I think your instructor is an incompetent boob. All of our students learn to use hoods and gloves. It is different but not difficult.
Certainly if you're doing cold water dives the proper thermal protection should be used.
Question about wetsuit hood
- Thread starter lespaulsf
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I think your instructor is an incompetent boob. All of our students learn to use hoods and gloves. It is different but not difficult.
Certainly if you're doing cold water dives the proper thermal protection should be used.
ProfessorAronnax
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Gotta wear a hood at those temps(I'd use a full face mask as well IMO). I cut small holes around the ears which helps w/equalization and bouyancy issues
lespaulsf, welcome to Oklahoma diving. . . Ice diving to hot water diving in the late summer. Only a very small number of divers dive year round, I did at one time, but now mostly dive in the summer only, 5 months a year. If you have a 3 mil suit, it will do well those 5 months, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, and usually early October. In May and October I'll usually add a "Beanie" thin head cover with a strap under the chin.
A second wetsuit, can be a 5 mil farmer john. A bib style long leg "bottom" and a waist length, long sleeve top, with 2 layers of material over the core of the body, will extend your diving year to all of October, into November and early December, also April and early May. Depending on surface temps and wind chill index those conditions may stop comfortable diving.
January, February, March are left for the hard core divers, wearing 7mm farmer john suits or dry suits. There are a few dry suit divers who can outlast all the rest of us. . . but your dive buddy must also be wearing a dry suit or you're left alone.
3 mil suits are more comfortable because they are thin. . . A 5 mil suit starts to get harder to move in because of the thickness of the material, and when you increase to a 7 mil suit It is uncomfortable trying to move. All that changes if you order a custom suit that fits you perfectly. A custom suit is a huge improvement in any of the thicker materials. On a dive with my first custom suit, I was with a partner who got cold at the same rate I did, the week before. . . While still warm and wanting to keep diving, my partner, who was shaking ended the dive because he was too cold, we had been down twice the length of time as the week before, and I was still warm. You and your partner must have similar equipment.
Hoods are uncomfortable if they fit you perfectly. . . and torture if they are not perfect. Too tight, with thick material, can feel like it is breaking your jaw, or squeezing your head. A hood can come with a vest, or a skirt to go under your jacket, or a short neck length skirt, depending on the temperature you're trying to endure.
If you're dive in colder water, carry a thermos of bath temp water, to pour into your suit at the end of the dive and you'll recover body heat faster. Also, cold water can leave you feeling exhausted, bring something to maintain your blood sugar level.
I am also pretty new to diving and have a hood... diving in lakes in water in the 40's... I haven't had problems equalizing. My hood allows trapped air to escape out the top (I can't remember what that is called) which is pretty cool. I would suggest getting thegear and diving... be safe
(for what it is worth, I dive similar temps with my 3 mm fullsuit and a 6.5 mil john top... works pretty well... recently I got both pieces of the 6.5 mm john... warmth is great but it takes a lot of weight to sink that much rubber)
(for what it is worth, I dive similar temps with my 3 mm fullsuit and a 6.5 mil john top... works pretty well... recently I got both pieces of the 6.5 mm john... warmth is great but it takes a lot of weight to sink that much rubber)
Those are great suggestions. I think I'm going to buy a 7mm wet suit so I can dive more throughout the year. The problem now is figuring out which hood and 7mm wetsuit to get. Also I'm having hard time finding buddies to dive with so far. What are the water temps in the summer at lakes in Oklahoma?
beetitan
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I live in BC so there arnt many opportunities to dive without a hood, make sure it fits correctly and it takes some time to get used to if uv never worn one for somepeople but just keep at it 
fnfalman
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If the hood were to come without holes already pre-poked at the top of the head, then just get a big, fat needle then heat it up and drill two or three holes on top of the head. That way just in case bubbles somehow got in the hood would be able to escape instead of ballooning your hood up. Some hood makers automatically poke holes in their hoods and some don't.
Summer temperatures for Oklahoma divers, is to copy Will Rogers. . . wait a few minutes, it'll change! With hot temperatures in July and August, the water will layer with different temperatures. The surface down to 8 or 10 feet will be close to 90 degrees, and will have few fish, in that hot water. A different layer at around 10 feet down to 30 feet will be high 70's to low 80's, here you'll find a temperature drop, thermocline, where it will drop into the high 50's to 60's. Most of our fish will be in that 10 to 30 foot layer. Below 30 feet, there is a gradual cooling, down to 100+ feet it will be in the mid 50's.
I like that 10 to 30 foot layer, to hunt fish,and just swim around. But there are divers that like the deep water, and will dive to 100 feet along the old river chanel, there are some impressive cliffs, and old standing trees down deep. Visibility in lakes varies by rain fall "up river". Sometimes rain falls and is colder than the lake. . . The new water will usually mix in the lake at a temperature that matches. The rain water may flow into the surface, or flow into a middle layer. It is common, diving into a clear layer, swim into a muddy layer, and break through into another clear layer.
Meeting divers at Tenkiller is best done at the lake. If you want to use your 7 mil suit the most, meet the divers at the state underwater park, or Crappie point, next to the dam. There are divers going deep into the cold layers all year long. It's "fun" to pull on a thick wetsuit in Oklahoma's 100+ temperatures to go diving into the cold deep layers.
Look around the area dive shops, I saw Gene's Pro Shop had a thick "semi" dry suit. Never tried one, but it may be a good cold water suit. Don't buy any suit till you've tried on, and if lucky gotten to dive with a suit. And if like many of us you're not a "box" size, Custom fit suits are only a little more expensive than a box size. And for a thick suit. . . custom fit is the most comfortable.
Thanks mudhole I appreciate the information. Sounds great. So I can defiantly use my 3mm in the summer sounds like. The only problem is that Tenkiller is a fair ways from BA and I'm not for sure going to be able to dive with people when I just go. Another thing is I don't feel comfortable enough yet to just dive with random people I just met. I just lack experience and bottom time thus the reasoning.
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