Cold water & wet suit

[old frogman]

Classic spearfishing farmer john trousers and jacked with no zips, hood attached, open cell wetsuit. Requires talc or soapy water to put on. Almost like a dry suit as the open cell rubber resists cold water ingression. Depending on depth you can choose a 5mm for shallow depths or 7mm to 10mm if going deeper. There are also jell heat packs than can be preheated, you can insert at lower back to add bit more warmth (inserted during dressing). Alternatively, you can pour warm water from a thermos flask into the suit prior to the dive (after putting on the suit).

 

[happy-diver]

I cook myself wearing the suit in the car heater on driving to the dive site

 

[34109411]

I cook myself wearing the suit in the car heater on driving to the dive site

lol

 

[Skip Y]

I thought of getting a new five gallon bucket with a lid at Home Depot and filling it with boiling water before I leave the house to go diving.
It's an hour and a half to where we dive so I figure it should have cooled enough by then to pour into the suit without scalding. Or if it's too hot then wait till after the first dive to pour it in.
Is that what you guys do?

Most of us us gallon bottles. I personally use empty Arizona iced tea bottles because they are fairly heavy. I fill them with hot water, then on the way to the dive site I put them on the floor of the truck so the heater is blowing on them. With one gallon bottle (s) you can hold the neck of the suit out a little and pour with the other hand, with a 5 gallon bucket you'd probably need a second person

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Most of us us gallon bottles. I personally use empty Arizona iced tea bottles because they are fairly heavy. I fill them with hot water, then on the way to the dive site I put them on the floor of the truck so the heater is blowing on them. With one gallon bottle (s) you can hold the neck of the suit out a little and pour with the other hand, with a 5 gallon bucket you'd probably need a second person

I was thinking of putting a pour cup inside the bucket. With a big bucket and that much hot water I could soak my hands too.
Last Saturday we finally got to dive since the Pacific Alaskan storms have let up and it's starting to get nice. But the water was cold, probably high 40's it felt like, IDK? I don't use a computer but I can tell by the burn on my face around the mask.
My feet get cold too. I have freediving socks I'm going to start using inside my booties and I have size 15 booties so my feet will fit. So the sock goes under the wetsuit then the booties go over the wetsuit. I have heavy jet fins and I can stuff rocks into the vents to make them heavier if I need to.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

I thought of getting a new five gallon bucket with a lid at Home Depot and filling it with boiling water before I leave the house to go diving.
It's an hour and a half to where we dive so I figure it should have cooled enough by then to pour into the suit without scalding. Or if it's too hot then wait till after the first dive to pour it in.
Is that what you guys do?

Another option that works well is transporting the very hot water in a cooler. When you get on site, you use a small pot with a handle to bail out some hot water into a bucket, then add cold seawater until you get the right temp.

Then this is important, you use the pot to remove the mixed water and test temperature with your lips. You can be burned badly if you pour water that is too hot down your neck. The suit will insulate you and it can be serious burn. I suppose a thermometer might work too.

. You might think you can just stick your hand in the water, to test, but in cool weather, your hands can get cold and insensitive, so that is unreliable. Most everyone is used to sipping hot tea or coffee, so we are already good at cautiously sampling hot liquids in this manner.
Even when you are satisfied the water is cooled sufficiently, it is prudent to just pour a tiny bit down the neck, before you really commit to a big pour.

During the day, as the water cools you will be diluting with progressively less seawater and possibly none at the end.

If splashing of water out of the coooler is a concern during transport, you can just fill up gallon jugs of hot water and then place them in the cooler for transport. The cooler will keep them pretty hot all day. Prefilling boots and gloves with warm water is really nice as well.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Another option that works well is transporting the very hot water in a cooler. When you get on site, you use a small pot with a handle to bail out some hot water into a bucket, then add cold seawater until you get the right temp.

Then this is important, you use the pot to remove the mixed water and test temperature with your lips. You can be burned badly if you pour water that is too hot down your neck. The suit will insulate you and it can be serious burn. I suppose a thermometer might work too.

. You might think you can just stick your hand in the water, to test, but in cool weather, your hands can get cold and insensitive, so that is unreliable. Most everyone is used to sipping hot tea or coffee, so we are already good at cautiously sampling hot liquids in this manner.
Even when you are satisfied the water is cooled sufficiently, it is prudent to just pour a tiny bit down the neck, before you really commit to a big pour.

During the day, as the water cools you will be diluting with progressively less seawater and possibly none at the end.

If splashing of water out of the coooler is a concern during transport, you can just fill up gallon jugs of hot water and then place them in the cooler for transport. The cooler will keep them pretty hot all day. Prefilling boots and gloves with warm water is really nice as well.

We got one guy in our group who loves to build stuff and come up with some crazy ideas. I could see him devising something with a small bilge pump inside with a hose, and running it with some sort of 12 V battery pack.

 

[professorpaddle]

We got one guy in our group who loves to build stuff and come up with some crazy ideas. I could see him devising something with a small bilge pump inside with a hose, and running it with some sort of 12 V battery pack.

What would be hilarious is if he ended up devising some amazing contraption but not tracking the cost... 6 months later you have this bad ass automated hot water pump station with LCD read out and thermostat that cost so much everyone could have bought dry suits off craigslist.

 

[SouthernSharktoothDiver]

@Eric Sedletzky Might I suggest a thermos? For my last dive (~45 F air temp, 56 F water temp) I was in a 7mm semidry and 3mm hood, and I use a Stanley thermos (the green kind) full of hot tap water. The thermos is good enough that if I put boiling water in there, I'd blister and burn, but hot water from the tap is fine.

Edit: And just to weigh in, my cousin and I did the above for ~80-90 minutes of water time wearing our 7mm suits and hoods. I was moderately chilly the first day, when the water was slow, very warm the second when it was flowing fast and I had to fight just to stay still.

 

[grantmac]

A thermos that you attach a BCD whip to and can slightly pressurize to pump hot water into your suit would be pretty slick actually.
Of course stepping out of the water with dry clothes is even better.