 mm shorty will be just fine in Cozumel. What is your opinion? Thanks in advance for any input!

Ed

It should work fine. I get cold in 3mm shorty when I hit 75. But I'm fine in Coz all year in a .5mm jumpsuit.

 

[diveborg]

Sounds like you'll be fine with the 3mm shorty. If you do get cold, add a beanie.

 

[halocline]

Probably you'll be fine; the only consideration is that you'll be doing many more dives over a few days than you do in the lake, and because of this you may chill a bit over the week. You might bring a wind breaker or something like that, maybe even a fleece, to wear during the surface intervals. If it's sunny and warm, you'll warm right up during the intervals, but if it's cloudy and windy, you might want something warm to wear. In the winter, I've had good luck wearing a 3 mil full suit on the first dive and just a swimsuit on the second; a little counterintuitive, but since buoyancy control is easier with no wetsuit, I prefer this to going with the suit on the second dive. This was before I bought a 2 mil shorty, which I'll probably use in Coz year round now.

 

[bcaderunr]

Just to reinforce the previous post, it isn't so much the water temp (79 last Jan on my computer) as the S.I. that'll chill you. Bring the biggest, warmest windbreaker you've got and wear it over a loose, comfortable sweatshirt as soon as you exit your dives. It gets mighty frosty otherwise. Admittedly, I'm a skinny guy, but even the divemasters/crew looked like they were geared up for an Antarctic expedition whenever they were topside. The only warm place is IN the water.