What do you do in the Winter?

[Azza]

Dive. The little woman was trying to convince me to take up skiing but I can't afford two expensive hobbies

 

[ScubaJW]

Now I have a drysuit with Mobby's thinaline (400 gm), so I should be able to dive all winter too... And hopefully take a short trip to the Carribeans in December - still thinking about that.

And maybe trying to upgrade my regulator! :-D

 

[Burke1973]

My buddies have dry suits and I still am with my Semi dry, but I will dive until my feet fall off. So far I have seen 38 deg in it and I was fine, but I think 1 dive will suit me fine!!!

 

[ScubaSarus]

The winter is when the dive season starts since the vis clears up immensly. Also we can sneek into places and dive were you can't in the summer. 2 winters ago we dove Mystic Seaport at night around the old ships and found a few neat old bottles.

 

[Jafo123]

Dive till the ice starts forming then I go and refresh my First Aid and CPR

 

[tedtim]

What do you all do in the winter?
When do you usually pack it in for the season?

I try to make my last dive for the year on December 31 or January 1. The river is not frozen over. Definitely drysuit weather.

Now that my kids are both gone from the house, my wife and I manage to take a week off for a dive trip. This year we are taking two weeks.

Otherwise, I help out my LDS on courses at the pool for those lucky sole who plan on heading to warmer climates to do the dives. It is also a good time to get the annual service done on the equipment.

First local dive is usually toward the end of April.

 

[Rec Diver]

I cut a whole in the ice, and jump in. There is no packing it in. We dive year round.

 

[grazie42]

Also filling the wetsuit (and gloves!) with warm water before and between dives helps...a largish thermos with "teawater" will get help you get through a winter of ice-diving...

Note: I no longer do this thanks to a drysuit and smurfgloves...I´m afraid I´ve only done a few wetsuit dives this year (at home)...I´m a WWW in a CW-world...sigh...

 

[vetdiver]

What a sympathetic bunch!
That's it! I'm going to sell my soul so I can afford a drysuit!
The inevitable question: what critters can you see in the winter?

FYI - I bought my first drysuit two years ago and went for a neoprene one, as it was relatively inexpensive for starting out and WARM. Might be nice to start out with for you, as well! I don't need too much weight to sink me, anyways, and I have not found compression at depth to be much of an issue - in truth, I am often warmer than my husband in his swanky DUI custom in the winter, and I have not had a single leak (I have 90-100 + dives on my drysuit at this point). I thought I'd get a nicer suit after I got used to dry diving, but now I may not upgrade that thing until it falls apart.

Bottom line - you shouldn't have to sell your soul to give drysuit diving a try!

Oh - and the answer to your last question - LOTS of nudibranchs!! They are everywhere in the winter.

 

[yak]

I just put off buying those two E7-100's I was jonesing for, and instead picked up a pair of powder boards with alpine touring binders & climbing skins. Hello backcountry!