Getting cold

[DevonDiver]

You can put on as much clothes, gloves, socks, boots, what have you and nothing helps. I have attacks in the middle of the summer in the grocery store or if I go into someones house that has the air set low. I had hand warmers with me last weekend and after the dive I activated them and put my hands in pocket with warmers. Nothing like looking like you are amoung the dead, with purple lips and white and black hands. I have had to put my feet in my husbands arm pits before to get the blood flowing again. :shocked2:

Forgive my ignorance of this medical condition.... but is this circulatory or neurological based? I can't help but wonder if this would seriously pre-dispose a diver to DCS?

And yes i did pick up the deco on the zenobia wreck, engine room at 38mtr, amazing

:shocked2::shocked2:

It's amazing that a divemaster would take a novice diver into wreck penetration at the very outer limits of recreational range. It's not amazing that you exceeded your NDL at that depth. It was lucky that nothing went wrong, because the tolerances for survival would have been quite low.

The recommendations from most major agencies (for wreck and deep trained divers) are to limit penetration to a maximum of 30m horizontal and vertical combined distance from the surface. Regardless of agency politics, that is a very sensible recommendation.

Just so that you know... if you had a freeflow at that depth, your tank would empty in seconds. If you had any other sort of incident, and your breathing became accelerated, then you could suck your tank down in under 2 minutes. Long enough to exit the wreck and make your ascent? Are you aware of the rapid onset narcosis, brought about by elevated breathing (increased CO2), should an incident occur?

To the OP... advice....please.... don't get over-ambitious with your diving. This was a serious dive...that required serious training and equipment. It is illustrative of the worst sort of 'trust me' mentality by the divemaster. Don't do 'trust me' dives. They seem fine and enjoyable, but if something goes wrong you instantly find yourself in a world of trouble. Don't do any dive that you wouldn't attempt if you were the most experienced member of the group... or that you would feel confident (based on training, experience and equipment) 'escaping' from alone, under the worst scenarios.

Personally... I'd sack a divemaster who took a customer with your level of experience/certification on a 'trust me' dive like this.

It's incredibly irresponsible and puts you (and other customers) at enormous risk. What is worse, it is a betrayal of trust by the divemaster...and puts you in danger of risks that you don't understand. It should be criminal to expose divers to risks, if they are not fully aware of them.

More than enough divers have died on the Zenobia already.... including at least one over-confident, under-professional divemaster. I wish the industry could stamp out this sort of behaviour by divemasters. There really isn't any need for dives like this to be carried out....

Again...this is a rant about the Divemaster concerned.... not the OP.

 

[String]

Zenobia is (in)famous for "it'll be fine just follow me" dives. Due to its size and depths you always get untrained people going into deco and/or penetration. Usually they're lucky, nothing happens and they enjoy it. Sometimes luck runs out.
Thistlegorm is the same, pretty much every trip you see some people hanging off a live doing deco and/or breathing on the emergency hang tanks. The guides should be shot but at a guess id venture divers in deco on there are more common than divers that don't have any.
On the flip side, the individual diver has to take responsibility - they're told in training not to penetrate and not to enter mandatory decompression unless they have additional specific training and equipment. They then choose to ignore that training so yes blame the guides for suggesting it but also blame the diver for doing what they KNOW is wrong.

That aside, cold hands and feet in 21c is a symptom of the core cooling so gloves won't do anything - you have to treat the root cause. If not wearing a hood, get one. You need a thicker wetsuit or layers on the wetsuit (although in that temperature id be in a drysuit).
As said above, *gentle* exercise throughout the dive would help a bit too but NOTHING stupid. Gentle that doesn't elevate your breathing.
As well as that make sure you've eaten before the dive as you'll get warmth from that too.

 

[popo's dad]

Many thanks for all the advice, next step will be a hooded vest but i have found plastic bags inside my boots a great help until my boot liners arrive, and my current suit is a Mares 5-4-3 trilastic and i'm now puting a 3mm shortie over it trying to find the best solution before i splash out on more gear.

Also with the greatest respect to DevonDiver, you have logged many dives and are probably very highly skilled and trained in tech and wreck and i do admire experienced divers but i would like to point out a couple of things.
I never said that i was with a dive master i was with a buddy, actually 2 buddies, one has logged over 1000 dives and the other is even more experienced with around 500 dives on this wreck alone plus numerous 100mtr tech and decompression dives etc so i was in good hands,
we had 8 torches between us, several reels, chemical lights and 2 pony bottles, i was fully aware of the dangers and of the possibilities of rapid onset narcosis and of my own limited experience and felt more than capable of this serious dive and my buddies would not have taken me if there was any doubt about my diving and capabilities. It was also good to know what to do when you go into deco whether intended or not and to experience that senario because you're never shown when training as you shouldn't do a deco dive but it can happen. Comparing the difference between computers is also amazing, one showed 3 min deco, one showed 7 and the other 10 minutes, i know i am still a novice but my training is still very fresh in my mind so i'm not complacent at all. On a more serious note, 3 weeks after the dive in question, a diver died on the zenobia wreck in the engine room but i still wouldn't hesitate to do the same dive again with the right preparation, dive buddies, correct equipment and awareness of how dangerous it can be diving to the limit of training.

 

[Brian Sharpe]

Maybe I'm turning into a wuss in my old age but in 70F water I'm either in my 7mil wetsuit or my drysuit with a light undergarment (wearing a hood either way...).

I even found myself getting a little chilled in Coz a couple of weeks back on the 3rd dive, maybe it's time to by a sport skin for my Fusion & travel with that.

 

[popo's dad]

I suppose everyone's different, did 2 dives yesterday, i had my full suit on, gloves, boots, plastic bags inside the boots plus my shortie over the top and i was ok, my buddy was in his 3mm and he was fine,

 

[popo's dad]

Just a quick update, just did a couple of dives at 21c for about 50 minutes, 1st dive i was wearing a 3mm shortie over my full 5-4-3 suit, boots & gloves and wearing my new 3mm neoprene socks as well for their first outing, still felt a little chilly at around the 50 minute mark but nothing much, 2nd dive i also added a 3mm hood and came out feeling fine, so that's me sorted for now until i get my hooded vest, my buddy is still in his 3mm suit but only just, git,

 

[tracydr]

In those temps and for repetitive dives I would wear my 7mm plus a hood. Some reasonably thick but not too thick gloves. A hood, always. Even in warm water I wear a light hood. A thicker hood at these temps.
You'll find keeping your core and head warm will reduce your air consumption and make your dive more fun.

 

[popo's dad]

thanks for that Dr Tracy, i've only been diving for nearly 6 months so it's my first time in cooler temperatures and not sure how i'd be compared to others so trying to find out what works without spending to much and getting it wrong, everyone's different at the end of the day but we're all divers and what a great way to spend our spare time.

 

[packeteer]

yep, definitely wear a hood and possibly a vest (I have the sharkskin one).