"Cold" Water Diving

[old gaffer]

39 degrees in Lake Superior (in July) surface air temp was in the sixties. Wore a 6.5mm deepsea farmer john with a shortie so I was partially 12mm. also hood boots and gloves. I got cold after about 30 minutes but my hands were so cold they actually hurt! I am thinking about the new Aqualung 7/8mm one piece semi-dry suit. Anybody tried it?

Gaffer

 

[TheScream]

What a bunch of wimps! I'm diving 18 degrees in a 3mm!

... unless you were talking in those crazy Fahrenheit measurements...

 

[do it easy]

I did a dive in Lake Michigan in March- My Sensus Ultra had 31f while my BT had 35f. I'm not sure which one is right, but there was pancake ice all over the lake, so it was plenty cold!

A freeze up story - while we were ice diving last year, we left our wet gear out between dives and all the bolt snaps froze shut. My neoprene slap strap on my mask froze with a bend in it, so it was tight to put on for the second dive. It was an exercise in futility to try to rinse the defog out of my mask since the water would freeze to the glass.

 

[jwalko]

41 degrees at anything below 40' this past weekend at Gilboa Quarry in NW Ohio. Using Bare Nex Gen Pro dry suit. Underneath wore polypro long johns, fleece sweatpants, Columbia turtleneck and fleece overshirt, two layers of socks, one typical athletic sock, one heavy wool. After 35 minutes, only hands were cold (5 mil wetsuit gloves). 7mm dry suit hood. Other than cold hands, quite comfortable. Diving Apex regs, no problem with free flow as of yet. I was surprised...a couple of people were diving 7mil farmer johns and said they were very comfortable...I didn't want to take the chance.

John

 

[yankeenica]

i just dove in 46F water with a .5mm skin, 7mm wetsuit, hood and 5mm gloves. only my fingers began to get uncomfortably cold toward the end of the dive.

 

[Jimmer]

I've done 36f in a 5mm wetsuit with a core warmer. Fortunetly for me my days of wet cold water diving are over, as my new White's Fusion drysuit showed up on Wednesday!

 

[DiverLS]

42 degrees at Lake Tahoe, NV in April DUI TLS drysuit, Thinsulate 200 undergarment, dry gloves. Repetitive diving Pt. Hardy, Canada, 43 degrees, same set up but used Argon. Did 10 dives in 6 days but I did get cold. My regulator was noting special but I didn't have any problem with free flow. I did have a problem because the crew on the boat couldn't sling the Argon tank, they strapped it to the main tank. Problem - can't reach the argon bottle valve. Jumped with no suit fill gas twice. That was one time too many.