Worst month ever

[LCF]

Okay. I got certified three years ago, and I've been diving pretty steadily since. Until December, that is.

I was horrified to discover that, in December, I did the grand total of ONE WHOLE DIVE.

I knew this whole "snow event" sucked, but this is just too much.

Anybody else have that bad a month?

[Joshua Smith]

I think I got 2 dives in during the whole month of December. Personal worst. To be fair, I had a couple of opportunities to dive, and chose not to....

[spatman]

wow, lynne, that is a pretty bad month. i got in 4 dives, which is about have my monthly average.

[Grateful Diver]

I had three up to December 18th ... then I decided to hell with the weather and started diving more. Ended up with 15 for the month ... which is still a pretty bad month for me.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[billandwende]

And I was feeling bad.

12-6 3 dives in Hawaii'
12-14 2 dives with Porthole charters
12-29 1 dive at Redondo
Then nothing this year due to

Why I dive Hawaii

Porthole Charters

Ling on eggs in the bug at Redondo

Wow I finally figured out the picture posting.

[dsteding]

Last time I dived was December 7th, Klas Rocks and the Jefferson Head Minesweeper (an epic wreck, a must do).

Then the boat motor cratered, the snow fell, the holidays happened, bladdity blah.

I'm getting back on the horse, the boat is fixed (this weekend is some minor tweaks to things to make it better and breaking in the motor) and I'll be back in the water doing the Dungeness Crane.

I've had time to do some projects, suit heat, moving out of my place, organizing gear, that type of stuff. So, it has been good downtime.

[billandwende]

I've had time to do some projects, suit heat

OK I'll ask. What do you mean suit heat? As a constantly cold person this thought is interesting. Or am I missing something again?

[Sounder]

I've had time to do some projects, suit heat

OK I'll ask. What do you mean suit heat? As a constantly cold person this thought is interesting. Or am I missing something again?

It's a battery-powered heating vest worn under the drysuit with an external battery pack.

[camerone]

It's a battery-powered heating vest worn under the drysuit with an external battery pack.

Runs about $250 for the heater (60W) and suit-pass through (no extra holes to punch.) Battery and canister for it extra (new ~$350, but there are easy deals to be had.)

I'm crafting up an experiment to build a cheaper, kidney belt version which should be buildable for ~$70, 20W, no suit pass through, battery in the suit, with appropriate protections. Heidi wanted one, so we looked at HotSuits.com.au, wrote them an e-mail with a few basic questions, since the web site data is paltry, and the customer service guy turned out to be a completely rude a****** (you should _see_ the thread sometime.)

So, I figured I would find a DIY recipe that was half the cost, worked better, and then publish it openly with complete plans on the DIY section of most of the message boards... Stay tuned.

-C

[dsteding]

Yeah, what Cameron said.

I found an old Dive Rite canister, got a battery for it, and some other pieces. The vest is basically car seat pads stitched to a shirt.

Gives me the option of suit heat on the dive, and also allows me to plug it in to my boat through a cigarette lighter topside. That may be the big bonus for me, doing ~1.5 hour runs in cold air gets you chilled before hitting the water, even with a drysuit on.

Cameron, the 18/2 barely worked, I had to lube the Bulgin connectors to get them to slide on. Good news is that I doubt it will ever leak. Just need to install powerpoles on the rest of the wires and I'm done.

[BigFameOne]

Any reason a heated vest for motorcycles couldn't be tweaked to fit this application?


Oh and I got zero dives in in December, but that is a tie with November so it is not the worst month ever. Heres to a great 09 for everyone though.

[camerone]

Any reason a heated vest for motorcycles couldn't be tweaked to fit this application?

It will work, for a while, but you don't want to use it; it's not very safe is the short answer.

Motorcycle jackets (and I ride, too...Gerbing rocks...) use thin wire sewn through the suit to heat. The wires fail a lot - the heavy pressure of straps/weights cuts into the wires, the salt water/air rots the thin wires out, and the insulation rubs off. The wires are very prone to "hot spots" which can cause you serious burns, particularly underwater where you may not notice the issue as rapidly as on the surface.

The motorcycle jackets run ~$100-$200; this DIY version uses waterproof (well, on the surface, maybe) plastic heat pads that are impregnated with carbon granules to be highly resistive. If it's punctured, or cut, instead of having a low-resistance spot, as is the case with wires sans insulation, it actually self-limits. In addition, these pads include a small themostat switch to further protect the wearer from malfunction. The retrofit kits run $100, and a vest is $3 at Value Village, to use as a carrier substrate.

