Challenge of cold water diving

[Dive-aholic]

My wife and I are going to begin the certification process in mid May. At a visit to a LDS the other day the shop owner showed my wife and I a "farmer john" 7mm wetsuit combo, as well as a one-piece 7mm suit. Can anyone comment on the differences in diving both of these? Is a 7mm sufficient for most summertime Great Lakes diving? We plan on doing our diving all over the place, from the wrecks of the big lakes to the smaller inland lakes and quarries.

Is a "farmer john" setup a must-have, or do many people go with a one-piece suit? Does it simply boil down to personal preference and how cold one gets?

I have both a farmer john and a one-piece. I prefer the one-piece. It seems to restrict water movement through the suit better. For the layering, I will add either a 3mm shorty underneath or a hooded vest. I've actually layered both under my one-piece and felt nice and warm. That also gives you a lot more flexibility for diving different water temps.

 

[Danninella]

As a new diver trying to gain some experience and hopefully skills I absolutely have to agree about the buoyancy in shallow water.

I have a dry suit (not neoprene, shell suit?) with thick thermal underwear for diving in swedish waters. I have no problem going down and staying down, but as soon as I come to 4-5 metres I have a tendency to ascend to quickly (or even pop to the surface). It doesn´t happen everytime but it still happens. So I am still diving very conservatively so I do not get hurt by ascending to fast.

I hope that I will get better every time I dive. Do you have any really good tips for keeping it cool and regaining control when one feels that one helplessly floats upwards?

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

FWIW with a 7MM FJ+jacket I must ballast heavy and do my s/s vertical, finning to stay at 15'. With a 3mm I can stay trimmed out horz and motionless at the same depth with ease. If just a fact of life, lots of neoprene sucks at shallow depths. Its better than freezing and I cannot afford a d/s so I live with it.

 

[Sas]

I hope that I will get better every time I dive. Do you have any really good tips for keeping it cool and regaining control when one feels that one helplessly floats upwards?

I find exhaling fully helps me stay down if I start to ascent quickly in <5m water and venting a bit from my BC. I have the same problem as you sometimes, my last couple of metres of ascent has been too quick often. Often after my safety stop where I am neutrally buoyant I will vent my BC a fair bit so as I start to sink I start finning slowly upwards and do the ascent using the proper time. Then when I get to the surface I inflate my BC fully. I am sure there are probably more efficient ways though as I am just new at this too! So yea, interested to here responses to your question also

 

[Gary D.]

Its for reasons like this drysuits were invented.

Then why have drysuits been around a lot longer than wet suits? It's kind of like grand kids. If I would have known they were that much fun I would have had them first.

Gary D.

 

[seaducer]

I hope that I will get better every time I dive. Do you have any really good tips for keeping it cool and regaining control when one feels that one helplessly floats upwards?

Heja Sverige!
If you are weighted properly, you should just need to dump some air to get back to neutral...

 

[potablewater]

My wife and I are going to begin the certification process in mid May. At a visit to a LDS the other day the shop owner showed my wife and I a "farmer john" 7mm wetsuit combo, as well as a one-piece 7mm suit. Can anyone comment on the differences in diving both of these? Is a 7mm sufficient for most summertime Great Lakes diving? We plan on doing our diving all over the place, from the wrecks of the big lakes to the smaller inland lakes and quarries.

Is a "farmer john" setup a must-have, or do many people go with a one-piece suit? Does it simply boil down to personal preference and how cold one gets?

You dive the Great Lakes, I dive the Northeast Atlantic, at depth year 'round, it will be cold to some degree. Do yourself a favor, buy your wife and yourself a drysuit.
If you buy a wetsuit, and a very good "Henderson quality" 7mm is in the $300-$400 range, then get your certs, hopefully love scuba diving, then you will want a drysuit.
See if you can take your OW in a drysuit that you can rent, then go buy a Fusion.
You'll never look back.

All the best,
Geoff

 

[String]

As a new diver trying to gain some experience and hopefully skills I absolutely have to agree about the buoyancy in shallow water.

I have a dry suit (not neoprene, shell suit?) with thick thermal underwear for diving in swedish waters. I have no problem going down and staying down, but as soon as I come to 4-5 metres I have a tendency to ascend to quickly (or even pop to the surface). It doesn´t happen everytime but it still happens. So I am still diving very conservatively so I do not get hurt by ascending to fast.

I hope that I will get better every time I dive. Do you have any really good tips for keeping it cool and regaining control when one feels that one helplessly floats upwards?

Dump early, dump often. Remember suit dumps are slower than BC/wing dumps. Also consider using your jacket for buoyancy and remember each change takes a while to have an effect.

You could also be overweighted resulting in too much air expansion to control.

So do a weight check then practice...Lots.

 

[Danninella]

Heja Sverige!
If you are weighted properly, you should just need to dump some air to get back to neutral...

Thanks for the tips so far!

I sometimes get the feeling that I am at the surface before being able to the all the right things, like dumping air. It feels like I can´t get the air out fast enough.
My BC is usually empty, I just use the dry suit for bouyancy. Should one use the BC also?

 

[String]

It feels like I can´t get the air out fast enough.

That to me suggest you are overweighted.