Quick question... When deep diving to depths of about 160'-180', what are some of the temperatures you have encountered? Does anyone dive with a wetsuit to those depths or is a drysuit an absolute must?
divin' temps/wetsuit vs drysuit
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ummm, where are you talking about?
MSilvia
Contributor
I've seen 36 degrees locally (Cape Ann) at a depth of 145'. I'd say since you'll be doing deco on any dive to those depths that the thermal protection and redundant buoyancy of a drysuit makes it a must-have.
Scared Silly
Contributor
divin'dog:
60s-80s
Yes
No
Depth has nothing to with the problem at hand. The prinicple factors are temperature, time at depth, deco obligation, body type, and warmth preference. If you get cold easy you might want a dry suit for certain temps. Others might be fine in a wet suit. However, you are better off being warm than cold while doing deco as your circulation will be better.
Remember that at those depths....a wet suit will really be compressed and loosing some of its ability as a thermo barrier.
dschulte
Contributor
divin'dog:
Depends on the water temperature. In October a group of us dove the wall in Jocassee to 170' wet. The water temp was in the low 60's. Winter I dive no deeper than 100' wet at mid 40's temperature. Deeper I will go dry or if I am doing multiple dives or have a long surface interval.
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Scared Silly:
A most excellent response and post.
the K
OP
rjack321:
Wherever you may have encountered those depths. Whatever your experiences are. Just interested in what its like down there.
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43F here locally. There's no way you'd want to do deco dives in a wetsuit below the high 70s. Too much vasoconstriction/limited off gassing.
Darren27
Registered
The biggest factor is not really the temp of the water, but the time you stay in the water. If your diving to the depths you asked about,the dives will either be very quick "bounce" dives staying within the NDL, or your going to start to rack up deco fairly quickly.
Once you start down the road of deco diving you really want to make sure you can stay warm for the whole dive. There is nothing worse than checking you computer and still havinga long stop ahead of you and your already shivering. During the dive you moving about and generating your own warmth but on the stops your just hanging around and you get cold real quick. Lower body temp slows blood flow to the skin and extremities which can increase the risk of DCI.
As to the temps you can find at depth, last year diving at Scapa Flow we had surface temps of 15 deg C (59f) but down at 50m (164ft) we only had 7 deg C (44f).
Once you start down the road of deco diving you really want to make sure you can stay warm for the whole dive. There is nothing worse than checking you computer and still havinga long stop ahead of you and your already shivering. During the dive you moving about and generating your own warmth but on the stops your just hanging around and you get cold real quick. Lower body temp slows blood flow to the skin and extremities which can increase the risk of DCI.
As to the temps you can find at depth, last year diving at Scapa Flow we had surface temps of 15 deg C (59f) but down at 50m (164ft) we only had 7 deg C (44f).
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