Diving in Winter

Vladimir wReggie’s return from Soyuz 65? No.

Yesterday was December 3 and it was 27 degrees when I woke up... and I went scuba diving in the quarry.

How I did it and not die?

Remember the dry suit I said I wanted? Well I finally sprung for it and it arrived yesterday. A dry suit allows one to dive and stay dry.

I met my dive buddy at the quarry at 9AM. The air had warmed to the low 30’s. The surface temperature of the water was 60 and it went down from there. At the bottom is a constant 45 year around.

A dry suit has built in boots to size and rubber seals around each arm hole and the neck. One climbs in through the front zipper, gets the feet settled, then the arms through the holes and then the head. Then each seal is inspected to make sure everything is seated.

In the suit I wore two pairs of heavy socks, long underwear, a long sleeve tee shirt and a sweat shirt and sweat pants.

Lastly the whole thing is zipped up with a waterproof zipper and the rest hooking up a pressure hose and then the usual stuff.

I went in the water and was amazed to realize it actually worked. As I got deeper the water would squeeze on the suit and I would allow bursts of air in to push back. This is a bit tricky and will take some practice. The way to exit air is through a valve on my left shoulder. So I had to keep my body aligned so that the left shoulder was the high point when I wanted to bleed off some air.

The hood is not the proper hood for the suit so that will have to be changed but otherwise I am very happy to be able to dive now in cold water up to freezing with as much clothing as I need to stay warm.


WARNING - Side effects may include: gas with oily discharge, headache or diarrhea.

7 comments:

Ken said...

Your interest in even going NEAR cold water, let alone playing in it baffles me, but I do understand that Grey Goose hunting is a worthy challenge for an aging man.
ha ha ha

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Yes. All part of mission training Mic. I'm taking a dry suit course next weekend, a few more dives in the dry suit and Operation Grey Goose gets on the calendar.

I see an older man in the mirror every day so I gotta get on with it while I can.

I wasn't even close to being cold in that suit.

terri said...

Amazing that you don't get cold! You are a truly dedicated diver.

Phfrankie Bondo said...

...all I can tel you is that when I need to bleed off some air, I don't use my shoulder...just sayin'...

Ken said...

LMAO @ Phfrankie!!!!!!

matshorts said...

don't forget to burp the suit before you go in the water!

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

I did Matt. Didn't fart though.