Getting cold while diving

[Trinads]

Well, my girlfriend and I are now into diving, which has been great. We live in San Diego, and do almost all of our diving here. My problem is, is that I seem to always be cold in the water, and I don't know why, it's probably just how my body regulates temp. We just spent thousands in buying all of our dive gear. We both use the Pinnacle Cruiser 7mm wetsuits, 5mm vented hoods, 5mm booties, and 3mm gloves. Everything fits great, with very minimal water leakage, the water temp yesterday was 55F in about 80ft deep. I'm always shivering by the end of the dive. I thought that equipment was adequate for these temps, but apparently not for me!
-Is there anything I can do without spending hundreds of dollars on buying something else? Any tricks in keeping warm? Any suggestions would be helpful, If I had it the way I wanted, I would be in a dry suit, but they are sooooo expensive!!

 

[potablewater]

Well, my girlfriend and I are now into diving, which has been great. We live in San Diego, and do almost all of our diving here. My problem is, is that I seem to always be cold in the water, and I don't know why, it's probably just how my body regulates temp. We just spent thousands in buying all of our dive gear. We both use the Pinnacle Cruiser 7mm wetsuits, 5mm vented hoods, 5mm booties, and 3mm gloves. Everything fits great, with very minimal water leakage, the water temp yesterday was 55F in about 80ft deep. I'm always shivering by the end of the dive. I thought that equipment was adequate for these temps, but apparently not for me!
-Is there anything I can do without spending hundreds of dollars on buying something else? Any tricks in keeping warm? Any suggestions would be helpful, If I had it the way I wanted, I would be in a dry suit, but they are sooooo expensive!!

Trinads,
Welcome to the SB!
And you answered your own question IMHO. Drysuit! Or keep your dives shallow.
And bring a few gallons of 'warm' water and 'prime' your wetsuit before the dive.
I'm sure the many cool water divers will be chiming in soon.

All the best,
Geoff

 

[Trinads]

What do you mean by "prime your wetsuit" with warm water? I assume it's dumping warm water on the wetsuit, exactly how does this benefit? sorry for the newb questions. Will I notice a difference in doing this? I was hoping for a cheap, cost effective way of dealing with the cold, and this sounds like a way. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Scott M]

Priming would be dumping warm water "into" the suit prior to diving. This will keep you warm for a bit longer until the water exchanges. You could also try a thinker hood, we lose a lot of heat through our heads and a thinker one might help. Dry suit would be idle, well except for price but there are always a bunch of good pre-loved ones on here for sale.

Regards

 

[jimdiverman]

I bought an 8 mil wetsuit to dive off the Atlantic coast in New Jersey. I thought that would work. It does, as long as you stay shallow, as was suggested in the previous post. So it works for surfers to have less neoprene because the neoprene doesn't get compressed at depth (because they don't go deep) the way it does when a diver goes deep. I made dives deeper than 100 feet and even to 150 feet in the Atlantic, and I was shivering on a couple of dives with that 8 mil and a 7 mil farmer john on top of that. My solution was to order a dry suit 2 days after I got back from that trip. I bought a Pinnacle Evo II and got a great deal from Edd at Cave Adventurers in Marianna, FL. I also got the merino lining, merino hood and 5 mil gloves for diving in very cold waters.

I would suggest that, as the last poster already stated, either keep your dives above 40 feet or get drysuits. Of course that is more money, but no one ever said that this was a cheap sport.

Good luck and dive safe!

 

[D_B]

As has been pointed out, there is lots of blood going to your head ... a hooded vest or thicker 7mm hood and seperate 5mm vest ... thicker 5mm gloves (there's lots of blood flow to your hands) ... shorter/shallower dives

I get cold at 40 minutes in that temp/depth ... 7mm Akona, 7mm hood, 5mm boots, 3mm (5mm?) gloves

I just purchased a used drysuit on ebay, and with the new zipper and neck seal cost me $1000

 

[foles1972]

Hi and welcome to scubabard,

I agree with DB...add another layer of neoprene and see if that helps. I used to get pretty cold too (before I bought a drysuit ) so I bought a 7mil core warmer to wear over my 7mil wetsuit, giving me 14mil of neoprene. It's basically a vest or "shorty." It definitely helped me stay warm and is far cheaper than buying a drysuit.

Hope this helps and have fun diving!

 

[spectrum]

Check with the LDS about getting some Sodium Acetate heat packs. Worn arond the kidneys to warm your blood. They provide 130 warmth for a little over an hour and you will be diving in a hot water bottle. My wife has not gone dry and this is how she extends her season. I grab one from time to tomeas well. How it works.

They reactivate by boiling and have along life. You want one for each dive and maybe a spare incase one gets preactivated.

Pete

 

[String]

-Is there anything I can do without spending hundreds of dollars on buying something else? Any tricks in keeping warm? Any suggestions would be helpful, If I had it the way I wanted, I would be in a dry suit, but they are sooooo expensive!!

Unfortunately its a drysuit. Even more annoyingly, you can pick up a 2nd hand drysuit for less than the money wasted on your wetsuits.

 

[ianw2]

Look into one of the wetsuits with integrated hood, such as the Aqualung Solafex.

The Solafex is an 8/7 "semi-dry" suit. I've dived La Jolla Shores in this suit down into the upper 40ºFs. It's not cheap, but it is less expensive than a drysuit. Look as I might, but I've never seen a drysuit - even a "pre=loved one" - for less than $400.

Ian