Cold Weather Divers

[denisegg]

I am just curious. How many of you pack up your gear when the temp drops and wait for it to warm up in the spring before venturing back in the deep blue and how many of you brave the cold with your dry suits(or thick wet suits) and keep going? If you do keep diving, is it in the ocean or natural springs?

 

[carlcz]

Am pulling out my dry suit to start in next couple of weeks.
Water here ~57-59, still ok for full 5mil+ wetsuit.
Am trying to go all year round.
Life is too short to not enjoy it...

 

[JKSteger]

Funny, the summer is usually my "slow" season and I get the fewest dives in. I get the most in during the Winter and Spring when the water is cold and boaters are few.

Jeremy

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

My thick suit is a 3mm wetsuit I dive all year round, gulf and springs, it doesn't matter. Panhandle springs are always 68F, Gulf can get into the mid-50sF on the surface towards the dead end of winter.

 

[Roy Moore]

here in N.C.,Charlotte area we have several Quarrys within 75 miles.A group of us dive year round.water temps in the quarrys at the bottom can get into the mid to low 40's. summer time some of us wear 5mm and 7mm suits. winter time dry suits and heavy thermals.you can dive year round if you have the right gear.oh yes we do dive off the coast on the wrecks alot..u-know God gave us the grave yard of the atlantic.what a wonderful place if your still afloat!!!lol..

 

[tom wicker]

The jury is still out on this one for me. Maybe I’m getting to the point of the cold creaking into my bones to often in my forty plus years. But I’m looking hard at new suits . Now with all this talk of creating new reefs here locally within shore diving even. It may be time to hook up my doubles because I know when I hit that cold water for the first time on each dive I’ll suck the bottom out of an 80# on my first breath. I just hate to see the marine life thin out from the cold

 

[denisegg]

Roy,
We have something in common. We both were certified through SDI, which you don't see alot, and we both love wrecks. They hold a particular fascination for me, like reliving a part of history every time you see one and envisioning it as it was when it was in operation.

 

[Port Tack]

I am afraid I am a warm weather diver. That cold water is just too much for these old bones.

Mike

 

[mikerault]

I am fifty so don't tell me about old bones! I frequently dive Lake Lanier, Ga (just completed a rescue dive class there today!) and will be diving there again the 18th for the Lake Lanier Loonie birds November Dive and Dine. A dry suit makes all the differenece in the world. The last two days everyone else (including the instructor and DMs) where diving multiple wetsuits or semidrys. They all complained about how cold they were, I was comfortable and not cold at all.

I dive cold or hot...of course I prefer a nice tropical cear water dive with pretty marine life (both in and out of the water) but I love to dive and a day diving beats a day at the office, so I dive whenever and where ever I can

Mike

 

[denisegg]

I haven't tried a drysuit yet, but I know how cold that water can get without one. I don't know how you do it Mat, with a 3M wetsuit. You must have tough hide! I have a core 5m that I use with a full 3m and 1m together and I still get cold! The coldest dive I have been on was my OW check out dive at the Destin Jetties in December and the water temp was around 56. It was rainy and overcast that day and made it that much worse. I guess I would brave that kind of temperature again if there was something worth seeing down there.