Freediving in cold water

[cmburch]

Northern California about 46-52F. I normally need a 7mm Farmer John freedive wetsuit with 4mm socks and 5mm gloves. As long as the seams are good on the gloves and socks. I can also dive my 5mm Farmer John with a 3mm weight vest. Very comfortable and much easier to move in the 5mm. I noticed that some cold water regulators such as Aqua Lung come with a lip guard which may fit a snorkel. Cold can be dangerous if get hypothermic and also if it affects ones judgement. I will check if the lip guard will fit a snorkel. I mainly have problems with my fingers getting numb if gloves not sealed properly. Leaky socks do not seem to bother me much. I would normally just climb up on rock to rest for lunch or if I do not feel well.

 

[patbrassil]

If your looking for a gel or something, i used to use petroleum jelly while surfing in the cold. It helps keep the cold water from touching your skin directly. Might be worth trying.

 

[Andrew the fish]

I was diving today and the water was below 10 celcius. I had my 5mm wetsuit, gloves and boots. But my lips felt so cold, otherwise it wasn't that cold so is it dangerous or anything? I could dive in cold waters (it didn't feel that bad) but i want to know is it safe? =)

I routinely dive in 3/2mm suit at close to 10 celcius. It is cold though, I last about 40 minutes and entering the water is always a challenge. I also experimented with diving with no suit. What is dangerous is getting your joints way too cold, like when diving without booties. It is painful when you warm them up again in a warm shower, similar simptoms to free bites, and perhaps it is a form of a freeze bite. Another dangerous thing is overcooling your head. You may get disoriented and you will lose the sense of balance for sure. Also at various stages of hypothermia you may start losing your colour vision and hearing - yes I was there too. Anyways, lips and face generally is least affected by cold water from my experience. Lips may get numb from cold but it never did hurt me in a long term.

 

[Yeti]

I routinely dive in 3/2mm suit at close to 10 celcius. It is cold though, I last about 40 minutes and entering the water is always a challenge. I also experimented with diving with no suit. .............................Another dangerous thing is overcooling your head. .........................

I think you have been doing this too often.....

...............but it never did hurt me in a long term.

........and are you sure about that?

 

[Fondueset]

Eric Fattah has written elsewhere about the dangers of diving in very cold water without a suit. If its cold enough, it can kill you.
Quickly. As for 10c in a 3/2 suit - pretty much impossible to do many long dives in that configuration. I prefer to switch to a 5 mil at about 17c if I want to maintain decent times over a couple of hours. If you are exerting a lot then you can easily go 10c in a light suit or tri suit.

My diving style here generally involves long stays on the bottom without much movement.

 

[Andrew the fish]

Eric Fattah has written elsewhere about the dangers of diving in very cold water without a suit. If its cold enough, it can kill you.
Quickly. As for 10c in a 3/2 suit - pretty much impossible to do many long dives in that configuration. I prefer to switch to a 5 mil at about 17c if I want to maintain decent times over a couple of hours. If you are exerting a lot then you can easily go 10c in a light suit or tri suit.

My diving style here generally involves long stays on the bottom without much movement.

40 minutes are pretty much less than 10 dives. For sure, continuous loss of body heat will eventually kill anybody. But out of 40 minutes there is about 30 minutes of comfort and even pleasure, though I never lose the awareness of hostility of the environment. Another danger is in the fact that there are very few willing to provide safety and I am on my own against one big and cold ocean.

In regards to exertion, if I understand you right, diver does not get any warmer if he kicks around more, in fact being relaxed and relatively still is about the only way to conserve the heat. I do get my usual 1:40 - 2:00 dives, and relaxed rests on surface. Anyways, that thread about diving in cold water without suite is about two years old now. Back to our thread here, OP asked the question and it was answered and I am done here. You guys can keep making silly jokes now.

 

[Fondueset]

40 minutes are pretty much less than 10 dives. For sure, continuous loss of body heat will eventually kill anybody. But out of 40 minutes there is about 30 minutes of comfort and even pleasure, though I never lose the awareness of hostility of the environment. Another danger is in the fact that there are very few willing to provide safety and I am on my own against one big and cold ocean.

In regards to exertion, if I understand you right, diver does not get any warmer if he kicks around more, in fact being relaxed and relatively still is about the only way to conserve the heat. Anyways, that thread about diving in cold water without suite is about two years old now. Back our thread here, OP asked the question and it was answered and I am done here. You guys can keep making silly jokes now.

Hi Andrew, The danger comes only if you have a good DR - and then at slightly lower temps and with NO suit. It has nothing to do with hypothermia but it sounds like you are not diving into DR much. I've dived plenty of times in the type of suit you describe at those temps and I understand what you are talking about. In a 3 mil at 50f I'm good for about 3-5 dives in the 3 minute range (assuming a 400 meter swim to the dive site) before shivering takes it's toll. (obviously, more if they are shorter - I remember doing 10 consecutive 2 minute plus dives one day, photographing lake trout in a 3 mil plush lined suit at 48f - there were more dives, but 10 were over 2 minutes - it was awful..) If I do some surface mono fin sprints I can manage a few more after recovering from the cardio. It also depends on what I've eaten. My point above, which I think does not apply to you, is that diving with no suit < 10c IF you dive into DR results in your peripheries shutting down. The problem arises when you get out and they open up again and the cold blood hits your heart.

 

[Apneaddict]

I too have had the DR wear off as I warm up (get out on the rocks to get out of the cold water) and once you get chilled from the peripheral blood... there's no warming up. A core chill and shivering commence.

I only get out because everyone else gets out and I have no safety / spotter / buddy... But I think it's best to stay in DR mode as long as possible in this instance. Note: this is with a 5mm suit and single digit water temps. I've even had it as warm as 14*.

 

[Fondueset]

I too have had the DR wear off as I warm up (get out on the rocks to get out of the cold water) and once you get chilled from the peripheral blood... there's no warming up. A core chill and shivering commence.

I only get out because everyone else gets out and I have no safety / spotter / buddy... But I think it's best to stay in DR mode as long as possible in this instance. Note: this is with a 5mm suit and single digit water temps. I've even had it as warm as 14*.

This gets to be a bragging contest My point was to warn Andrew off no suit dives < 10c. I don't think it hits us that hard with 5 mil suits. The problem is not chill - though that is a show-stopper - it is possible cardiac arrest.

 

[Andrew the fish]

Good comments everybody. A bit of thread hijaking, I hope OP doesn't object as this is an interesting theme to talk about. Fondueset, I have dived with no suit in a very cold waters as well, perhaps not below 10c more like 12-13 but it is cold enough to experience similar periphery sensors shutting down and of course there is a vasoconstriction takes place. It is an amazing experience on its own, those who tried would agree. I remember Eric describing cold water flow against the body as a "soothing feeling" which is pretty close to what I feel. In my cold-water-no-suit experiments I had a luxury of stayng in an oceanfront cabin, so basically from cold water I would crawl into the cabin and straight into the shower and warm up in there. And maybe this should be some kind of safety protocol for everybody who wants to try, just so that peripherial blood will be warmed up from outside before vasodilation lets the blood to cool down the core. But then, I said it back then and I say now, these experiments aren't for recreational freediving, more suitable for controlled environment with recovery facility if anything goes wrong.