Northwest Dive Club

Hi,
New to diving in the NW, and fairly new to diving.
Saturday, I'm doing skills training and it is looking to be COLD outside. Report is for close to freezing (33 degrees) temp both Sat and Sunday.
I'm driving up from SW Washington so I need to look at nearby options/ideas for staying warm.

Resources I have currently.
I can drive up in either an Accord, Explorer, F250 Super Cab.
I have a canopy, with no sides.
I have a table. I have all my gear, and there are two of us.
I have a fantastic DM and instructor (Bob).

Probably diving either Redondo or Cove 2.

Thoughts I had. Have drysuits out of bags on the drive up. Put on thermals in the car, than put on drysuit 1st thing.
Is that bathroom at Redondo good for putting on suits? I would probably have to take a chair over.

When getting out of the water, I'm thinking that the hood and gloves need to come off ASAP and replaced with something warm.

How to spend the SI. Hide in the car with wet gear?
What if it is <freezing? I'm guessing things don't respond well to temps that cold.

Oversize cheap coat (thrift store) to put over everything. Good hat and gloves. Keep the extremities warm.
Warm water for hood and gloves.
The facilities at Redondo and Cove 2 are about equally bleak but useable, which is way better than no facilities. A chair might be nice. Last time I checked the hand dryer at Redondo worked which can be useful.

Use disposable handwarmers during the SI- any BTUs that you can get externally help offset the ones you lose from the cold. A warm beanie is huge; dry your hair the best you can if you have lots.

We need a ton of exposure protection to stay warm under water, which is typically much too warm on the surface. You might be surprised at how warm you are prior to getting in the water. That being said.....

Wear your base layers at a minimum to the dive site, your undergarment too if you won't roast on the way.

Plan on putting your dry suit on as soon as you get there. Bob will have his canopy set up by the time you get there, hang out under there if it's raining while you don your suit. You can use the restrooms but it is (for me) much easier to don my suit from a tailgate.

Bring warm water to dunk your hood and gloves in during your surface interval. I use a 5 gallon round cooler. Bring a scoop of some sort to dip water out to rinse your head and a towel to dry off your head/face/etc.

Bring something warm to drink in a thermos (tea, coffee, soup) to help warm you up from the inside during your surface interval.

The next bit is personal preference, and you'll need to see what works for you: I add a few puffs of air to my dry suit when I exit the water, leave it on, take off my hood/gloves, rinse my head and hands with warm water, dry off, grab a hat/gloves and something warm to drink. I warm up fairly quickly (this is coming from a diver who can only hope for "not miserably cold" while diving in the winter, in spite of a weezle extreme + and multiple base layers). Other people remove their dry suit altogether and put on a heavy coat during their interval. YMMV.

For vehicles, I would bring whatever has a tailgate. If the explorer has a tailgate and your truck doesn't have a camper shell, it might be more secure.

Happy diving! It's really not as bad as you might be imagining.

^that.

Most of us dive in the snow no problem - heck there will be OW classes there in wetsuits to make you feel warm and grateful :p.

Getting the suit on is the biggest issue if there's no place indoors to go stand. If there's no bathroom bring a carpet scrap of something like that and wear you base layers from home. Sholdn't take you more than 4 or 5 minutes to get you thermals on and then the suit on.

Water temps don't change much anyway. A cooler full of warm water makes the hood go on easier for dive 2.

Wind is the biggest issue. If you get to the site in your undergarments, or put them on in the car, still, cold air won't bother you much. Make sure you have a hat!

Between dives, the cold wind on the wet dry suit continues to extract heat. I use a fleece-lined nylon parking by TruWest, which was bought oversized so it can be put over the suit if need be. Another thing that sucks heat out of you is standing on cold pavement, so a mat can help a lot, or getting out of the suit and into some kind of warm boots.

Hot water for gloves and hoods is wonderful, as is some hot fresh water to pour over your head when you're done. Have a towel, too; even though you shouldn't get very wet in a dry suit, drying your hair removes far less heat than letting it air-dry. (The heat of evaporation of water is a lot!)