How you get the power to the suit is up to you. Doug and I use LOLA replacement drysuit valves, available from Golem Gear, in the US, but we swapped out the proprietary connector for an industry standard waterproof version (<$10 assembled vs. $85 each). These are combination drysuit inflator and electrical pass through in one. Richard bought an impulse connector and gland and punched another hole in his suit, which also works, and, if you want to be fancy, Barry Miller at Salvo sells p-valve like contraptions that are designed for suit heat, with an E/O bulkhead instead, so if you have can lights with e/o cables, you're in business.

Doug - I'm surprised the 18/2 was that tight...but they make a set of "other size" replacement grommits for the connector, and I think I might have used one on my E/O to Bulgin connector. Do watch your glands - the two-conductor cord can take a "set" and may need retightening to keep it leak proof. 18/3 is a little rounder and seems to not suffer quite as much.

[airsix]

Richard Jack was also doing a heated vest project. Richard, post an update please!
Doug, can you give us some more details on yours? Is it done and in use now? How's it working out?
Camerone, your project sounds cool too! Can't wait to hear more.

My last dive was in 34F water, so you could say I have some interest in this sort of thing.

-Ben

[Tangfish]

Okay. I got certified three years ago, and I've been diving pretty steadily since. Until December, that is.

I was horrified to discover that, in December, I did the grand total of ONE WHOLE DIVE.

I knew this whole "snow event" sucked, but this is just too much.

Anybody else have that bad a month?

28 dives in the first two weeks, then zero since then :(

[Ken G]

2 whole dives! ](*,)

[dsteding]

Richard Jack was also doing a heated vest project. Richard, post an update please!
Doug, can you give us some more details on yours? Is it done and in use now? How's it working out?
Camerone, your project sounds cool too! Can't wait to hear more.

My last dive was in 34F water, so you could say I have some interest in this sort of thing.

-Ben

Let's see if we can get this split off.

Richard is out of town, his is done and working. Mine is a similar design, carbon fiber pads, the LOLA connector from Golem, a Dive Rite wreck canister and battery. Using Bulgin connectors for the plugs.

[defied]

I've had no dives since November....

Soon my precious... soon......

D(B)

[airsix]

Okay. I got certified three years ago...

I'm still hung up on the fact that you've only been diving 3 years. I'm still reaching for that personal goal of being as good as you were at your 1.5 year mark!

-Ben

[Pez7378]

Okay. I got certified three years ago...

I'm still hung up on the fact that you've only been diving 3 years. I'm still reaching for that personal goal of being as good as you were at your 1.5 year mark!

-Ben

Are you an amateur, or a professional?

Amateurs train, until they get it right. Professionals train, until they can't get it wrong.

Lynne is a professional.

Get out and dive, with any luck, you'll be half as good as Lynne was three years ago!

[airsix]

Are you an amateur, or a professional?

I'm in between. I'm a Progressional!

[enchantmentdivi]

12 dives...but considering I had almost 3 weeks off...that's TERRIBLE!

[BillZ]

I got in 5 dives last month. It was definately the slowest month since I was certified.

I've done 4 dives so far this year but we're headed to Cozumel for 10 days on Friday so hopfully I'll make up for lost bottom time!

[rjarnold]

So... why aren't there any big plans for the 3 day weekend? :P

[Knight Diver]

6 dives and they were all coooooold. 4 of those were on the same weekend. Definitely the slowest month for me since I became an active diver. I'll probably get in a few more than that this month. I'll be on the boat on Sunday.

[Kalatin]

December sucked. Badly. It started well - 4 dives in the first 11 days. Wonderful dives with great buddies. Life was good.
Then the dive gremlins struck again and again. Dives were called due to equipment issues. Dives were called due to snow and ice. Nothing was going my way. Then Grateful Diver and Zen Diver did a gremlin dance, loaned me some gear, and I thought the gremlins were vanquished. Yeah, not so much. My last dive of 2008 was on the 30th. It was my 99th dive. Dive 100 was going to be on New Year's. All was in order.
I now have a 99 dives and a perforated ear drum.
Have I mentioned that I hate December.
Lynne is right - worst month ever.