Warm water v. cold water divers
- Thread starter SkullDeformity
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dsteding
Contributor
lundysd:81 degree weather with 100+ viz? sounds like where I was last week too!
Ya jealous enough yet doug?
A really common theme tonight:
:mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner: :mooner:
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Hey! just be glad you aren't wearing one of these :
:
You'll get yours in a month...dsteding:
dsteding
Contributor
do it easy:You'll get yours in a month...
Indeed, I'm looking forward to it. First time not in a dry suit since I got certified August of '05.
ohh you're gonna scream like a little girl when that water runs down your back and your hands get wet!dsteding:
I was certified in a Texas lake and then immediately (the next week) moved to Mukilteo. Thats Pacific North West (PNW) for those who dont know. I had my AOW and Dry Suit cert by the time I moved back to murky Texas Lakes and the Texas Gulf. Since then Ive done the Caribbean, the Red Sea, The Indian Ocean and Im currently sitting in Tel Aviv waiting for the surf to go down enough to dive some caverns in the Med. Everywhere I go, I hear about why the local divers are better than divers from XX place. In PNW it was warm water divers, in Texas lakes it was high vis divers, in the Med its the Red Sea divers, the list goes on. I find every place has something to teach. It PNW I learned how to work in the cold and tides. In Texas lakes I learned to do searches in lakes with less than 1 foot vis. Offshore in Texas I learned how to carefully plan a dive when rescue is 100miles away. I also find that each place has common poor practices with the typical local diver. A low vis murky lake diver from Texas doesnt always realize the need to check the tide when shore diving the ocean. I find many shore divers dont realize the need to keep aware of the anchor line when out to sea. Warm water divers dont always realize how to plan thermal protection and either over or under do it. The list goes on.
Through all of this I meet the tourists you mention. I met them in Seattle, I met them in Texas and Ive met them everywhere else. Usually they are the first to say, Im a vacation diver or Im a blue water diver, etc. I find there is nothing wrong with that. As long as they dont out dive their skill and training, why shouldnt they stick to what they love and want to do? The only complaint I have is their tendency to steer me away from a potential interesting site. I often hear, you dont want to dive there, go to xx. Im interested in what each location has to offer and teach. I have different skills and different interests but Im curious in what they have to share that I may not have seen or experienced.
Im no more a diver than the divers I meet in each location. I find Texas lake divers lining up week after week to dive poor vis with the same boring perch swimming around. In the Texas Gulf I find them lining up trip after trip putting up with constant weather cancellations. I find Med divers lining up to dive a pile of rubble that hasnt changed for 2 thousand years. I found Seattle divers lining up to shiver through another afternoon of diving. Each place I also meet the diver who only wants to dive on vacation in the Caribbean. I wish them well and am happy to go with them next round. Until then, Im happy getting in the water and getting in some dives.
Through all of this I meet the tourists you mention. I met them in Seattle, I met them in Texas and Ive met them everywhere else. Usually they are the first to say, Im a vacation diver or Im a blue water diver, etc. I find there is nothing wrong with that. As long as they dont out dive their skill and training, why shouldnt they stick to what they love and want to do? The only complaint I have is their tendency to steer me away from a potential interesting site. I often hear, you dont want to dive there, go to xx. Im interested in what each location has to offer and teach. I have different skills and different interests but Im curious in what they have to share that I may not have seen or experienced.
Im no more a diver than the divers I meet in each location. I find Texas lake divers lining up week after week to dive poor vis with the same boring perch swimming around. In the Texas Gulf I find them lining up trip after trip putting up with constant weather cancellations. I find Med divers lining up to dive a pile of rubble that hasnt changed for 2 thousand years. I found Seattle divers lining up to shiver through another afternoon of diving. Each place I also meet the diver who only wants to dive on vacation in the Caribbean. I wish them well and am happy to go with them next round. Until then, Im happy getting in the water and getting in some dives.
