Why-?

[texdiveguy]

Being an active OC technical diver and enjoying the benefits of diving cold waters in a dry suit, I see far less CCR divers in the colder season, my question is do dry suits and CCR units just not match up for some reason, and if so are there not methods of overcoming the issues if any?

 

[sunkmail]

Being an active OC technical diver and enjoying the benefits of diving cold waters in a dry suit, I see far less CCR divers in the colder season, my question is do dry suits and CCR units just not match up for some reason, and if so are there not methods of overcoming the issues if any?

I've never had a problem with a Drysuit and my CCR. In fact, our local diving is always cold, so we wear drysuits all year. (I only have 16 warm water CCR dives, and I only did those in Jan of this year.)

Maybe it's a Texas thing?

 

[ucfdiver]

Being an active OC technical diver and enjoying the benefits of diving cold waters in a dry suit, I see far less CCR divers in the colder season, my question is do dry suits and CCR units just not match up for some reason, and if so are there not methods of overcoming the issues if any?

I was under the impression that ccr was preferred for cold water diving partly due to the warmth of the loop.

 

[sea2summit]

Cold water can have negative impacts on sorb efficiency but it’s more of a planning thing than a hazard. I might venture to guess they go to caves in the winter:cool2:

 

[SFLDiver3445]

Two weekends ago I was diving on a small six-pack charter here in Pompano Beach, Florida with three rebreather diving friends. Even though we are all technical divers, that day we opted to do one long 3 hour drift dive that spanned a couple of wrecks and some reef in approximately 70' of water. The water temperature that day was 75 degrees.

I've personally never felt the need to dive a drysuit here in my area, so I wore a 7mm full suit, but my three other friend were all wearing drysuits.

Can't speak for anywhere else, but at least here in South Florida, of the many (approx. 15+) rebreather divers I know and dive with, I'd say that at least half wear drysuits in the winter.

And you probably thought drysuits were rare in this neck of the woods!

 

[Martini]

I have about 150 hours of CCR diving mostly in the North East and all but about 5 hours is in a dry suit. In fact I would say that rebreathers and diving dry go hand in hand due to the need for better thermal protection for the longer dive times.

 

[texdiveguy]

Thanks all for your input to a fellow diver still hung-up on OC and ds in cold waters.

Guess it's just the area I'm in that prompted the question....best you each of you and be safe!

 

[Mr.X]

The CCR is a terrific tool for cold water diving. I've used it a lot for some deeper, longer projects in cold water. The recycled gas helps.

That being said - sometimes OC is just a lot easier and when you don't want to hassle with cleaning stuff for shorter dives in freezing conditions. Nothing beats OC where you can leave the tanks outside and duck in with your reg and electronics. Not so easy carting the entire RB back inside the cabin of a boat. I also don't like leaving CCR electronics/sorb outside in freezing temp. Too many parts to fiddle with when your fingers don't appreciate twisting on bits of gear best suited to ET-like fingers.

X