OW cold issues

[SubMariner]

The best thing I ever did when diving cold water was get drysuit certified & buy a suit. My only regret was waiting until DMC to do it!

Diving wet in Ontario was a nightmare for me. My maximum downtime of 25 minutes hardly made it worthwhile going through all the stress & strain of putting on enough exposure protection to be semi-comfortable.

Many LDS in temperate climates will (wisely) offer the drysuit option to their students: it just requires some additional confined water training & dives. It is SO worth it!

FWIW,

 

[dfx]

Our OW cert dives were done in 35F "warm" water. Nuff said.

 

[divergirl6]

Thanks everyone for all the advice! She's decided to stick with Seattle Scuba. She has been reading all of your responses though she's not an SB member and thinks that trying your suggestions will work - particularly hot water/taking off the wetsuit at least down to the waist. Thanks again, guys, it means a lot!

divergirl

 

[Lirpa246]

I dove in Puget Sound this weekend in a layered shortie and farmer john set up totaling about 14mm. I'd layer a few and go with that- I was quite comfortable.

 

[DukeAMO]

Yeah, in the summer the car gets nice and toasty warm. I'd highly recommend putting a couple of towels on the seats and jumping in there between dives, if you can park close enough.

It was in the 80s for most of our dives this spring, and I'd still wear my hooded sweatshirt with the hood up between dives. Taking of the entire wetsuit wasn't worth it, but I would pull it down to the waist so I could at least dry off my top half.