First cold water dives

[lowviz]

My "wipe clear" is smear the J&J soap on and wipe it off until there are no vision distorting streaks on the glass.

Full Monty: Mix it with this (Amazon.com: Cerium Oxide Glass Polishing Compound - 8 Oz: Home Improvement). put some on the lens and with a really, really clean finger (NO sand grains) scrub the lens. It removes the light crud film that always develops on clean glass. "Wipe clear" and splash...

 

[BoltSnap]

wipe it off

What do you use to wipe it off, some sort of a towel or fingers? Do you do a dry wipe off?

 

[Gareth J]

Did the cold water treatment, sort of. Let water into my mask to partially flood it to defog it but that didn't work. It was leaking, too. Tomorrow I will try the bit of silicone grease that DRIS gave me to try (deep smile lines). I start flooding when I equalize. DM flamed my mask after we got out. I had already scrubbed it 3-4 times with toothpaste. Will do that again tonight..

The cold water treatment (rinsing your face in the cold water), is mainly to avoid thermal shock if you end up flooding your mask, rather than to prevent fogging.

If you were under weight, add the extra. If possible, make it so you can remove 2lb with ease, i.e. clip on weight. Also, ask your DM to carry an additional clip on 2lb. Then you have a bit of leeway to adjust your weighting.

Only once this is sorted would I worry about anything else (pony cylinder, skills, etc). Fighting being under weight is not nice at all. PS If you find you are fractionally heavy, use the wing to compensate for the over weight rather than the drysuit (if you use the drysuit for buoyancy).

Glad you enjoyed the experience, despite the problems.

Gareth

 

[Marie13]

Didn't dive with pony yesterday and probably won't today.


Being underweighted is no fun at all. I don't use my drysuit for buoyancy at all. That's what the wing is for. I only put a wee bit of air in suit to offset squeeze.

I hope we can find the spoonbills today!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I am curious why you ended up underweighted and having to hang onto a DM in order to conduct a dive? I don't want to sound critical or negative. You have spent all this time going over this stuff on this forum, attempting to fine tune and tweek all aspects of your configuration, asking for constructive criticism, engaged in several pool dives and then when you finally get in open water, you are inadequately equipped?

Obviously the OP is intelligent and diligent and seems to be somewhat meticulous about trying to get things right, but ended up with a fail. Not to make a big deal about it, it is a learning situation, but it is still a messed up dive and made the diver dependent on another, which is something to be avoided in openwater.

Again not being negative here. If it were me, with a ton of experience and no real knowledge of how much lead I would need with a new dry suit and undergarments, I would have had a ton of lead at my disposal and been prepared to drop lead off on shore.. especially if I was diving in a quarry which would make the logistics of this simple - as compared to jumping off a boat and having to come back to the boat to fine tune things. But I would have had MORE than enough lead.

I wonder if the reason for the modest underweighting was that the OP has heard over and over on here that a "good diver" does not need a lot of lead? Is it because we constantly hear about people bragging about how much lead they shed as they progressed? Did she try to fine tune and optimize her ballast because she was influenced by so much of the discussion on this topic on this forum?

She would have been much safer and better served if she wore 8 lbs too much lead, reports back that she had a little trouble with the bubble in her BC - that she was not satisfied with her trim - and next dive she will drop 4 lbs and see how it goes. To me, that would have been a much safer and more desirable outcome, but it runs 180 degrees to so much of the advice and discussion I read on this forum.

So am I am curious, was she influenced by this optimization (and minimization) of lead (theme) which caused her to end up having to hold hands to do the dive?

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

As a newer diver I agree there is an feeling that you are not diving well till you have less weight. I fell for that for a bit, then added some weight back and was much more comfortable as I did not worry so much about rapid ascent at the end of the dive. it's a thin line for newer divers figuring out how much is just enough, and that line seems to shift a bit All part of this grand learning curve.

 

[TMHeimer]

How do you wipe clear? Dunk it in water and rinse or wipe it with a towel dry?

Use small amounts of toilet paper and wipe until you can't see anymore shampoo/streaking, etc. You can wipe the outside of the lense as well if you like, just to clean it a bit. No rinsing the shampoo off. Then your mask is ready to go--next week or probably even next year. When gearing up, especially in warm air temp., there may then be a little "streaking", but one mask clear once on the dive clears any of that.

 

[Marie13]

Mermet is a really nice dive site, unlike Gilboa in Ohio (and the Stairs of Death).

Water temp today was 48F. I left the Xerotherm base layer off today. I felt my movement was too restricted yesterday. Plus the Xerotherm socks made my suit socks a bit snug and hard to get on. I ended up getting cold after 25 minutes though.

I did get the "ice cream headache" when I first put my head underwater today. But it wasn't that bad! ;-) No nervousness at all today. Went right under.

Ended up putting the silicone grease in my smile lines today and that helped some with the leaking that happens whenever I equalize.

All the pool work helped with my kicks as I felt those were halfway decent today. But I was beat (and cold) after 25 minutes. I had no energy left in my legs to kick. My hotel room had a too soft bed so sleep was meh, plus the 380 mile drive the day before and a very intense week at work may have caught up with me. But even given the challenges, it was a good experience. I ended up carrying 22 lbs today on top of BP and weighted STA insert. But I was able to stay down without any issues. Local quarry opens April 1 and I've found a couple of people to dive with from my LDS opening day who don't mind the cold.

 

[Marie13]

I would like to try the cold water diving sometime myself. The one thing though is that once deer season is over I tend to take vacations someplace warm, and that is my best opportunity to dive. I am actually taking a break from doing my taxes and packing for my trip to Coron. Sorry if I was of no help either.

You can actually do cold water diving into the spring months. Just pick a quarry/inland lake unless you prefer ocean diving and there are boats going out in April. I bet the water would still be pretty chilly.

 

[rx7diver]

Water temp today was 48F. I left the Xerotherm base layer off today. I ended up getting cold after 25 minutes though. ... But I was beat (and cold) after 25 minutes. I had no energy left in my legs to kick.

Marie13,

Many divers, including myself, will get colder faster without a base wicking layer. The base layer doesn't have to be expensive, and it can be quite thin. (I prefer really thin, actually.) Gotta get the moisture away from your skin!

Forty-eight degrees F is not that cold for a drysuit diver. Are you sure your hood fits well? Also, you'll be warmer if you put more air in your drysuit (so that your underwear fluffs). Some underwear (e.g., Thinsulate) is less likely to compress and, so, keeps you warmer. And if your socks make your boots fit too tight, your feet will get cold (since circulation will be impeded), and, so, you will feel cold. Similar with gloves or liners that fit your hands too tightly.

And if you get cold, you'll lose strength. Your not having energy left in your legs to kick suggests to me that you let yourself get too cold. (Or maybe you were simply worn out from two days of diving, and not sleeping well.)

FWIW.

Safe Diving

rx7diver