Quote:
Originally Posted by Halmyr
It also takes me a while to start shivering in water 25c because I work in such an enviroment for hours.
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I agree with you Halmyr. Water that warm you only need a swim suit to stay warm. Granted no matter the water temperature you can always stay warmer by keeping the body moving, err generating its own heat. I used to swim competitively as a kid and I never had trouble swimming in 15-16 C degree water. Admittedly, I had to get in first which took me forever, call it being a chicken. Once I was in and swimming I could always stay warm as long as I stayed moving. The difference is trying to stay moving and breathe up at the same time.
I did try out both the eating before diving, get the digestive system generating heat, and the profuse sweating concept just a little bit ago. I knew the weather wasn't the greatest but considering what it will be like over the weekend it was fabulous. Drizzle and around 11 C outside with the water temp still holding around 17 C where I was diving. I did put on the full gear expecting the water to actually be a little colder than that(the smaller body of water should cool off faster than a bigger body of water...it didn't happen like that though). It did seem like the cold wasn't as noticeable as early as usual, other than when I first dropped my head/upper body underwater. It seemed like "hyperventilating" helped to get over the initial shock of the cold water as I was swimming out to deeper waters.
The wetsuit I dive with has no sleeves whatsoever, from the shoulders on down. I do wear a thermal top and fleece to help compensate for the lack of sleeves. Today it helped me to notice one thing. The less arm movement you make while swimming out/back in, the warmer you'll stay. I think I have also noticed the same effect since I shifted down a notch to no fin diving. Today it seemed like I was noticing that water didn't want to penetrate the suit as much as it always had in the past while I was diving with a, now broken, monofin. Optimizing your swim stroke to allow the cold water to seep in and then start to warm up may also help to keep you warmer. If you keep "refreshing" the cold water all the time it will make you cold quicker.
Now if I could just figure out the way to stay moving and be able to get a decent breathe up/keep the heart rate down at the same time...LOL!!!
Ryan
