what is cold H2O?

[IceBergSlim]

I have several dives in the low 50's. Is this what is considered cold water? On those dives I was wearing 7mmsuit and full kit. Honestly I was feeling a bit toasty and wanted to ditch my hat and gloves (I did not). What is the temp point that you need a dry suit? I have no dry training and only own a 3mm suit so I was looking for a few guidelines about temp vs protection. What do you need: where and when? I wanna be comfortable and all that, but I do feel that I am overprotected most of the time these days... And Yes, I am a larger human

 

[srkdvr]

Cold is when you have to cut through solid water to dive, that be cold!!!

Rich :mean:

 

[Hanz]

For me mid 50s is the limit for a 7mm wet suit and still be comfortable. I did my deep dive cert in 39 degree water which kicked my wet suits ass in about 5 minutes! I shivered through it though.

I would say if your going to dive in water that is below 60 on a regular basis, a dry suit is the way to go. A guy I know also dives cold with a full face mask so his face stays warm which sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[Walter]

Cold is when you jump in the water and discover you have two belly buttons.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Originally posted by Walter
Cold is when you jump in the water and discover you have two belly buttons.

You won't see a better answer than that!
Rick

 

[jbd]

and I'll add--the temperature that causes that to happen is different for each diver.

 

[GearHead]

Here in the PNW, we're lucky if Puget Sound gets much above 50 degrees. Last week, the surface temp was 52, and I thought it might be a good idea to try diving w/o my hood (I felt quite in my drysuit & wetgloves). From zero to ten feet, no problem. Once I hit the thermocline and continued to descend, the feeling that my brain was freezing got hard to ignore (at depth the temp was in the 40s). I surfaced and made my poor buddy wait while I got my hood from shore.

Apparently my tough-guy instructor dives hoodless in the summer all the time, but I guess I'm just not tough enough.

Rick

 

[GP]

I've yet to feel uncomfortably cold on a dive. The lowest temp I've dove so far was 45 degrees. It did feel noticeably cooler at 92 ft than at 60 ft or less most likely due to wetsuit compression. I wear a 2 piece 7mil Henderson wetsuit.

 

[Walter]

GearHead,

When I wonder if I should wear a hood I wear one. Hoods are incredibly useful in keeping your body warm. A great deal of heat loss is from the head. Cold is not something to see how much you can take. When the temps drop into the low 60's I wear a hood to prevent instant head aches.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by GearHead
Here in the PNW, we're lucky if Puget Sound gets much above 50 degrees

Rick if you want to get in some real warm water diving head for Alki... 54F yesterday... I don't think I could stand water much hotter!