What do you do while oyster diving? We live by the bay and it is downright cold right now.
I feel at least somewhat qualified to answer as I just did my 1st oyster dive this past Sat 12/18. You meet @ 6am, get loaded, boat leaves @ sunrise. It's about a 25-30 min ride out of Annapolis (at least the charter I was on). You gear up and jump in. Water was 47F. You and a buddy both grab a milk crate and drop down. Viz was ~ 4'. Then you search for rocks on the bottom. You both work as a team to lift the basket and move it into the current. The deepest I got was 18'. Not sure I made it sound exciting, but it really was. I enjoyed it, I'll be back again on the 8th to do it again. It's work, you have to have way more weight than I would have thought, and I went through air a lot faster than normal... working our way into the current, lifting the crate.. I'm actually still a little sore, but it helps to stay warm too. I really didn't think about the cold at all.
The boat was a ~ 40'? Flat bottom type of fishing boat I guess... Idk boats. It was entirely surrounded by clear vinyl walls and heated inside. And when I say heated I had to stand at the back for most of the ride because it was almost too hot, but great once you came up.
One thing that was really wild to me is out of 6 divers on the boat I was the only one diving dry... everyone else was wet
.... damn polar bears living in MD.
With all that said, it was a fun experience. We got back to dock and they fired up the grill and we had all sorts of oysters. I absolutely love oysters, so for me it was great.. my son that went with me (in a 7mm) also had a great time and wants to do it again.
Edit; wanted to add 1st dive was 37 min, 2nd was 52 min... you really just dive until the crate is full or you get too cold.