OP
SkullDeformity
Contributor
What drives me the craziest is when people look me right in the face and say "I'd NEVER dive there!"
nymbus
Contributor
It is interesting that some of you refer to warm water diving as being a subset of cold water diving. While I see how this idea formed- I find it to be nearly opposite. Warm water started quite a bit of the original recreational diving- and most of the skills that I teach students are archaic left-overs from warm water diving that sometimes has very little to do with cold water diving or skills you would use while cold water diving. For example: there is a huge difference between removing a weight belt in warm water vs. cold- the amount of lead is normal different, as well as the amount of gear you have to manuever around also.
With an 8lb belt, I just take the thing off, then swirl it around my back and put it back on again- while with a heavy cold water belt, (even with weight integration,) I have to lay the thing out in front of me and then twist into it. There are many other "basic" open water skills that sometimes need to be modified for cold water certifications.
I HATE the constant ego of diving- my idea of all of this is that if a diver is comfortable, safe, and having fun- as well as knowing what their limits are on any given day, they are a good diver.
I get tired of the "I'm a better diver than you are" mentality- this despite being a cold water diver myself. Do I love cold, low vis diving? Yes. Would I find it even more special to be out in warm water looking at something pretty I've never seen before? Heck Yes. Am I somehow not a "good" diver if I opt out of dives that I have done plenty of times before in lue of watching other people have a good time? I don't think so- I suppose I'm just interested in some new places, I get bored if I fall into the same dive site a million times in a row, especially one that has really only one diveable pattern.
So- to sum my .02 up- I think that cold water diving emerged from warm water skills and equipment that were simply adapted into working in the different enviornmental conditions.
Keep in mind, there are many, many reasons that cold water divers make up less than 5% of the total number of divers... and some people don't consider it cool that you dive in low vis, current or very cold conditions- just like there are many cold water divers that wouldn't do a shark dive easily or manage to stay far enough off the bottom on a reef to not harm the coral itself.
Each to their own... I say everyone just do what makes you feel good.
With an 8lb belt, I just take the thing off, then swirl it around my back and put it back on again- while with a heavy cold water belt, (even with weight integration,) I have to lay the thing out in front of me and then twist into it. There are many other "basic" open water skills that sometimes need to be modified for cold water certifications.
I HATE the constant ego of diving- my idea of all of this is that if a diver is comfortable, safe, and having fun- as well as knowing what their limits are on any given day, they are a good diver.
I get tired of the "I'm a better diver than you are" mentality- this despite being a cold water diver myself. Do I love cold, low vis diving? Yes. Would I find it even more special to be out in warm water looking at something pretty I've never seen before? Heck Yes. Am I somehow not a "good" diver if I opt out of dives that I have done plenty of times before in lue of watching other people have a good time? I don't think so- I suppose I'm just interested in some new places, I get bored if I fall into the same dive site a million times in a row, especially one that has really only one diveable pattern.
So- to sum my .02 up- I think that cold water diving emerged from warm water skills and equipment that were simply adapted into working in the different enviornmental conditions.
Keep in mind, there are many, many reasons that cold water divers make up less than 5% of the total number of divers... and some people don't consider it cool that you dive in low vis, current or very cold conditions- just like there are many cold water divers that wouldn't do a shark dive easily or manage to stay far enough off the bottom on a reef to not harm the coral itself.
Each to their own... I say everyone just do what makes you feel good.
nymbus
Contributor
SkullDeformity:
That doesn't drive me crazy- it makes me think that they know their limits and we have different ones. I would hope that there is a place, someplace- that even you would have that reaction to... (you know- great white shark infested, 1 foot blackout after 20 feet to 800 feet with man-eating squid that terrorize single tank divers under a polar ice cap inside a cave...)
But then I often agree with them- if I had pretty waters to jump into every day, I would probably be there and spend my vacations doing a couple of fun, dark cold dives.
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