Too Cold???

[gcbryan]

Good info here. I'll add, on the topic of personal needs, that I am freezing in my dry suit with heavy undies in 47 degree water. My dry suit helps a bit but certainly doesn't solve the cold problem for me. Now AFTER the dive, I warm up much faster because I am dry! That's the best part! I also don't continue to freeze and thus usually feel like doing two dives instead of one. SO, will a dry suit help? You bet. Will it keep you toasty warm? Probably not. JMHO's. I hate when people say that they felt "toasty." That's just not reality most of the time.

Just to add to your comments, I too am a little chilly by the end of a dive but it is possible to be "toasty". I'm not but I have been. It wasn't worth the trade off to me. You can wear a heavier and heavier undergarment until you are toasty the whole dive but the increase in weight required to do this is not worth it and therefore a compromise is usually settled upon.

 

[Nostromo]

Save your pennies and buy a dry suit if at all possible, you will not regret it if you plan to dive cold water on a regular basis.

Was I the only person that read that as "save your penis and buy a dry suit"? After having dived in the low 40s both wet and dry, I'd absolutely agree with that statement.

e.a.e.

 

[diveborg]

I hate when people say that they felt "toasty." That's just not reality most of the time.

Well, at least for me it isn't. The only time I feel really toasty in my drysuit is before the dive when it is sunny and I'm trying to get geared up. At that point I usually can't wait to get into the water and cool off.

 

[PB4UDIVEDRY]

Just my 2 cents.....
I've never had that toasty feeling either, but then again, once on the surface it is easier to warm up.
I only got a dry suit to make it easier to gear up for a dive when diving cold water, seems my wet suit shrinks all the time while it,s hanging in my closet, guess it's the type of drywall I used when I built the closet.
I've dove wet well into 45 deg and never had a problem, other that fighting with getting the fj wet suit on. Dry was the way to go, and I'll recomend it to anyone over wet any day.

 

[mgersch@cox.net]

45 degrees. Too cold for diving wet. As I see it you have two options.

1. Save your money for a dry suit

or better yet

2. Save your money for a trip to someplace warmer!!!

 

[dally]

Um, if you're in Maine, or Vancouver etc, you don't have much of a choice. We offer the students the option of signing off for their dives elsewhere, but even after they know how cold 45 degrees really is, almost none choose to do their dives in the Caribbean.
I almost always dive wet when I'm helping with a class -- unless I'm making a lot more dives than the students and am concerned about getting too cold and tired for good judgement.

I did my cert dives in 41 degree water. Wet. And I'm a thin female who is very sensitive to cold. I almost never use my drysuit unless it's in the mid-low 40s, and I'm not going to be moving a lot. And some of the guys I dive with consider me girly even for that!

I think an FJ is not enough for 47 degrees. I think a 7 mm one-piece plus a hooded vest of some kind is minimum. But lots of things can affect how cold you feel, things that can vary from day to day, even hour to hour. It's possible you just hadn't eaten enough, or were tired or something. But my guess is it's time to upgrade the suit.

 

[espantoon]

I went diving two weeks ago in Havre de Grace, MD, and the water temp was 47.

Where in Havre De Grace, the Susquehanna? Just curious 'cause I dont live too far from there.

 

[RPanick]

Diving wet or dry one thing I've noticed is that if your hands or feet get cold the rest of you does too. This is true, wet or dry. I know I've been freezing in my dry suit when I should be comfortable simply because my hands got cold.

One thing I've found that does wonders for this is gloves that keep the water out. With dry suits you can use dry gloves, with wet suits that's not an option. My first clue that this worked is when I tightened the strap on my gloves down very tight. Little water got in and I was much warmer. A better solution was a set of gloves that I got that have a inner sleave that's intended to go inside a dry suit cuff with an outer neoprene sleeve.

I've never been quite able to get the gloves to work that way, so I just pull them up over the sleave of my suit. But that is enough to keep the water out, and don't have any straps to tighten. The gloves also don't seem to leak at the seems like many other gloves.

Here's the best part, the gloves are only 4mm, and they are much warmer than my 6 mm gloves, even with the straps tight. If you are currious here is a link to the glove from Deep See, the Dry Comfort Glove http://www.deepseeinc.com/products/dry_comfort.html

Keeping water out of your gloves also helps keep water out of your suit at the arms. A one piece suit also helps, particularly if its semi dry. You also need to make sure water doesn't get in your boots either, for all the same reasons.

I saw something on TV once where divers were going into cold water and they used tape over the seams on wrist and ankles to keep water out. I think it was duct tape, but I can't be sure. Of course that can make a few other things tough if you need to get your gloves off for some reason.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Let me see...47 degrees fahrenheit and some of you are diving wet...hmmm...I can only say one thing: Ustedes son gringos muy loco en sus cabezas!!!

Obviously you do like this because you like the way it feels when you stop! :dropmouth

 

[Nostromo]

Am I the only person that thinks diving wet in the 40s is beyond uncomfortable and actually in the range of dangerous?

e.a.e.