Equipment for cold waters dilema

[Bugsy700]

I read about people getting enviromentally sealed regs or regs designed for cold water but my question is what do the manufactuer consider cold? Are there any standard temps below which it would be considered a cold water dive?

On a side note. A local dive quarry has a sign posted warning that regulators will free-flow at depths below 60 feet. Is this warning just because of the water temp (40-55 deg F depending on time of year) or are regs more prone to free-flow at greater depths?

Jake B.

 

[String]

I read about people getting enviromentally sealed regs or regs designed for cold water but my question is what do the manufactuer consider cold? Are there any standard temps below which it would be considered a cold water dive?

Yep as i said in my post above, water below 10c (50f) is classed as "cold" certainly as far as european standards for regs go and i think its worldwide.

 

[ICY ICE]

I have a Scuba Pro MK25/S600, dove in 45 degree @ 102ft, no problems getting air or mechanical malfunctions.

I would do it again only in a dry suit.

 

[Mirjana]

me and my friends we dive in cold waters most of the year. temperature between 7 to 10C, while during the winter it gets as low as 3 to 5C. living inland, far from the coast, leaves you no other option but lakes. and caves. our typical dive is app. 45 to 50min. we're also tried ice diving.
with all that said, and with the variety of equipment people use, i can say that what works best for us is wing+backplate ( I use Halcyon's Pioneer MC System with stainless steel backplate) and APEX ATX 50 (DS 4 for I stage). it's superb. prior to that, I used OMS wing (32l), but I prefer Halcyon. I find it more comfortable.
since i'm still on the learning curve, i don't dive in a dry suit, yet. but BARE Arctic wet suit worked very well for me in the past year. I'm going to try SGS Artic in the following winter.
As for the purchase, after very long research on the net, we found one quite well equipped DIR store in Czech Republic, with really good prices (Halcyon's usually quite expensive). You can check them on www.dir-shop.cz (I apologize if this's not allowed, I haven't ready through all the forum rules yet).

Hello!

I am in a big dilema and hope to find some answers with your experience. I live in Norway but just got NAUI OW certified at the warm waters of San Andres Island in Colombia.
Me and the wife have been thinking that buying all the equipment (except the air supply of course) is the right way to go, it is much more trusty than to rent regulator, bc, etc for each new dive. The big situation is that all this equipment can cost almost 4 times more in Norway than if it's bought here in Colombia. I was thinking that the only thing that we were going to buy in Norway was the dry suits and all the rest here.

I have been asking for prices and have found a lot of Cressi gear here that is in our budget. This includes mask, fins, bc, regulator, octopus, basic instrument console (deepth and air), snorkel and knifes.

I have been in contact with my wife's uncle that is a PADI divemaster in Norway and he is telling us not to buy anything here because Cressi is not certified or aproved gear for cold waters, then basically all my echonomical buying plans have been ripped appart

Is this a really big issue? Does the equipment need to be aproved for cold water? I think most of our norwegian dives will be done between 3C and 15C degrees waters, I am really not planning to do ice diving, and I like that the equipment can be used when we are going for vacations to warmer waters too (except the dry suit).

I would love to read your input about this.

Thank you very much.

 

[jcm996]

I don't know what Cressi model it was, but they sent one for a local shop owner to try. 2 dives it freeflowed each time, sent him a "upgrade" kit and again it free flowed at below 43 degrees.

My LDS is a big scubapro dealer, but he recommends Sherrwood regs to anyone planning to dive Lake Michigan. The Scubapro rep just sent their new cold water reg to him and it is being tested in 40 degree water or lower to see if it freeflows or not. I will let you know the results.

But around here, for cold water 45 degrees or less almost everyone uses Sherwood.

 

[SwimJim]

The Sherwood is a solid reg. Several of my dive buddies use them and I would recommend them. Personally I dive Poseidon Xtreams and they work very well reguardless of the environment. 45F is not really considered cold for Lake Michigan. When the ice goes out in March I'm diving in mid thirties. My first reg set was DACOR and it would handle that fine. Sub 40F and + 100 fow was a problem for the Dacor though so I upgraded. The equipment is expensive and like Slick Willey used to say "I feel your pain". That said, get the best you can afford, you've got to have the right tool for the job. Dive safe.

Jim

 

[scuba_mike]

I'll second that Jim. I know from readind the magazines that there are quite a few good cold-water regs, but I've used my Sherwood Maximus to 100 fow in mid-30s temperatures on several occasions and it's been terrific. I also buddied once with a fellow who had recently bought his reg "down south" (which I learned after we'd surfaced) and it free-flowed at 47F.

Mike

 

[wreckchick]

Just a quick note... the Cressi Frogs are fine for warm water diving, but you're going to need a different set of fins that will fit over whatever you have on the feet of the drysuit. Many people use Scubapro Jetfins with drysuits.

Rachel

 

[String]

Any open heeled fin will be fine and i suspect most divers own those.

Personally i dislike jetfins and prefer my AvantiX3 fins but my real hate are split fins. Lots of effort for little movement.

 

[Tom725]

We dive regularly in Lake Michigan where the temperature are are often 38 degrees. You need a regulator with an enviornmental kit or it will likely free flow. At debth the combinantion of cold water and the cooling effect or air under preasure being released can cause a first stage to free flow. If you are diving water below 50F degree (sorry I do not know the conversion) you need a cold water reg. It is my guess they do not sell them in Columbia.

A "cold water" BC is usually higher lift capacity because you wear more equipment. A heavy wet suit will compress and you may need more lift to overcome this lose of bouyancy.

"Cold water fins" in addition to being open foot instead of full foot are usually stiffer to provide more power to move all the equipment through the water.