Santa Rosa the 18th of Feb......how to stay warm????

[scubajoh44]

I know of a couple of us that will be at the Blue Hole this weekend. It's supposed to be really cold and maybe even snowing...right? I'm diving with a wetsuit cuz I'm working a class full of wetsuiters.....how can I stay warm? Anyone know of any tricks? I'll sure be using DandyDon's trick of warm water down the wetsuit but what about SI's?
Jo

 

[DandyDon]

Normally for Santa Rosa, I take a quart thermos of hot chocolate, another of decaf, and drink a lot of whichever tastes the best.

NOAA forcast for Saturday there: Slight Chc snow Hi 39°F

I'd talk to Stella about moving everything inside the hut. Balmorhea doesn't look much better Saturday: Hi 41°F. I'm wearing my 7 mil and suiting up close to the hot showers.

​

 

[ABQdiver]

Bummer!! This sucks!!

I copied this from the National Weather Service site.

Friday Night: A 10 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23.

Saturday: A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Partly cloudy, with a high near 39.

Saturday Night: A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low near 23. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Sunday: A slight chance of rain showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Sunday, when we are there we'll have one of those folding tents that is about 10' square with a propane heater. Works very nicely. Keep warm, dry the wetsuit, etc.

Ken Schnieder whose tent it is might be going out Saturday but right now he didn't know for sure. I'll ask.

Sunday definitely looks better!

 

[robint]

my best suggestions: take thermos of hot coffee, get out of your wetsuit as soon as you get out of the water, dry off completely, drink coffee, when its time to do the next dive - take the wetsuit into the bathroom and run the shower HOT and wet the suit with it, get into the suit there while it is warm and so are you - go directly to the dive........ then repeat!

Have fun...... we will be there the following weekend with students, praying for sun and warmth!

robin

 

[amascuba]

Who all is going this weekend? I had planned on going, but I'm pretty sure that my buddy is going to chicken out because of the weather! I'll most likely need a new buddy! If anybody wants to meet up and make some dives this weekend let me know!

 

[RonFrank]

I know of a couple of us that will be at the Blue Hole this weekend. It's supposed to be really cold and maybe even snowing...right? I'm diving with a wetsuit cuz I'm working a class full of wetsuiters.....how can I stay warm? Anyone know of any tricks? I'll sure be using DandyDon's trick of warm water down the wetsuit but what about SI's?
Jo

First off, if you have a drysuit, and are good diving it, DIVE IT!! Not ONE instructor I know from A1 Dives the Blue Hole in a Wetsuit in the winter if they have to deal with more than one class. It certainly does NOT matter to students what exposure protection the DM's in training wear as long as said DM is not upside down at the surface due to a lack of Drysuit skills

To keep warm.. Stay in the water Seriously, the only time I ever got cold at the hole was during a SI on a cold windy day. I was doing AOW, and the instructor had a rather large class of OW students, so our SI streached out into 90 minutes (it was suppose to be 60). After 75 minutes I got back into the water, discovered I was warmer, and waited there floating at the surface for another 15 minutes. I was warmer in that 62 degree water than sitting outside in subfreezing conditions.

I'm not sure what your instructors plans are for this weather, but I'd suggest that you do back to back CO dives with very LITTLE SI, and then potentially log said dives in a hotel, or in Stella's shop if you can arrange it. There is an area inside that while not toasty, is large enough for most classes to sit down and discuss STUFF.

Hot drinks and all that jazz will help, but the bottom line is if you are in a wet suit, you are going to remain wet, and after you get out, your hair will freeze, your feet will start getting cold, and there will be no way to get dry. I suggest a VERY warm sweatshirt for SI's and peel that wetsuit down the to waist ASAP once out.

Have fun. We decided to bag this weekend for both weather related reasons, and others. We'll be back however sometime in the next month :14:

 

[DandyDon]

I think Jo's dry suit is a tropical model, may not have room for thermal undies.

Does the Blue Hole have a warm shower in the head? I'm thankful that Balmorhea has several. I hate to pull my wetsuit off between dives, but running wamr water inside on SIs should help a lot - and synthetic warm-ups over the suit after the showers.

 

[RonFrank]

I think Jo's dry suit is a tropical model, may not have room for thermal undies.

Does the Blue Hole have a warm shower in the head? I'm thankful that Balmorhea has several. I hate to pull my wetsuit off between dives, but running wamr water inside on SIs should help a lot - and synthetic warm-ups over the suit after the showers.

Tropical drysuits have nothing to do with if insolution will fit underneith. They are lighter weight (for travel), and tend not to have built in dry booties (which IMO is a mistake). I've only seen one in a store, and it just seemed to be flimsy compared to mine, but dry is dry

However you can buy them big, and yes you can put a thermo suit underneith IF you buy them large enough so said suit fits.

 

[robint]

yes, there is hot water in the showers now. It is a big help with students and wetsuits in the winter. I found that as soon as everyone got out of the water they could run to the showers and turn them on warm, stand in them and take off the wetsuit, then dry off and dress in sweatsuits.... then do the reverse right before getting back into the water. It seemed to help.

robint

 

[ABQdiver]

So Robin, what dive shop are you working for?? Scuba Company?