Kaffphine
Guest
I'm just getting started in cold water diving...with a dry suit, first one was this Sunday. Tonight I went out with a group of usuals to a local quarry, water temp 42F air not much more than that. Now since I had done a lot of night diving before, I didn't think making one of my first dives up here night was going to be a big deal. The guy I was diving with knows that I'm just getting into cold water and the drysuit, in fact he tagged along Sunday. For the most part the dive went as would be expected, I played with boyancy ...went up went down went back down still don't have it. We set limits of 45min, 1000psi or until I got cold. There's a difference between being cold from your hood flooding and being cold that you're coming up. I need to find out where that is. about 30 mins into the dive I was cold and decided to call time up, with my light in hand I couldn't use that hand to sign 'time'. So instead I told him that I reached the air limit and it was time to come up, somthing I could do with one hand and still use the light to lumiant what I was signing. This is point number one of things that didn't set well with me about tonight, although I found another way to let him know what I wanted us to do I couldn't let him know WHY. There a set of stairs to exit from, apon getting there I tried to take off my fins and realized I couldn't feel anything. Now, not being use to thick gloves I can't really feel what I'm doing underwater with my gear, but I can feel when my hand runs into something. When I was taking off my fins I couldn't even feel that much... Point number two about tonight. In the process of tring to get them off I let him know I couldn't feel anything. Later on the dock, he had asked if my hands were cold, I didn't know I couldn't feel em. By the time I got the fins off it was hard to think about anything but how cold I was. I think he picked up on it because he talked me through everthing from there to the fire... Point number three, although I'm rather glad he picked up on it and did it, it does bother me that he HAD to do it (Or I might have ended up by the fire in my trimlan shell). I got back to the shack and took off my gloves, my hands were red... I'm talking that nice purdy lobster red you see in Red Lobster commericals. I've been out of the water almost five hours now and I can't decide if my hands are red or blue, or if this is a new color. With the concern for being so cold I couldn't get to my DryEar sooner, which added one more pleasure to the evening. The distraction and lack of concentration is disturbing, this post is taking me forever!!(I've actually fallen asleep), when I think about this tomorrow and afterwards it's probably gonna be downright scary... Point number four. The 40 min drive home took me 2 hrs. Had to keep stopping, if there was someone I could have called my car would probably be sitting somewhere tonight.
Before I hit the water again I'm getting some serious info on hypothemia, my question to the board is what kind of difference is there in consideration for diving... depth, what to do when you realize you're too cold, ect. BTW, I am getting back in the water even if it happens to be cold.
Alright I asked my question, I'm sure I rambled a bit. But I'm tired and going to crawl under many many blankets and sleep.
Before I hit the water again I'm getting some serious info on hypothemia, my question to the board is what kind of difference is there in consideration for diving... depth, what to do when you realize you're too cold, ect. BTW, I am getting back in the water even if it happens to be cold.
Alright I asked my question, I'm sure I rambled a bit. But I'm tired and going to crawl under many many blankets and sleep.