warm and clear- cold and murky

[NB DIVER]

Well still not completely through my open water dives yet. Need one more for my cert. Hopefully this April it's just toooo cold right now. But to the point of this.
In January we went to Cuba for our wedding and subsequent honeymoon and were able to dive at the resort we were staying at. I had only gotten in two OW dives here in the great white north New Brunswick to be exact and my wife (due to sinus trouble ) wasn't able to get any. We found it very easy and so much more compfortable diving in the clear warm water, less gear and soooo much more to see. It was like I forgot I was breathing underwater and seemed so easy. Since we do live here however and want to be more than holiday divers I was wondering does anyone have any tips or advice to try and establish that same level of compfort in colder waters?? Maybe it's just a matter of time, getting used to the thick suits and heavy weights but any advice would help. It seems you guys always have something helpful to say.

 

[seaducer]

You pretty much answered your own question, unfortunately. It takes time and getting used to. The good part is that it does not take that much time. However it will never be quite the same as diving in the tropics.

Some tips, if you can consider them tips, take only the gear you need for that dive. It makes sense all the time but in cold water with restricted movement it becomes more noticeable.

Speaking of gear, how you arrange it is more important in cold water, since you have restricted movements you need to think about how you place all the stuff you may need u/w, including gauges and such. Obviously some stuff will need to be in a hard to reach area, make that gear that is not critical like lift or goodie bags, while knives and second stages are in easy areas.

Get your buoyancy down in cold water. This takes more time to master, but the suits that make diving in cold water possible and their buoyancy properties are perhaps the main difference from Caribbean dives.

Take it slow, and really learn to enjoy the local diving you have. Remember that there is plenty to see where you live, and that diving is not a chore, or just something you need to do up there to keep fresh for vacation. If you treat diving at home the same way you think about it in the tropics it will be more fun, more exciting, and you will be more likely to do it. That in turn will make you more comfortable with cold water diving, more so than anything I wrote really.

edit- Find an experienced cold water diver at home to mentor you and your wife. This more than anything on this board will help you along the way, what with being able to see it done and talk at length about the pros and cons of various setups, gear choices, and the way it all works...

Good luck...

 

[Polar_diver]

Hi there NB Diver.

I truely understand your point... I learn to dive on the St.Lawrence North Shore (Escoumins, Sept-iles, Baie-Comeau). My first 20-30 dives were in dry suits with some 40-45 pounds of lead. When I first dived in the Caribbeans warm water it felt like diving naked in a pool... The thing is you can not compare those two types of diving. They are completely different sports-activities.

 

[TSandM]

Well, I think one of the keys is comfortable, well-fitted exposure protection in cold water. It's always going to be thicker and more cumbersome than in warm, and you will always be carrying more total weight in gear and ballast, but if you are in a very thick wetsuit that is a bit too small, you're going to be very uncomfortable. Your comment about breathing makes me wonder if that was some of the issue with your cold water dives.

Another key is to make sure you have optimized your equipment for cold water. For example, Al80s are AWFUL cold water tanks, because they aren't light themselves, and they require you carry four or five more pounds of ballast to neutralize the positive buoyancy of a near-empty TANK. Switch to a steel tank of the same capacity, and you shed four or five pounds immediately, so your total ballast decreases. That's one of the reasons why steel backplates are becoming very popular in Puget Sound -- Soft BCs can be three pounds positive, which is three pounds of ballast you have to carry around just to sink your BC! I know one of my goals is always to try to minimize the total weight of the gear I have to walk into the water, or drag up the boat ladder with me.

 

[Pitchblack]

You answered your question just fine yourself and i'd say getting used to the equipment and doing fin-pivo's and hoovering exercises on every dive. I do it and it sure pays off.

Best regards

PitchBlack - Who dives in the coldashell and dark waters of Sweden.

Edit: On the thick suit and heavy weights...I dive drysuit with undergarments, 12L x 300 bars long steel tank and 10 kgs of led. + and - on divelights and other gadgets.

