Warm water v. cold water divers

[HawaiiMSDT]

This reminds me of an episode on Faminly Guy: "You know what GRINDS MY GEARS!?"

 

[trucker girl]

What I wouldn't give to be a purely warm water diver...

No, seriously- I love the quarry, but if I had my choice between my beloved Gilboa (which seems to drain my wallet every summer) and anywhere tropical- I'd pick tropical!

If I had a drysuit I would LOVE to dive the northwest! I still think I might be cold if I did though!

I think calling them vacation divers is being a tad tough on warm water divers. There are vacation divers, there are warm water divers and there are cold water divers, there are cave divers, there are tech divers, etc.

There are those who look at diving as an extention of their vacation and those who dive FOR a vacation.

I met several divers on my Hawaii vacation who were true divers- and they were definitely warm water divers (even though I was cold!). And my sister, who now lives in Hawaii, went diving a few years back in Belize but other than our 15 minute 15 foot stint at Hanauma Bay, hasn't even considered going diving. It's a mindset.

I can understand not understanding diving in the cold waters- all that extra gear alone is mentally prohibitive to someone who doesn't need it to see wondrous sights! But if you've got divers talking down to you for having a "cold water" mindset when you're in warm waters, you're haning with the wrong people! IMO

 

[thelawgoddess]

Since my school learning has started in Hilo, I've been hearing a lot about this supposed difference between cold water versus warm water divers. Everything from my gear to my mindset has been called into question as a "cold water diver" attribute. For example, coming back in with "too much air"? What?

that was one of the things i noticed while we were in cozumel in december doing our first warm water trip. we thought the dm was being too aggressive with our 2nd dives or 4th dives of the day a few times. he thought we were crazy for questioning the proposed profiles, and while he wouldn't let us have more SIT time, we were allowed almost total freedom to dive our own profiles once in the water. at first i thought it was just us being conservative since even though we had done 35-55 dives each in the past 5 months and had completed our advanced diver certs, we'd only been diving for 5 months and still considered ourselves "new" divers. but for some of our boat trips there was a much more experienced couple of technical divers from toronto in the group ... and the profiles they dove were even more conservative than ours. ditto with a couple of cold water divers from monterey. it was blatantly obvious that the cold water divers were way more conservative, and the more "technical" divers (for lack of a better way of describing that difference), were even more conservative. i'm sure it almost made us seem like sissies a couple of times.

we also got weird vibes when it came to our long hoses and our seemingly obsessive concerns with re-adjusting our bcd's or bpw's and checking our regs and whatnot after the dm had already prepared our rigs for our 2nd dives. (i sort of felt bad for doing it but i wasn't going to stop; i just hoped the dm didn't take it personally.)

 

[3-Ring Octopus]

Ewww...someone else touching MY gear!!!

I certainly know I wouldn't be offended (and would personally EXPECT it) if someone checked a gear setup I had done before using it. I know it's SOP for DM's down there to do gear setups...but personally...the farther away others stay from my gear, the happier I am in general.

Cheers,
Austin

 

[thelawgoddess]

Ewww...someone else touching MY gear!!!

I certainly know I wouldn't be offended (and would personally EXPECT it) if someone checked a gear setup I had done before using it. I know it's SOP for DM's down there to do gear setups...but personally...the farther away others stay from my gear, the happier I am in general.

Cheers,
Austin

i'm with ya - there was no way in hell i was leaving any of my in the "gear room" ... on a related note, on one of our dives, one of the divers had a leaky (?) reg - the dm's response was basically "what do you expect? it's rental gear." (everyone laughed.)

 

[Camerone]

Ewww...someone else touching MY gear!!!

I certainly know I wouldn't be offended (and would personally EXPECT it) if someone checked a gear setup I had done before using it. I know it's SOP for DM's down there to do gear setups...but personally...the farther away others stay from my gear, the happier I am in general.

Ah - you've discovered the one and only good reason for carrying a large, pointy dive knife strapped to your leg - um... ok, the other reason besides the "Sea Hunt" Halloween costume party. It sole reason for existence is to keep those pesky "helpful" people from touching your gear.

My life support equipment setup is too important to me to trust to anyone else, and I want everything right where I know it should be.

I make it explicitly clear to the DMs when I travel that if they touch my gear for any reason, even once, unless I've directly asked them for something, that guarantees they will get a big zero for a tip. The more they stay away, generally the better I pay. Bonus points for them if they herd cattle

 

[girldiverllc]

If I had a drysuit I would LOVE to dive the northwest! I still think I might be cold if I did though!

So, next time you're up here...let me know and I'll have a drysuit ready for you... All the gear complementary... We'll get you in these waters yet!!

 

[Walter]

They don't have the concerns we do, so they can be a bit more "fast and loose" about gear choices, safety, technique, etc etc.

That's a quick way to die in any temperature water.