Cold water divers are better?

[Dhboner]

I dunno I dive up in Canada average 60 times a year with dry suit, gloves, double tanks, etc in low vis 35 F waters. When down south in warm waters diving with a single 80 in rough seas I have definitely been out of my comfort zone.

You added "rough seas" to the equation. I dive 12 months of the year in Ontario including under ice in a 7mm wetsuit. THAT doesn't make me a better diver but in general a lot of my dives have an increased element of physical stress and that serves me well when conditions are better.

I'm not a better diver because I dive cold water but there are challenges with cold water diving that do refine your skillset.

 

[David_57]

Yes I Ice dive often but in a dry-suit I would definitely be out of my comfort zone ice diving in a 7 mil wet been there done it not for me, so here a case of two people diving in the same climate same type of dive with a difference, I would probably look like a newbie splashing around in the hole freezing my B...s of in a wetsuit. But does that make either one of us better than the other?

 

[hg frogman]

This is hijacking somewhat, but as those 4 knots I quoted (without caring much about the actual value) don't seem to have many believers (and I confess I am in doubt myself) I did some research.

In France (and in other countries with CMAS) there are competitions of "scuba swimming" in a pool. The French name of these (so you can google if you like) is "nage avec palmes - immersion".

Competitors swim underwater (if they surface or touch the walls or bottom of the pool they are disqualified), usually wearing only a swimsuit, a mask, and long, powerful fins (no BCD), while holding their tank of air (no Nitrox) in front of them, with the bottom of the tank pointing forwards, to be as streamlined as possible. They breathe from a normal regulator like any scuba diver.

There seem to have been changes in the rules since the start (eg size of the tanks) but I'll give here the values of the French records in 1992. I found them in Guy Poulet and Robert Barincou's book, La Plongée, Denoël, Paris, 1997. I checked also with Google on the site of the French Federation (FFESSM) just to find that nowadays competitors do better than in 1992, but with Poulet's values I have the size of the tanks used, without having to search any longer ; and also people used somewhat less specialized fins in 1992.

The distances are 100, 400 and 800 meters. The tanks used in 1992 were at least 0.7 liters (100 m), 3 liters (400 m), and 7 liters (800 m).

French records were not as good as world records and were :

100 meters : 38" (hence 5.1 knots ; current French record is 34", hence 5.7 knots)
800 meters : 6' 34" (hence almost 4 knots ; current French record 6' 00", 4.3 knots)

I admit there are some differences between their setup and the setup of a regular scuba diver, even a very streamlined one (no drysuit, no bulky BCD, no stages !) using the same kind of powerful fins (much longer than those tested by Diver magazine, BTW). On the other hand, 800 meters (and even 100 meters) is a long distance. Usually one doesn't fin against strong current for long, unless one wants to get overexerted. I'd say that, against the current, short "bursts" of finning, 10 or 20 seconds, maximum 30 seconds, between two shelters/places of rest, are more likely than minutes.

So maybe my 4 knots for a short time were not so absurd, after all.

Just food for thought (for me as well )

End of hijacking.

 

[porgyhunter]

Start pileing on the adverse conditions. i.e. Low temps,Current,Dark. Pile on the equitment needed. Oh the Big one Depth! pretty soon your the diving Philsbury doughboy.

 

[pnw_diver]

As a primarily cold-water diver, I don't think that diving cold water makes one a better diver. Experience does - insofar as the experience applies to the conditions in which you're diving. Though diving in cold water has exposed me to adverse conditions that I haven't encountered in the warm-water sites that I have actually dived, nothing I've done has prepared me for doing shore entries in heavy surf and current (for example), in warm or cold water - as I haven't dived in those conditions.

Does diving regularly in Puget Sound make me a better diver than someone who dives 4 tanks a year in Cozumel? Probably, but it has a lot more to do with dive count than water temperature.

 

[dannobee]

Wow, a lot of bravado and chest thumping on both sides.

I dive cold water. Drysuit, steel tanks, deco bottles, lots of insulation, 12mm hood. We'll go out if the seas are less than 12 ft. Or shore dive if the surf is less than 6 ft at Monastery Beach. Currents, yup, we have those, 7kts (TRUE, ACTUAL, MEASURED current) sometimes coming out the Golden Gate, and there's a wreck there that I hope to hit someday. Tides, yup, been diving in a 17 ft tidal swing in Alaska.

Does that necessarily make me a better diver than a warm water person? I suppose not, but when I go diving in far-away lands and tropical warm water, the divemaster asks three questions, "how many dives do you have, when was your last dive, and where do you normally dive?" When I answer the last one, "Monterey and Carmel," they just say, "oh," and leave me alone.

Take that for what it's worth.

And if any of you warm water people want to experience some beautiful cold water diving, hit me up and we'll go dive.

 

[Blackwood]

I dive 12 months of the year

Slacker.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Wow, a lot of bravado and chest thumping on both sides.

Currents, yup, we have those, 7kts (TRUE, ACTUAL, MEASURED current) sometimes coming out the Golden Gate

With regards to current; Apollo claims a top speed of 2.5 mph for their AV2;

Apollo Sports: Dive Gear: Underwater Vehicles: AV-2 Scooter

Giving them the benefit of the doubt that the test diver was in normal dive gear (she could be 5'2", 105 lb, and normally dive rash guarded with a 17 lb wing, wireless air integrated, Air3, 63 cft and 4 lb belt), my top speed is very likely slightly LESS than 2.5 mph. I wear long blade free dive fins all the time and even with my most streamlined set up I doubt I could go as fast as me on a scooter, for any distance.

Let's say when I was 25 I could keep up for 25 feet; 2.5 mph is 2.17 knots. In 7 knot current wouldn't the scooter diver be going backwards at nearly 6 mph?

 

[Gombessa]

With regards to current; Apollo claims a top speed of 2.5 mph for their AV2;

To put this in perspective, 2.5mph is about 220fpm. According to the latest Tahoe Benchmark, for a diver in a drysuit and single tank, only the Cuda ever surpassed that (268fpm, just over 3 mph), whereas the rest of the tech scooters ranged from 179-211fpm, and all the recreational scooters tested were all closer to half that speed (144, 97, and 104 fpm).

2009 Tahoe Benchmark

More informed members can probably give more details, but I wouldn't take the 2.5mph claim at face value.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]