Open Water Certifications – Cold vs Warm

[lowviz]

OK, so now I'm looking at the 'book' difference between OW and AOW. Is that fundamental step in training (and demonstrated skills) a significantly greater change than the difference between OW cold water and OW warm water diving?

Maybe the OP was on to something...

 

[elmer fudd]

I think the bit about cold water OW students having dives cut short because of the cold is a bit overblown. A 7mm rental wetsuit will keep you warm enough for a full length dive here 6 months a year in 30' or less of water. I don't remember being cold at all on my OW dives. My AOW deep dive was in November and we went down to 100'. I got more than a little cold on that one.

 

[DevonDiver]

..cold-water diving to be *much* more difficult than warm-water diving!...*alot* of folks have found cold-water diving to be much harder than warm-water diving. Alot give up!

I wonder if the 'giving up' primarily stems from the 'difficulty', or simply a perception that the diving has a low return-on-investment in respect of enjoyment versus discomfort/ investment.

Diving in cold water is significantly more costly than warm-water; in terms of equipment (esp. exposure protection), training for that equipment (i.e. dry suit courses) and generally higher diving/boat fees.

Many people don't enjoy 'brain freeze' or 'stiff fingers' - a minority accept it in return for the chance to dive regularly at home, but many won't - they'll defer diving to warm-water on their vacation.

Being cold or uncomfortable isn't "harder" or "more difficult" diving... not in the respect of necessary environmentally-demanded skill development etc...

The most important thing is that divers get trained that when you change something, you must assess its impact to your diving, based on your current skill set. That includes water temp, equipment, location, current, boat, buddies, night, ... anything! We have definitely learned the hard way on that. If we had any training about that, it was minimal or non-existent.

Absolutely. That advice/recommendation/stipulation is made on most open water courses. Every PADI student should sign the 'Safe Diving Practices' Statement of Understanding. It includes the following:

• If diving conditions are worse than those in which I am experienced, postpone diving or select an alternate site with better conditions.

• Engage only in diving activities consistent with my training and experience.

• Recognize that additional training is recommended for participation in specialty diving activities, in other geographic areas...

 

[dimac]

I believe that each has its own differences and challenges. I'm in the PI, all my training and all my dives are here in the tropics. My last instructor included the worst conditions we can encounter here while performing tasks such as nav, light salvage, etc (ripping currents, stress tests, zero vis (not something we'd see at all here, but we find it to be a good confidence builder). But it is also harder to compare the skills of the 2. We see terrible divers everywhere regardless of where they were trained. It always boils down to experience, the more comfortable you are in the water, the faster you'll adapt.

It's also difficult to compare because most cold-water trained divers (with lots of experience) based in the temperate regions go to the tropics for a dive vacation, but divers based in the tropics who travel to the colder regions for vacation diving is unheard of. But I'd like to try if given the chance

 

[lowviz]

...//... Being cold or uncomfortable isn't "harder" or "more difficult" diving... not in the respect of necessary environmentally-demanded skill development etc... ...//...

Yes, that is the big secret. So well stated. "environmentally-demanded skill development".

Differences exist.

 

[spectrum]

OK, so now I'm looking at the 'book' difference between OW and AOW. Is that fundamental step in training (and demonstrated skills) a significantly greater change than the difference between OW cold water and OW warm water diving?

Maybe the OP was on to something...

Cold water diving regardless of wet/dry can easily have vital content appropriate for an AOW elective when taken by a student who has not been trained or mentored in that enviornment.

Pete

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's been a while since I trained/taught in the UK. What's the situation now with dry suit use for OW? There wasn't a problem doing it with BSAC before, but I believe PADI had stipulations about it... something to do with the instructor operating the suit, because OW could (should?) not train/qualify for dry suit?

I'll defer the PADI position on that topic to a cold-water PADI instructor (Peter or John, perhaps?). We have one local SSI shop that only trains OW students in drysuits. I get OW students from time to time who want OW in a drysuit, and I'm fine teaching it that way ... but not being affiliated with a shop makes it an expensive prospect, since they are then responsible for the cost of renting the drysuit ($100+ per day).

The notion of an instructor operating a student's drysuit sounds wonky to me ... since the whole point is that they're planning to dive dry once class is over, and should therefore be capable of operating it themselves. Besides, the hard part about using a drysuit isn't operating the valves ... it's managing the air inside the suit. And the person wearing the suit really has to be the one doing that.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Storker]

What's the situation now with dry suit use for OW? There wasn't a problem doing it with BSAC before, but I believe PADI had stipulations about it... something to do with the instructor operating the suit, because OW could (should?) not train/qualify for dry suit?

As I've already mentioned, I certified OW in a dry suit. As everyone else in my town, and probably more or less everyone else certifying within 3-400km from here. A lot of those certs are PADI. If there were any problems with that, there'd be a bunch of operators in Norway breaking their agency's rules, and I have a hard time believing that.

With our water temps, doing your OW certification in a dry suit really is the only sensible alternative.

 

[TSandM]

There is no problem certifying PADI in a dry suit. You just have to do one of the pool sessions with it. We try to get ALL our OW students to elect the dry suit option.

 

[DCBC]

As this is in the Basic Diver Discussion area, I thought it worthwhile to mention something about thermal requirements. It may go without saying, but sometimes new divers develop the criteria of what's required from the comments of others.

As each Diver has a different degree of susceptibility to cold, it's important not to have any predetermined ideas as to what environmental protection a diver will require to be comfortable. As a Canadian, I've frequented southern climates where I've suffered from sweltering heat on what a local to the area described as a cool day. On the other hand, when operating a LDS and Dive Charter business in Vancouver, I stopped using a dry-suit because the water was just too warm.

Diving safely in the cold is a matter of not losing more heat than you produce. Divers rarely experience hypothermia from diving, but often become cold and uncomfortable. As this can affect the Diver's safety and enjoyment, it's something that should be addressed. The key is to use whatever thermal protection that's suitable to you; regardless of what others prefer.