I have been working with a friend for the last several months on his graduate project with CofC. It involves studying the habits of fish around hours of dusk. This means GoPro cameras on the bottom with lots of diving and late trips in the dark. He has gotten alot of good video and information along the way.
We have been looking at the weather for weeks for one last trip and finally we left yesterday afternoon around 2pm. As soon we got to the ocean i had to change plans. It had not layed down like I hoped it might. I had hoped to kill lionfish on a beautiful ledge they have been destroying but the ocean told us to go somewhere else. Surface temp was 48 in 30ft. Surface temp was 54 when we arrived at 80ft with SW wind around 12. I drove while the crew caught a limit of seabass on r&r and then we geared up. 2 sets of divers and 3 camera setups= a lot of gear to juggle. The water was cold and it only got colder as we hit the bottom. Due to the cloudy weather and 4:45pm getting in the water the vis wasn’t awesome but is prolly 60ft right now if sun is out. Awesome ledge system with many fish. Spades, sheeps, sea bass, b liners, a 20ish lb ARS, several gags in 15lb range. Fun dive even though it was guided by flashlight. That light found us a 10lb spiny and a few medium sized slipper lobster. Didn’t pull the trigger on the gun for several reasons. Our dive time was about 20 minutes and it felt amazing to dump hot water down the suit once back on the boat. We headed in after retrieving the cameras to navigate stono inlet in black dark negative low tide. It was good to get out for first trip of a fun 2014 season.
Sounds cold but fun. I am ready to get back in the water. Maybe after this polar vortex it will be 80degrees. I don’t mind the cold but it’s pretty tough to get dive buddies to agree.
the adventure of diving a new spot in 54 degree water is still much better than anything happening on land in Charleston on a random sunday…but it was darn cold so to each his own
Here is a video of me and a ~100lb girl diving on the Comanche I believe in February. It was 52 degrees.
I used to dive in the winter quite frequently but the cold got to me. I’ve been on a few dives where I lost mobility of a leg due to the cold and that scared some sense into me.
The worst part for me is the surface, I find you can be comfortable underwater, but the surface interval can be brutal. It is tempting to take off your suit, but putting on a suit that is wet from the previous dive and has cooled off is pretty terrible. I have never done the warm water in cooler trick but will definitely have to give it a shot.
I dive a 5/7mm wetsuit with 3.5mm hood. I don’t like the thicker hoods because i feel like I am choking the whole dive. I have a fat head so the hoods always fit funny.
Any videos of your new ledge? I love winter diving because the vis is usually incredible from now until that first storm of the spring/early summer.
appreciate the responses. hmmmm never thought about sitting in the cold on surface. just wanted to make sure i got enough suit for the wife. i got her a 7mm suit, 5mm hood, 5mm gloves. i dont like hoods either with my pumpkin head, so will get a thin one, i dont mind the cold. would be nice to get out on one of the 60 degree days to make it a little nicer on top.
I purchased a Aqualung Solafx, 7/8 this fall and it is by far the warmest semi dry suit I have ever used and the most comfortable to work in. LeisurePro or $399. $150 cheaper then I could find locally. As a hard hat diver (years ago now) we paid as much as $1200 for a good cloth lined 8mm wet suit for cold water work and still poured hot water in to stay comfortable. Our last few dives on Dec 31, my partners froze in the 59deg water, with hot water in 5mm wetsuits. I was very comfortable and didn’t need the hot water. The hood is a little tight and takes some getting used to but no water gets in through the neck dam. Even after the dive I stayed in my suit between dives and was good to go. We carry Igloo 5gal water coolers with hot water from the tub and it will last all day! A few solo cups of warm water before making holes in the water makes for a great dive this time of year!
Good to hear you got out Charles. Check out the SD Combat Suits from Waterproof. We were given a couple of these suits last year and dove right through the winter…no problem. They’re awesome. Thankfully, last winter we had a warm shower on the back deck, so it helped, but even with a good suit, I continually dump warm water in the suit. Fill warm water balloons and toss them in there. When they bust, life’s good.
I will be diving in Kings Bay, GA next week, Lake Cherokee in the upstate two weeks from now, and several lakes throughout SC after that for the next couple of weeks, before I go for a dive in Savannah.
It also makes a huge difference with the type of wetsuit that you are wearing. Over the last 4 years when I was in college in RI, we would be doing night dives as early as March. The coldest water temp was 41 degrees if I remember correctly. I felt warmer in my 3mm freediving wetsuit (open celled) vs my 7mm SCUBA wetsuit (closed cell). This is most likely due to the free diving wetsuit barely letting any water in between the suit and my body, as the SCUBA wetsuit has the zipper thats main job seems to be to let water into the suit.
We also poured hot water into our suits before the dive and would wear a pair or two of latex gloves under our dive gloves as our hands were generally the first things to get cold. These few things let me dive in a 3mm @ 41 degrees for around 30minutes before anything started to lose feeling.
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I wore a Freediving 7mm top w/hood and a 5mm bottom. I stayed dry and was pretty comfortable minus my hands and feet (4mm socks) when I was on bottom. On bottom I didn’t stay as warm. Still it was fine and I opted for no hot water once I got out since it would have felt even colder being wet. Though, hot water predive would have been a good idea.
Anytime I felt the least discomfort I shrugged it off and kept remembering the video I saw of Natalia Avseenko in Russia. She is one of the first female freedivers in Russia. She constantly dives under the ice with her Beluga Whale friends. Now you’re probably wondering whats so bad about that? Well, she does it all in the nude. There is a great video of it on youtube but you can search that yourself. Ill just post a friendly photo. Maybe we need to smear ourselves with petroleum jelly before we suit up.
By the way, I used those SD suits in the service. Forgot about those things. They are expensive but awesome! Wish I could have kept it.
i find that water leakage has the biggest effect on your ability to warm. Winter diving is my favorite time of year I always hope for a sunny day because nothing worse than coming up after a 50 degree dive to a 45 degree cloudy day.
I just bought an aqualung sol afx that has the built in hood and real nice seals on the arms and legs. The ■■■■■■■■ i heard was that it was comparable to a 7mm…
As for gloves i hate thinker gloves i wear 2mm spearfishing gloves year round without problems