I've been contemplating to adapt a portable hair dryer and plugging it to the drysuit inflator through something like a BCD rinse hose, to fill the suit with hot air. Has anyone tried this or a similar idea? The main concern that comes to mind is to avoid sparks from the dryer burning small holes in the trilam, but I'd assume that, with a long enough hose or a membrane made of clothing, that would not be an issue.

kr2y5 wrote:I've been contemplating to adapt a portable hair dryer and plugging it to the drysuit inflator through something like a BCD rinse hose, to fill the suit with hot air. Has anyone tried this or a similar idea? The main concern that comes to mind is to avoid sparks from the dryer burning small holes in the trilam, but I'd assume that, with a long enough hose or a membrane made of clothing, that would not be an issue.

I don't think that you'd get the pressure that you'd need to push the heated air through your inflator. Your first stage delivers air at roughly 140 psi.

You'd probably be better off just getting a basic heated vest for $100 and tuning it on between dives.

Motorcycle vests can be turned into suit heat but diving specific vests are about $450. Battery plus a EO inlet drive up the heat costs to around $1000-120 for everything. Santi and golem both make complete systems.

If used imprudently you can increase your dcs risks though.

CaptnJack wrote:Motorcycle vests can be turned into suit heat but diving specific vests are about $450. Battery plus a EO inlet drive up the heat costs to around $1000-120 for everything. Santi and golem both make complete systems.

If used imprudently you can increase your dcs risks though.

But if you're just using it to heat up (or stay warm) during an SI, you don't need the bulkhead or EO, you can just route a battery cord through the lower portion of the zipper. Just make sure and take it out before you dive!

Nwbrewer wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Motorcycle vests can be turned into suit heat but diving specific vests are about $450. Battery plus a EO inlet drive up the heat costs to around $1000-120 for everything. Santi and golem both make complete systems.

If used imprudently you can increase your dcs risks though.

But if you're just using it to heat up (or stay warm) during an SI, you don't need the bulkhead or EO, you can just route a battery cord through the lower portion of the zipper. Just make sure and take it out before you dive!

Seems like an utter waste of a good heated vest :p

Or a good dive parka.

I have the TruWest rain and windproof dive parka(artic fleece lined), and for winter time diving, they are awesome.

Jeff Pack wrote:Or a good dive parka.

I have the TruWest rain and windproof dive parka(artic fleece lined), and for winter time diving, they are awesome.

Dive Right in Scuba has a nice between dives parka on sale for Black Friday.

http://www.diverightinscuba.com/catalog/dive-coat.html

Like most we dive all year also. Coldest it has been when we got to the dive site was 17*, and the nice 42* water felt very good.

Trailer with forced air heat and 70 gallons of on demand hot water is always very nice when it is snowing. The hot water is great when you first get out of the water, the trailer is nice for getting in and out of your gear.

Yes, it is snowing in this pic.


If it is a nice warm day in the 30's and you are dressed in your dry gear you can easily stay nice and warm. On this day I had to keep getting back in the water to stay cool enough.

That is really cheating!

While being able to be warm is nice. What is really nice about this set up is I have gear racks inside. This means we clean our gear as doff it. It goes right into its place or hung on a rack. We do end up spending a little more time at the dive site, but we don't have to take it home and deal with it.

We have been out of the water too long, only one dive trip this year due to other things going on in life. I just got the trailer set back up and hope to be west side diving after the first of the year.

... I've seen dive shops smaller than John's trailer ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Nwcid wrote:While being able to be warm is nice. What is really nice about this set up is I have gear racks inside. This means we clean our gear as doff it. It goes right into its place or hung on a rack. We do end up spending a little more time at the dive site, but we don't have to take it home and deal with it.

We have been out of the water too long, only one dive trip this year due to other things going on in life. I just got the trailer set back up and hope to be west side diving after the first of the yetar.

Being a friend of John's has its benefits...I just don't exercise the option much....John you didn't mention the barbecue...
The trailer is nicer than most walk in closets.....but he drives a considerable distance. IMHO he deaerves it! Merry Christmas John...and Mrs. John!