What type of gear are you wearing this January to keep you warm?

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

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

5mm fleece lined wetsuit and 5 mm boots in SE FL. I start getting chilly towards the end of the second dive.

It'll be 7 mm temps for me once it gets below 72.
 
5mm fleece lined wetsuit and 5 mm boots in SE FL. I start getting chilly towards the end of the second dive.

It'll be 7 mm temps for me once it gets below 72.
I have a pretty good tolerance for colder water from growing up in the Pacific Northwest so 72 F water doesn’t feel too cold for me, BUT, I still wear my 5 mm for safety reasons. I don’t care how well you can tolerate the cold, it’s a mater of time before you would be hypothermic if you got stuck out there too long.
 
I have a pretty good tolerance for colder water from growing up in the Pacific Northwest so 72 F water doesn’t feel too cold for me, BUT, I still wear my 5 mm for safety reasons. I don’t care how well you can tolerate the cold, it’s a mater of time before you would be hypothermic if you got stuck out there too long.

You're absolutely right! Even if you have a good tolerance for cold, you're still loosing body heat 20-40 times faster in the water than you would in the air. Two more reasons to bundle up even if you don't feel cold:
  1. Heat loss through respiration is not "sensed" by your body the same way it is through conductive or convective heat loss through the skin. Your core temp can be colder than you realize.
  2. Also, narcosis has been shown to inhibit the shivering response which is an important warning sign of impending hypothermia. So again, you can be cold without even realizing it.
I can't ever recall myself or anyone else complaining about being too hot underwater because they wore too much rubber. It's usually that divers are too cold because they didn't wear enough.
 
You're absolutely right! Even if you have a good tolerance for cold, you're still loosing body heat 20-40 times faster in the water than you would in the air. Two more reasons to bundle up even if you don't feel cold:
  1. Heat loss through respiration is not "sensed" by your body the same way it is through conductive of convective heat loss through the skin. Your core temp can be colder than you realize.
  2. Also, narcosis has been shown to inhibit the shivering response which is an important warning sign of impending hypothermia. So again, you can be cold without even realizing it.
I can't ever recall myself or anyone else complaining about being too hot underwater because they wore too much rubber. It's usually that divers are too cold because they didn't wear enough.
Another issue with lowering of your core temperature is diuresis. I was diving my 2mm shorty in 73F water and didn’t feel uncomfortable at all but noticed I had to pee a lot even though I didn’t drink much water before hand. It was my body saying it’s too cold to keep doing this...
 
Another issue with lowering of your core temperature is diuresis. I was diving my 2mm shorty in 73F water and didn’t feel uncomfortable at all but noticed I had to pee a lot even though I didn’t drink much water before hand. It was my body saying it’s too cold to keep doing this...

Good reminder! I was peeing like a race horse Saturday in Jupiter LOL
 
I went out last Friday and was in my 5mm and got a little chilly at the end of dive 2 without hood and gloves. I usually am very warm in that setup maybe my blood is thinning a little bit..lol
 
Temps are awful here in the winter. 72-75F down to 120'-150' or so (thermocline varies greatly) and mid-upper 60s below that. :rofl3:

My guess would be that @grantctobin is answering for the Chicago area. When I lived in the Midwest I would wear that in the winter. Water temps there are in the upper 30s to low 40s F.[/QUOTE/]

I don't use heated but close to what I'm using in NE right now.

OP with those temps either a 3mm or a 5mm will suffice depending on your body.
 
What kind of temps can I expect in February?

My one and only March trip had temps 66 to 68. I plan to bring MY drysuit but not sure how I will properly hunt bugs.

I sure hope by March the waters star warming up.. 66? Brrrrr no, no, no, nope! It was in the very low 70's this weekend and should not get colder than that. Maybe you guys in NC should start deploying some jetties or brake-waters that can reroute the cold waters from the north and not mess with our nice warm southern streams.

Also please don't kill the messenger, and granted I don't know how are things going around the Jupiter area, but the bugs around my backyard are starting to be scarce and is only January.
 
66? Brrrrr no, no,

It's all relative, my last was 40 which is warm for this time of year.


People up here hunt bugs in drysuit.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

Back
Top Bottom