With the right gear I really enjoy cold water diving. Probably more than warm water diving. No humidity around here in winter, viz is better.... less people (my favorite).
Rec or Tec?
- Thread starter Cheizz
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Belzelbub
Contributor
No argument there.
Going out tomorrow. Air will be a barmy 7’C, water surface 5’C and (hopefully) 10’C below 10m. Normally, this time of year we’re breaking the ice to get in.
I was out diving last Sunday. 8F air temp, -8F wind chill, 49F water temp. At least it was sunny. My drysuit froze stiff as soon as I was out of it. Last winter one of my first stages froze to the valve so I just hauled the tank home that way and it was thawed by then.
Last winter there was one day with 0F air temp and -20F windchill. The joke is that part of the Wisconsin cave (mine) course experience is clearing snow from the parking area and the path around the water to the mine access pond.
Instructor has a small snowblower she brings, along with shovels. My cavern/intro to cave was in November - no snow!This probably has the FL and MX trained folks shuddering.
Far too much of a distinction, has already been drawn between "recreational" and "tech" diving; and more of it strikes me as empty marketing, than many real differences.
The advent of cheaper computers that can now handle a variety of mixed gases, seems to have cracked open a few doors, that would otherwise, have been more limited to industry. It may prove to be a dubious benefit -- that overarching dependance upon electronics, coupled with saltwater -- having seen a fair share of crapped-out equipment.
When I first began diving in the late 1970s, there were far fewer choices of gear, than many on this forum can fully appreciate today -- and both professional industrial and / or scientific and recreational divers often used the very same gear, both for ten days, kicking it in the Caribbean; or for more specialized projects at sixty-plus meters.
Dive tables; watches; a depth gauge, and an SPG, were the tech of the day.
Nitrox use was still a few years away, for recreational use. The first time that I saw its use was in 1979-80, or so.
My first decade of diving, involved the use of simply a hard backpack with single or double tanks with no supplemental floatation whatsoever, aside from the varying buoyancy a neoprene wetsuit provides; that, and gradually emptying tanks, if using aluminum cylinders.
We admittedly did a lot of crazy scheiß back then, all with a bare minimum of what I see today, on divers who can now scarcely carry their own gear, out of the surf . . .
The advent of cheaper computers that can now handle a variety of mixed gases, seems to have cracked open a few doors, that would otherwise, have been more limited to industry. It may prove to be a dubious benefit -- that overarching dependance upon electronics, coupled with saltwater -- having seen a fair share of crapped-out equipment.
When I first began diving in the late 1970s, there were far fewer choices of gear, than many on this forum can fully appreciate today -- and both professional industrial and / or scientific and recreational divers often used the very same gear, both for ten days, kicking it in the Caribbean; or for more specialized projects at sixty-plus meters.
Dive tables; watches; a depth gauge, and an SPG, were the tech of the day.
Nitrox use was still a few years away, for recreational use. The first time that I saw its use was in 1979-80, or so.
My first decade of diving, involved the use of simply a hard backpack with single or double tanks with no supplemental floatation whatsoever, aside from the varying buoyancy a neoprene wetsuit provides; that, and gradually emptying tanks, if using aluminum cylinders.
We admittedly did a lot of crazy scheiß back then, all with a bare minimum of what I see today, on divers who can now scarcely carry their own gear, out of the surf . . .
The right gear really does make a different. Warm and dry in a drysuit. Not shivering your a$$ off in a wet suit.
ScubaBadger32
Contributor
especially considering the bonuses of no bubbles in a shot!
admikar
Contributor
Did a quick run over this thread. One thing I haven't noticed being said is being futureproof.
I always wanted to try diving and after doing my intro dive I was hooked. At that point I was all about jacket style BCD, single tank.....rec diver through and through. Doubles, BPW or ,God forbid, drysuit was out of question. Finishing my OW I started looking into getting my BCD and lo and behold, with less than 10 dives I bought BPW. Then came AOW induced drysuit to be able to follow my group into more advanced sites (literally all of them are beyond 20m). Then came Perdix for AN/DP, with doubles.
I never planned on all these things, it just happened.
My point is, even if you think you know what kind of diving you are going to, most likely that will change.
Almost all of us here knows that, hence we recommend gear for "end goal in mind".
And, equally important, Scubaboard is not really representative of diver population. People here are leaning into self improvement, learning and advancing more than "average" diver.
I always wanted to try diving and after doing my intro dive I was hooked. At that point I was all about jacket style BCD, single tank.....rec diver through and through. Doubles, BPW or ,God forbid, drysuit was out of question. Finishing my OW I started looking into getting my BCD and lo and behold, with less than 10 dives I bought BPW. Then came AOW induced drysuit to be able to follow my group into more advanced sites (literally all of them are beyond 20m). Then came Perdix for AN/DP, with doubles.
I never planned on all these things, it just happened.
My point is, even if you think you know what kind of diving you are going to, most likely that will change.
Almost all of us here knows that, hence we recommend gear for "end goal in mind".
And, equally important, Scubaboard is not really representative of diver population. People here are leaning into self improvement, learning and advancing more than "average" diver.
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