[sebastien murat]

I often see divers using one or two recipes for their perparation. It's not that easy or simple. If you don't have a 'deeper' physiological undertstanding of thermoregulation one is condemned to making the same mistakes over and over again.
There should be no such thing as cold, from a diver's point of view! Diving in the low teens is not 'normal' for humans. Consequently, if you do, you have to find fixes to your problems. I'll dive in surface temp of 18-19, for example, with just board-shorts. Depending on my prep. this will feel either cold or comfortable. One must seperate between periphery and core, and there are ways of doing that quite effectively. Certainly, swimming during the descent and an insufficient Mb store will result in a greater post-diving shivering. A longer term-adaptation should not be discounted.

What I'm getting at is that the recipe isn't fixed and that one should strive to broaden one's repetoire of available preparation strategies, not simply to one or two.One has to have an intimate understanding of the restrictions imposed by one's environment, what strategies may be used to benefit or combat these. In short, too many divers view water as a static medium...I see it more as a fluxing entity that sets shifting boundaries. The trick is knowing where the boundary is. To know where the boundary is one has to learn to read water and constantly adapt to its qualities...if that makes any sense without sounding to metaphysically full of crap! The good divers are not, contrary to popular opinion, those who seem systematic and consistent in their warm-ups (up to a point that's ok), rather its the ones who keep assessing the conditions, swaping and change at a moments notice. And, that's was is required for diving anywhere, anytime, and a moments notice.


My humble opinion (sometimes too opinionated..granted)

Seb