Cold fresh vs warm salt water diver quality

[Wheeler925]

I don't know how to ask this even. I've only dove in cold fresh water with various visibilities. This includes inland lakes, quarries as well as the great lakes now. I've read repeatedly how some divers are judged for being 'quarry' or 'spring' divers then not being prepared when going out on a reef or whatever in the ocean. I'm trying to find the logic in this? In my very limited experience, it seems like diving in crappy visibility with 7mm wesuit or a drysuit, gloves, hood, and 20+lbs of lead is a little more complex than your vacation to Cozumel dive. Just looking for thoughts and to align myself with reality.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

I don't know how to ask this even. I've only dove in cold fresh water with various visibilities. This includes inland lakes, quarries as well as the great lakes now. I've read repeatedly how some divers are judged for being 'quarry' or 'spring' divers then not being prepared when going out on a reef or whatever in the ocean. I'm trying to find the logic in this? In my very limited experience, it seems like diving in crappy visibility with 7mm wesuit or a drysuit, gloves, hood, and 20+lbs of lead is a little more complex than your vacation to Cozumel dive. Just looking for thoughts and to align myself with reality.

You could dive in cold water, limited visibility in the ocean too . I would agree that cold water diving anywhere makes you a bit more resilient compared to easy warm reef dives. However, people who only dive quarries are sometimes too slow or disorganised when diving in the ocean from a boat - personal observation. Holding stops in swell tends to be more difficult compared to a quarry too.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I don't know how to ask this even. I've only dove in cold fresh water with various visibilities. This includes inland lakes, quarries as well as the great lakes now. I've read repeatedly how some divers are judged for being 'quarry' or 'spring' divers then not being prepared when going out on a reef or whatever in the ocean. I'm trying to find the logic in this? In my very limited experience, it seems like diving in crappy visibility with 7mm wesuit or a drysuit, gloves, hood, and 20+lbs of lead is a little more complex than your vacation to Cozumel dive. Just looking for thoughts and to align myself with reality.

It isn't binary. The concern many have with "quarry" divers (I used to dive them regularly myself) are those divers that pretty much only ever dive quarries. What makes you a better diver is to dive in a diversity of conditions and environments. Cold/warm, fresh/salt, shore/boat, low viz/unlimited viz, drift/moored, day/night, wrecks/reefs, swells/flat, strong current/zero current, etc.. If you want to be a rock solid diver, get as much experience as possible in as many different conditions and environments as possible.

Adding one example. I've seen a highly experienced Great Lakes wreck technical diver unable to smoothly handle a blue water ascent on an ocean drift dive. You can be a rock star in one environment, but change environments significantly, and you are in many ways a newby all over again.

 

[johndiver999]

I have dove in a lot of places and often the "locals" think they are special. In general, cold is harder than warm, dirty vis is harder than clear, zero current is easier than strong, it is harder to get dressed on a small boat 100 miles offshore than a picnic table, scrambling over rocks or through surf is harder than climbing a ladder on a dock, tough divers get in the water when sea sick, good divers can descend very quickly, deep is more challenging than shallow, the ocean is filled with things that can bite and sting (and even electrocute you) - while freshwater- not so much, and the quality of a diver (in my mind) is based on what they can accomplish underwater - rather than if they can hang motionless like a log for 3 minutes.

Don't be surpised how challenging or different a rocking boat, a screaming current, good vis, or circling and aggressive sharks can be. Each environment is best mastered by experience and utilizing as much local knowledge as you can assemble. Even super clear water can present some psychological challenges that can be unexpected for a diver who is used to crawling around in 3 ft vis following a defined structure.

 

[lexvil]

Wait until the water moves on it own.

 

[Wheeler925]

Wait until the water moves on it own.

Like in a toilet?

 

[lexvil]

Like in a toilet?

You’ll wish it moved like that at some point.

 

[therookie]

Hi @Wheeler925. My (also minimal) experience is the opposite of yours - limited so far to a warm salt water, low current, high visibility environment. Personally I think your experience has probably prepared you for the environment in my area better than mine has for yours. Low viz, cold water - that's a completely different (and I think more challenging in many ways) world from mine.

I would hope if I were diving in what is to me a new environment that the "locals" would judge me not so much on my ability and preparation but on my attitude. We're all governed by the same principles documented by the likes of Archimedes and Boyle and all the scientists that have studied decompression theory etc. But beyond those basics, a significant change of environment to one I'm not familiar with means that I would feel the need to approach those dives with utmost respect and listen to the advice of the locals. For example, just from reading about diving Cozumel I would consider the currents there in my case a "significant change of environment" even though it seems very similar to mine other than that.

Every environment, even the one you are most familiar with, presents challenges - part of what attracts me to the sport of scuba diving.

 

[Nick_Radov]

I don't want to stereotype here but I have encountered a number of quarry divers who literally didn't know how to swim underwater. Like they couldn't make consistent forward progress in a straight line by kicking their fins.

 

[wlecyt40]

My wife and I have dived both, quarry and cold and salty and warm. We have found in our experience that diving in low viz makes us more cognizant of where our buddy is. Sure, in clear ocean viz on a drift dive, you can see your buddy a ways off, but in low viz like in Mermet Spring IL, you can get lost and only be about 15ft apart. And you get to learn the mental game of figuring out just how much lead you need to descend without being a freighter anchor or turning into a cork.

I believe that the variety of conditions has made us better divers. We have learned our buoyancy in different conditions and bodies of water and with the different exposure gear we wear (rashguards to 8mm semidry suits). We have also learned to take out time and enjoy our dives.