Chicken Vest or Beanie?

[adpfam]

Gloves are always a hit and miss , always prefer to wear them however 50 % of the time im told i cant wear them for some reason or another . , i spend a lot of time taking pictures and i can count on one hand , well maybe two the amount of times i had to out stretch my hand to stop my self from crashing in to the reef . i dont use them for my photograghy hence a lot of blurry shots but coming back to the feer is more important

 

[Revid1]

I have been told about half of the time that you can't wear gloves on a boat dive. But I might give those a try, at least I will have them with me. Does the chicken vest fit under all wet suits? I, too wondered about being closed in with a full hood that is why I was considering a beanie. Any particular brand come to mind that would be vented? Thanks.

 

[vel525]

I'm a huge fan keeping the head covered. I started diving with a hooded vest under my 3mm and found it so comfortable that i went out and bought a little beanie for when the water was too warm to wear the hooded vest. Now I always dive with my head covered no matter what the water temp is

 

[F106A]

I too have read articles which say not all that much heat is lost via the head. And that may very well be true. However, I find wearing a 5MM hood w/bibb starting with the 3rd or 4th dive of the day (water temps 77-83) keeps me completely comfortable through up to 7 dives. (The wrapped head makes a significant difference to me.) This is with a 3 MM jumpsuit in 77 degrees water, a 3/2 jump when a little warmer and a 2MM shorty when in ~82+ degrees. I also like the idea of the minimal luggage space used.

 

[adpfam]

here is a thought . ii agree with your statement re : not much heat is lost via your noggin . but the reality of diving is that you generally are blowing bubbles in a medium that is less than the temp of your body ( less you are lucky enough to own a bathtub deep enough to dive in ) over a series of dives your body never recovers to its orginal temp all that quickly and can even be cumlative even over days. having said that its a known fact that there are three areas that have a conciderable amount of nerve receptors , 1 your head ( face and neck ) 2 your hands 3 a place we wont mention suffice to say it should always be covered ,well at least while in public.could it be that being already chilled we feel much better once we cover the areas that have a higher percentage of nerve endings. sort of like going out in the winter while the wind is howling . we all will feel much better once we cover up faces and hands and stop the nerve receptors from firing.

 

[Stu S.]

We work with thermal imaging. The human head shows up brightly in the image, indicating that it is one of the warmer spots on the body. You may not lose "most" of your body heat from your head, but it looks like a pretty good radiator to me.

There are $19 beanies at Diver's Direct. They are just the right thing when the water temp is in the 70's.

 

[adpfam]

Agreed but so does arm pits and groins . i think you definatly lose more than any other part of your body. surface area of head is small compared to the rest of your body

 

[D_B]

interesting link, thanks

I wonder if that heat loss being more for your intire body when in cold water holds true when your body is covered in a thermal retaing covering, and your head is not?


When went diving in the Gulf, in 80f water, I got a bit chilled on my first dive in my 3/2 suit with 5mm boots and very thin reef gloves .. I changed to my 5mm gloves and that was all the difference I needed to do 5 dives a day .. others were putting on a 2 or 3mm hooded vest under their suits (dives were kinda deep, 70 to 80 or so)