I am cold!! Any ideas? (Drysuit diving)

[Norm]

Hey Maria. Being an instructor does sometimes require long periods of times in the cold stuff. I can appreicate your problem. Many people here have made good points, especially about the chemical heat packs. Some other things to consider are: 1.What about your hood? Since most heat is lost through the head.... 2.What are you wearing on your hands? Wet gloves are good. Dry gloves are better. Thick gloves are warmer. Thick mitts are best, (although you lose dexterity until you get used to them). If you are diving with wet hands, do you pour hot water into them before entering the water? This REALLY helps! 3.Your drysuit DOES have attached feet/booties doesn't it? (Some actually do not!) 4.Do you have the urge to "go" during a dive? If so, this usually makes one feel much colder. It's hard to find a balance between being hydrated enough and too much. (Especially harder on women in drysuits!) 5.My biggest problem when diving dry is prespiration. I get SO HOT before entry, (and obviously some during a dive), that I produce mass quantities of condensate inside my suit. Sooner or later this stuff is going to get cold! Do you get hot before entry? Just some thoughts.....Good luck to you girl!
Norm

 

[Inspector#2]

I think Norm's got the answer with the head covering. There are quilted liners that can donned first then the dry hood. Even if you are using a drysuit without an attached hood you should try the liner. I use a 6mm hood with a liner in cold water (38-40F) no matter if Im diving dry or wet. This should be tried first before you mess around with meds or uncontrollable (and unaccessable!) thermal reactions.
Good luck,
Dave

 

[Marine801]

You may be overlooking a couple of very simple solutions to your problem of being cold. #1. Positive attitude. A positive attitude toward cold can make a world of difference during the exposure. If you expect to be cold you will get cold. Your adult body mass should easily allow you to be able to remain comfortable over the dive profiles you describe in the equipment you describe. #2. I see that you are an instructor and I would guess that you have weighted yourself very efficiently, pehaps too efficiently. When I made the trasition from wet to dry diving I was shocked by the amount of weight used and initially kept myself weighted using the same criteria I used for wet diving. You may just be weighted so lightly that you can not add enough air to your dry suit to keep warm. In effect you loose all the insulating value the suit was designed to maximize simply because of the lack of weight needed to counteract the bouyancy of the volume of air it takes to properly insulate your body. I am a professional diver, diving extremes of temperature and depth are part of what I do. I still have to remind myself some days that diving isn't like sitting in my livingroom. Try a tethered dive (for safety). Add 8-12 kilos of extra weight to you gear. Suspend yourself at a depth you would normally achieve, or rest on the bottom at a normal depth. Deflate your BCD and get good and negative. Inflate your dryuit but stop just before you become neutral. Get neutral w/your BCD. Now relax. Make sure that you have worked air all the way down your legs (move around inside your gear). This should warm you up nicely. As you become more comfortable with a higher volume of air in your suit begin to adjust the amount of weight you are using . Your suit should never be used for buoyancy control of course. If you became neutral using your suit alone before you became comfortable, add more weight.

 

[haggis]

Just a small question/thought...

I was made to believe that although you should wear a BC to provide bouyancy at the surface, during a dive you should use your drysuit to provide bouyancy to avoid having to control two different systems. Was this information wrong or are there just diferent schools of thought on the matter?

 

[ericfine50]

Haggis,

That is one way to dive. The other school (which I am of) says that you should put just enough air/argon into the suit to remove the squeeze and use the wing/bc for bouyancy changes.

On the topic of getting cold, you people tried Argon? I love it and a little 6 cu ft. bottle lasts me several dives. That with a good set of underwear (Weezle Extreme in my case) and I stay very warm on long dives in the NE.

Eric

 

[o2diver]

Just read an ad for a product that you might find of interest. Company is called XCM and they now have a computer controled heating system for divers. In the UK it is distributed by Typhoon. Email address is:
http://www.typhoon-int.co.uk
Check them out it sounded interesting.
In the US it is distributed by DUI
Good luck and safe diving.
O2diver

 

[rogerhelmich]

Thinsulate a 200 and a 400gram
just depends which one I wear
Argon only when I will be in the water longer than an hour

 

[wetlettuce]

Hi

Its the weasle undersuit. They need more air to to counteract the compression. Its a common complaint in the UK and we are diving in 8degreesC at this time of year.

Virtually everytime I hear someone talking about the weasle undersuits they say they need more air to keep warm. Incidentally the people who say they are great are those who use their drysuit for buoyancy (More air!!)

I wouldn't recommend adding more weight as that causes other problems so you could sell or return it and get an undersuit which is precompressed such as the DUI G400 (Type B thinsulate used in boots and designed for warmth when compressed) or a CBears Tricore (Type C thinsulate used in gloves etc. recommended by Othree under their neoprene suits) http://www.c-bear.co.uk/ap4.html

Also previous comments about headgear are spot on. Invest in a decent hood and perhaps drygloves.

Hope that helps

WL

 

[rogerhelmich]

dry gloves make all of the difference in the world

 

[caveseeker7]

... and if all else fails maybe try a rebreather. They generate warm, moist air when scrubbing the CO2 out of the gas. Not a perect solution, and the being cold isn't a great reason to dive one, but you will feel a difference.