Pre-warming a wetsuit

[Wayward Son]

It works really well, especially for 2nd dives when your wetsuit is otherwise cold and wet. It makes no sense to use your precious body heat warming up a large chunk of rubber, when you can get some outside help.

Putting on the wetsuit in a warm shower also works (if there is one available).

This is true, but don't discount the 1st dive. having warm water already in there you don't suffer through the initial shock of having that cold water flush into the suit. People have actually had heart attacks from that.

During winter dives, my preference is this:

Hot water in the suit just before rolling of the side.

After dive, get back in boat, dump & secure gear. Hot water in the suit. Put on dive parka & knit hat, get out of wind.

Gear up. Hot water in suit, dive.

Reapeat as needed.

 

[SwimJim]

The people that tell you putting warm water in your suit will make you cold have one thing in common. They have no cold water experience and they are talking out of thier posteriors. I was first introduced to this for ice dives and I can tell you it does in fact work. The charter boat that I frequent has a hose that comes off the engine that they get hot water from. They mix it with a little cool water so they don't scald anybody then pour it down the suits of cold divers. Personally, I went to a dry suit. Thats a whole lot better.

Jim

 

[Gidds]

The key is WARM water, not HOT water. WARM= at or less than your body temp while still feeling warm. I fill up a hot water bottle, you know the thing you use when you're sick, before the dive and put it in my little soft cooler so it stays warm. I load my suit with that (when I dive wet, just went dry much better) before the dive and if we want to do two dives my buddy carries around this big kettle and a propane burner and we have warm water for the second dive. The kettle also doubles as a lobster cooking device and the burner is useful for making soup

 

[TheRedHead]

Sometimes a lttle natural radiator fluid from the body helps a litle as well. It may not last as long as some other techniques, but once your in the water your body will heat itself up.

DandyDon showed me how to do it. I thought it was WONDERFUL! And it worked great! I was deffinately NOT colder!

Hmmm. I was thinking about one of his Singles Trips, but maybe not...

 

[spectrum]

Last May, my daughter & I completed our OW training. The lake we dove in was cold, so our instuctor had us pour a 2 litre bottle of warm water in our wetuits prior to the dive. I was told by a different dive shop that this can make you colder because tha warm water will open the pores in your skin & allow the cold water that does enter your suit to "penetrate" your skin farther, thereby making you colder after a while.
Any thoughts on this?

Quite warm, but not HOT. Too hot will do weird things to your blood vessels as suggested.

I take 1/2 liter water bottles of my hottest tap water packed in a cooler with a towel on top. Another buddy uses those picnic jugs with a hose he adds to the spiggot. Fill your booties 1/2 full before you zip them, pour some in at the waist to get both legs, then is at the collar and lean to make sure it flows into your arms then save the rest for a treat when you get out. When doing it pre-dive try not to get the outside of your suit wet or you will have evaporative cooling before you start. Done right you can march into 40F water and not notice the cold water infiltrating.

Pete

 

[dbg40]

the instructors nuts,, Put warm water in there and you're way ahead of the game. Even better? have some extra to dump in there when you come out! trust me, it adds YEARS to your life!

 

[bradshsi]

This is true, but don't discount the 1st dive. having warm water already in there you don't suffer through the initial shock of having that cold water flush into the suit.

Your point is well made. For some reason I have not felt the need to use the hot water trick on the first dive. However if my wetsuit was leakier, (or my tolerance of cold different), I probably would want some pre dive help.

Now if I could just get my hands on a hot water suit and 600 yards of tubing, I'd be set for anything

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I have read that a world class, cold water freediver said that they experimented using hot water in the suit prior to the dive and it significantly reduced their ability to remain in the cold water for extended periods. I think that he felt that it delays the body's energy conservation mechanism and might send too much blood to the extremities, as someone alluded to earlier.

I myself, feel that the warm water is excellent. I sometimes boil the water and then pour into jugs and then place them in coolers. At the dive site you add just enough cool water to make it tolerable. You add progressively less water as the day goes on and the water cools.

Careful! Pouring water that is just a little too hot down the suit can really burn you, because you can't get it off your skin. I learned the hard way to always test the water with my lips before making the pour down the neck. If you can sip hot coffee, checking with a little slurp will seem natural. If it is cold out, your fingers are just too insensitive to adequately judge the hot water temp.

 

[midwayman]

Just use your errrr natural warm water circulation system on the dive.