 

[rstofer]

Look, diving is never going to be as much fun in cold water as it is in warm water. It ain't gonna happen. I did well over 100 warm water dives in south east Asia before I came back to northern California. I can guarantee you that I will never think as highly of Monterey as I do of Thailand. And 50 deg F isn't all that cold; as cold water goes.

So, you have two choices: get used to it or dive only on vacations. In the 'get used to it' category I'm not going to add anything to the recommendations given above; these people are cold water experts. Well, maybe I'll offer just one. Keep the task load down for a while. Don't take a camera just yet. Leave the lobster nets behind. Keep the dives shallow and boring until you are comfortable. As a guess, you'll become pretty comfortable somewhere around 50 dives or so.

One more suggestion: take as many advanced classes as you can. Not just for the knowledge but also for the experience of diving with more seasoned divers (the instructors and DMs, not necessarily the other students). Learn as much as you can about the sport/hobby to reduce the other stresses of diving. By all means, take AOW and Rescue as soon as you can.

Richard

 

[fnfalman]

does anyone have any tips or advice to try and establish that same level of compfort in colder waters?? Maybe it's just a matter of time, getting used to the thick suits and heavy weights but any advice would help. It seems you guys always have something helpful to say.

More practice. Seriously, that's it. For my first ten dives, I was rather miserable outside of the water. Getting adjusted to the heavy, constricting wetsuit that was custom cut to me (lovely when it broke in but the breaking in was a bear), getting used to all the weight of the heavy gears and dive weights, and just not used to diving in general, getting sea sick from the boat bobbing, ad nauseaum (no pun intended). But somewhere along (probably the 20th dive?), I suddenly felt comfortable both in and out of water. And now, at seventy odd dives, I can't wait and rearing to go at any moment.

Get used to wearing the heavy exposure suit. Get used to the weight of the equipment. DIAL IN YOUR DIVE WEIGHT!!! My dive buddies and I were cherries ourselves. While we didn't do anything stupid, we also didn't know alot either. Took us forever to dial in our dive weights, but once we've done that, it's like heaven.

 

[halocline]

I'd start by taking another caribbean vacation if you can, and get as many warm water dives under your belt as possible. Learning skill activities should ALWAYS start in the easiest possible conditions, and gradually move to more difficult and challenging activities. I don't understand why so much of the community on SB does not seem to get that. I think it's at least partly due to the fact that regulars on this forum are not representative of the overall beginning dive students population; you never hear from the high percentage of students that can't tolerate cold water as beginners.

After you've finished your certification and had some confidence-building experience in warm clear water, you can begin advanced training in your home environment. Since you live in Canada, I suspect that if you are to dive at home frequently, eventually you're likely to end up in a drysuit. This is a major investment and there's a learning curve, but most cold water divers I talk to (where I live 60F water is freezing) agree that a drysuit is the only way to be comfortable in really cold water.

 

[Pitchblack]

Drysuit is indeed the only way to be comfortable in cold water, sure you can do it in a 7+5 milimeter wetsuit but repetative diving will be mindchallenging and it will challenge your bodyheat for sure...Hypothermia is a fact. I've dived 7+5 mil wetsuit in 9 degrees celsius and 2 dives a day is a great deal of pain...Not in the water but when you get out of your wetsuit in the end of the day you'll be freezing cold for hours.

There's nothing better than hoovering in a drysuit, it feels like having a thousand hand holding and pulling you, it's just an undescribabale feeling for those who havent felt it

Just got home from a great day of diving, -5 degrees in the air and +4 degrees at 8m depth, and 50 minutes of bottomtime at the first dive I was just a little bit cold on my fingertips Oh god I love my Ursuk and my dryglove system!

And for the bit on getting used to it or taking expensive vacations just to get used to diving i say bollocks! You live and work in these cold and murky conditions eh? I like the cold and murky waters here in Sweden who I think weatherly is the same as Canada? Sure, diving in the red sea is wonderful but most of you'r diving will be done at home i guess? Get used to diving at homeground and you'll get out more of the diving when going on a holiday!

 

[NudeDiver]

I was wondering does anyone have any tips or advice to try and establish that same level of compfort in colder waters??

Do it often, and while wearing the appropriate exposure suit. It's the only way.