There are many exceptional benefits to diving in cold weather and even wintertime. The water is clearer as there is fewer algae growth in the water because it can’t survive in colder temperatures.
This in itself makes it much easier to follow those most common scuba hand signals you’ve been working on. Furthermore, the change in temperature comes from different aquatic life and creatures. However, without a doubt, one of the biggest downsides of diving in cold temperatures is the warming up afterward.
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The Best Way to Warm Up After a Cold Dive
You will be taught how to wear the most effective combination of undergarments and a dry suit to get the best insulation during your dive when you attend ice diving and dry suit diving courses. And it’s likely by now you know why you should wear dive gloves when underwater in colder temperatures.
It doesn’t matter if you have the best scuba dive gloves, or not. After a cold dive it’s important that you deal with the heat loss you experience when you climb into the dive boat or reach the shore. At that point, your main goal is to get out of those cold and wet diving clothes and into ordinary, and warm clothes as fast as you can.
If you are planning on going on dives when the temperature is very low and its cold and are looking for help dealing with the change in temperature and how to get warmed up the most effective and quickest way, you’ve come to the right place.
In the rest of this post, we will provide you with a guide to getting hot when you’re shaking, wet and cold. The following guide, we should note, is based on you using a dry suit.
Step #1: Just Out of the Water
Once you are out of the water and have taken your scuba diving equipment off, remember to keep your hood and gloves on. Even if you are wearing a wetsuit and not a dry suit, you still have a reasonable amount of insulation protecting you from the low temperature of the air.
While keeping your hood on, dismantle your diving gear as much as you can and then place the unit where you are going to take the rest of your diving gear off.
Step #2: Get the Clothes Bag
It’s best to keep all your clothes in a waterproof bag of some kind, along with the fleece gloves and hat. Then try to start to open the bag keeping your wetsuit/drysuit gloves on. You don’t want to get your clothes wet, though, so don’t touch them yet.
Step #3: Taking off your Drysuit
Now, you are ready to take off your gloves, hood and then unzip the dry suit and get out of it as quickly as you can. The only thing you should be wearing now is that two-layer insulation we’ve already discussed.
Step #4: Putting Your Normal Clothes On
Obviously keeping any underwear, you have on, remove the insulation trousers you are wearing and put your ordinary clothes on, along with socks and shoes. You can keep your insulation sweatshirt on unless it’s wet and then put the jacket on over the top along with the gloves and fleece.
Step #5: Disassemble the Rest of The Gear
If you are wearing gloves with removable fingers, expose them to help you easily disassemble any of your diving gear left. If you are diving at night, use a headlamp. Pack everything up and get yourself something nice and hot to drink.
The hat and gloves with wick any moisture away from your hair and hands, ensuring you warm up and dry quickly, while the material helps to keep you insulated. If you’ve finished your drink and put everything away, cover your fingers up and have another warm drink.
In theory, the process above will take from the first to the fifth step, approximately five minutes or even less, but it’s worth the effort.
Gear You Should Invest In When Cold Water Diving
It pays to have the right gear, equipment, and clothing at your disposal to make sure you can have a pleasurable experience exploring the great deep blue and then getting warm quickly when you’re out of the water again.
Invest in a high-quality jacket, specifically the kind mountaineers tend to use, one of those Hard-shell outdoor kinds. They provide you with excellent protection, but also have the benefit of lightweight construction.
Get yourself a two-part base layer, consisting of a combination of a thin layer that sits next to the skin on your arms and legs, with between one and two thicker layers on top. A great option is a pair of pants and a sweatshirt top. Look for items made with fast-drying materials like fleece. Skiing underwear, the kind that is basically long-legged pants and long sleeve shirts that fit closely to the skin.
A fleece hat and convertible fleece gloves often referred to as shooting gloves with the fingertips exposed as also useful essentials for cold water diving.
