Cold water divers are better?

[halocline]

... the simple fact is that many recreational divers dive only/mainly in warmer "vacation" waters where the challenges of buoyancy control with thicker skin protection, low visibility, unpredictable currents etc may be more formidable than first imagined.

I think you meant to say the opposite here. Your statement is that warmer vacation waters have more formidable challenges. You might want to edit.

Sure, colder water, less vis, more thermal protection, etc...is more challenging. Just like climbing on snow and ice is more challenging than on dirt paths, skiing on steep moguls is more challenging than gentle flat slopes, biking on hills as opposed to flat roads, etc.. What's your point?

 

[DevonDiver]

This BS cracks me up current is not a problem if you are drifting with it, if you have to go against a 4 knot current hope you are on the bottom so you can pull your ass along, but what a waste of air and time. Up here in Canada we deal with current all the time in the St Lawrence river but try to work it in our favor also deal with low vis and temps we also have lake Ontario and quarries no current but cold. I dive in the Caribbean in the winter for me that's a walk in the park and very enjoyable but I am sure there are many challenging dives down there my point is to try and generalize based on warm water vs cold water in a given area/climate is wrong . But who give a sh.t if a cold water dive is better than a warm water divers just enjoy, its the same as comparing a Tech diver with a Sport diver just means one decided to take additional training IMHO.

That YP cracks me up too current is easy to deal with and it is mostly dealt with in cold water, except in hot water where strong currents run past atolls and underwater reefs at great speed which means that hot water divers often have to use specialised techniques such as reef hooks that are never used much in cold water. There is no such thing as low viz in hot water I think it is because the warm water is more clean and does not attract stuff like algae even though the visibility is often affected by heavy rainfall in tropical areas and various organic biological marine events like coral spawning that can easily reduce warm water visibility to zero. Hot and cold water divers may be different or better or worse it doesn;t matter it is all the same thing, its like comparing a school bus driver with a NASA astronaut because they do the same thing which is essentially to move a vehicle around and the only difference is that they get different training, but that does not make one more skilled than the other IMHO.

 

[highdesert]

If a diver develops a sound skill set for the diving he/she plans to do, they're a good diver. I have no doubt that a diver who is a tragedy waiting to happen in cold water would be the same in warm water, and we all know those people exist.

Develop the skill set you need for the conditions at hand, then go enjoy. The rest is academic.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Skills aside, I'm pretty sure that cold water divers spend more on gear (on average) than warm water divers. That makes us more valuable to the gear manufacturers so obviously we're the more important suckers .... er, customers.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go test out my new dry suit. Not that my old drysuit needed replaced, just that the LDS had a sale on White's, and they look so much better than my customer Diving Concepts ... though I admit the neon colors on the custom one are better for teaching in near zero. Of course the Whites boots have a different exterior dimensions, so I had to pick up new fins, but I've always wanted the pink Apollos just for the goofiness of them . . .

 

[boulderjohn]

BTW, I to some degree object to the statement that cave training doesn't elevate one's skills above those of a competent warm water diver. I don't think there are ANY recreational divers who train as extensively to handle failures with poise and aplomb as cave divers do.

In fairness, the statement about cave divers not needing more skill compared that skill to SOME warm water divers.

But I agree with Lynne, and I feel the training does elevate one's general diving skills.

When I was doing the dives for my full cave certification, I was on different dives paired with two different students who were in the process of certifying but were not ready for it in terms of skills, and I am not talking about specific cave skills like laying line. With each of them, at one point during a dive the instructor signaled that diver to be out of air. In each case I donated my long hose and then had to wait patiently for the diver to come back down to me after getting pinned to the ceiling because of lack of buoyancy control during the exchange. I assume that both divers are full cave certified by now, but if so, then they have improved their buoyancy far beyond what you see in an OW diver who has not been put to such a test.

 

[DevonDiver]

If OW/Recreational divers were on a par with tech or cave divers, then why do so many of them suffer a melt-down when they first start the training??

I was a PADI DM and BSAC OWI when I first started tech training. My first course dive was total over-load. A humbling experience.

 

[Chugwhump]

Us cold water, huge swell, ripping current divers only boast about how hard it is to dive where we dive because deep down we are miserable and just jealous as hell of those who are fortunate enough to be warm water primadonna's.
Did someone call me?
Who cares what kind of skills and stamina it takes to dive in some cold water locations in the world, it can still be miserable conditions with a very limited amount of days in a year to dive.
You mean you cold water people do not dive 3-4 times a week?
Don't you get to dive after work on Tuesday and then Friday night. What about Saturday and Sunday? When do you get your free lobsters?
Sometimes I think I would be glad to give up this crap to be able to dive in beautiful warm water almost 365 days a year.
Sometimes?
It's not just about the "training", it's about where you get to dive. The training is just something required to reach the end result, the actual diving.
True 'dat.

Thank you ! Someone that makes some sense..:banana:
If there is current (like diving in Jupiter,FL) you just go with the flow ...not hard actually. I call it lazy man diving :cool2:

Who you calling lazy.
We work really really hard down here at having fun.
Do you not have any respect for the sacrifices we make in not playing golf, skiing, snowmobiling, playing hockey, and never learning to play my most favorite olympic sport..."Curling"?

Why I am not dead yet, I'll never know.
I guess God looks over fools.

Chug
Lazy, warm, complacent, boring, unchallenged diver.

 

[boulderjohn]

If OW/Recreational divers were on a par with tech or cave divers, then why do so many of them suffer a melt-down when they first start the training??

I think the thread was just about cold water divers and the branching off to include a comparison with tech or cave training is a minor hijack.

But, as long as we are on that hijack...

I believe that my first technical diving lessons were among the most humbling days of my diving life. I thought I knew what I was doing when I started, and I had to accept the obvious truth that I had a long, long way to go. Interestingly enough, I think I have less confidence in my overall diving ability now than I did before I started that training, even though I am much more skilled than I was then.

 

[DennisS]

Cold water divers are definitely more dedicated. I moved to FL because diving in cold low visibility water sucked. Instead of adapting and becoming a "better diver" I moved to where there was "better diving". If I was still up north I probably would have given up diving long ago.

 

[Quero]

Warm water is generally more "user friendly" than cold water, that much is true, but the ability to cope with less user friendly circumstances (whether it be cold water as opposed to warm or Windows OS as opposed to Mac OS) doesn't make any particular group of individuals "better" than another. It only makes each more adept at dealing with the specific circumstances they routinely encounter.

What makes divers superior is doing lots of diving, and this goes for those who dive in cold water as much as for those who dive in warm water. Dedicated divers who dive their local waters regularly (regardless of whether those waters are warm or cold) tend to become quite skilled. Vacation divers, no matter where they trained, suffer backsliding from year to year. Merely being trained in a cold water locale doesn't mean that a diver with 10 dives has mastered buoyancy control or finning techniques any better than a diver with the same number of dives who has trained in warm water. The notion of giving "extra credit" to divers who trained in cold water and rewarding them with a certification to recognize their supposed superiority is simply misguided.