Until recently in my diving career my equipment checklist has always been fairly short and simple. But my dive sites have slightly altered these days from the tropical weather and waters of past where neither really affected diving. Now both the water and outside temperature and the weather can be deal breakers for going for a dive. Now weather, unfortunately, I cannot do much about. So if the seas are too high or the wind is too strong, I am a little out of luck. As for the water and outside temperatures, I can do something about that! Just by adding a few things to that checklist and making that change from diving wet to diving dry. And so add: dry suit (the shop’s hot pink number, you’ll never miss me), thermal undergarments, dry suit hose, hood, gloves, glove liners… the list just about tripled! Now that may seem a bit tedious to some but if you’re like me and would like to be able to dive year round pretty much no matter the water temperature I highly recommend diving dry. In January of this year I decided to do my first dry suit dive at a local lake to see if I too could take advantage of the better visibility that could be offered by the winter months. Although the outdoor temperature was very cold, I was fairly comfortable throughout the dive but there were components that I struggled with. It was quite humbling, I thought to myself “wow, that was awesome but I definitely need to work on this!” I enrolled in the Dry suit specialty course in order to truly maximize my dive when using a dry suit. The course offers the opportunity to gain the knowledge of understanding the physiology and skills to safely don, dive with, doff and store a dry suit. It also offers the chance to learn dry suit buoyancy skills; dry suit maintenance, storage, and basic repair; and undergarment (fleece or overall-type garments worn under the suit) options.
My next dry suit dive came in March but this time I was extremely uncomfortable with the cold becoming too extreme for me to complete the dive. It left a lot of questions as to why this had happened. I am definitely not one to be defeated when it comes to diving, but comfort and warmth are things I will not push the envelope on. I do not wish to become an unsafe diver because I became cold and tired which then affected my making decisions or, an emergency arises and I was forced to deal with it. After consulting with my fellow instructors and my doctor I found some answers/solutions and further understanding of my own body’s physiology. I discovered that being in cold environments I was already predisposed to difficulties as I have Reynaud’s disease (a condition that causes some areas of your body; such as your fingers, toes, the tip of your nose and your ears, to feel numb and cool in response to cold temperatures or stress.) In order to maintain core temperature, the body will standardly first restrict blood flow to the extremities, which manifests itself as cold hands and feet but in my case I have a much lowered tolerance to cold. This highlighted the issue for the need to get the right insulation for the conditions and the diver. Wherein an advantage to the dry suit lies: you can dive dry with an array of undergarments that range in thickness so a diver can match which undergarment to wear based upon them and the conditions they aspire to dive in. Which I think is neat that a person can customize that part based on water temperature and personal needs/conditions. Taking on board my proneness to cold, I armed myself with a new very thick thinsulate undergarment (the DUI Polartec® PowerStretch Pro® Jumpsuit) and successfully completed my dry suit specialty course this past weekend with complete comfort.
May is PADI’s dry suit specialty month! If you too would like to broaden your diving repertoire, sign up for this specialty! As I said to my instructor upon completion “Someone find me some butter because I am toasty!” (Corny I know!)
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