Your coldest water dive?

[aboalreem]

What is your coldest water dive you have ever been in? and how COLD?

 

[naui 15694]

Lots of ice dives in PA Water temp: 34 air temp: 0 to 10 without the wind chill

 

[ffestpirate]

60f in February.....brutal

 

[Lake Mead Tony]

Broke the Ice many-a-times to get wet. I guess you can put that at about 32.1 deg. Never had a reg freeze below but had a few after the dive.

 

[Barracuda2]

Search and recovery mission in Feb. 2:30 a.m. Air temp. -17 degrees Four snowmobilers drove into a gravel pit; three drowned when they broke through. Our tenders had to keep skimming the surface to keep the ice from freezing over. I guess the surface water was 32 degrees and a little warmer at depth. BRRRRRRRRR!

 

[amascuba]

Water Temp: 48 Degree's F. I was nice and toasty though.

 

[JDostal]

We ice dive a lot in Wisconsin. You can't count the water a foot away from the ice - you are only in that for a second or so. The water temp 5 feet below the ice is typically about 40 fahrenheit... really not much colder than our deep lakes/quarries get in the summer past the last thermocline. That is typically about 40-42 fahrenheit. That's why I always wonder why people freak out about ice diving - it's no colder in winter than it is in summer.

The coldest temperature I've ever dove in was a river in late November. The water was flowing fast, so it actually was slightly supercooled, as it was moving too fast to freeze. The water temp was 31 degrees fahrenheit - there was anchor ice on the branches/debris on the river bottom... very cool looking. Our regs/valves/hoses were covered in 1/8-1/2 inch of perfectly clear ice after a half hour dive. Pretty wild...

 

[ChrisA]

Not really all that cold. I live in So Calif. So my personel record is just below 50F. It normally does not get that cold here. 51F is not uncommon, 49F was exeptional, 55F is common
I was in a 7mm wetsuit and remember that it felt good to get back above the thermocline and back into the nice warm mid 50's water.

I bet there is going to be a multi-way tie with 28F being the coldest temp because 28F is the coldest _possable_ dive being the freezing point of seawater. I only know one diver who could claim a dive in 28F water but likley there are hundreds

 

[LG Diver]

52 F out in Monterey this past Sunday was close to the coldest I've been in, but it sure felt like ice diving naked in that crappy rental wetsuit I was in. Top was a size too big and the bottom had about 100 holes in it from ab divers crawling all over the rocks in it. I can't wait for my drysuit to get back from DUI :11: Never diving wet again in Monterey if I can help it. I'm too much of a cold water wuss for wetsuit diving in those conditions. Getting to ride scooters out to the barge and metridium fields made it worth it, though.

 

[Web Monkey]

What is your coldest water dive you have ever been in? and how COLD?

Around 36 degrees F, although once you get much below 40 it doesn't seem to make much difference. The water stings like h*** on all the exposed skin (which you really try to minimize). The rest is covered by drysuit, drygloves, etc.

The biggest thing is to make sure that all your regs are actually freeze-proof, and not just advertised as "cold water regs"

This goes double for any backup/emergency gear. A lot of people have a great primary reg and a not-so-great backup reg. This is just another instance of kicking Darwin in the b****, begging for his award.

If you have a problem in Really Cold Water, your backup gear needs to be just as good if not better than your primary.

Terry