Is Cold Water Diving Worth It?
When someone thinks of diving for the first time, they usually picture a hot sun sitting over white sandy beaches, brightly colored fish, and crystal clear warm waters. And if you are lucky enough to live in one of these locations, good for you. However, many of us live in locations where the water is cold, the weather is cloudy, and the water may be murky. So it is quite normal that many people ask if cold water diving is really worh it and if there is anything to see. In short I can say that it depends on the person, but in short yes, it is definitely worth it.
I started diving 10 years ago on the northern Califonria coast and it is still where I have the majority of my dives. The water here is pretty cold (48f-54f) and is quite often very murkey with visibility ranging from a few feet on bad days to about 40 feet on good days. The oceans can also be quite volatile with large surge and waves one day and completely calm oceans the next. On top of this you will need additional gear not required to dive in tropical areas. You will need a thick wetsuit or drysuit, boots, gloves, and a hoodie. You will also need to wear quite a bit of weight to comensate for all of that extra neoprene. The extra weight and cumbersomeness of the gear makes getting to the water more difficult. Now I know what you are thinking, nope, cold water diving isn’t worth it. And after reading the above paragraph I know it must seem that way. But read on and I will explain why diving in places like the California coast can be an amazing experience.
First off lets cover the difficulties. Learning to dive and training in a slightly rougher environment will help you become a better diver. If you learn to dive in rough waters with low visability and a lot of heavy gear, then diving in tropical waters really does seem like a vacation. It can be difficult at first, but you will gain a level of confidence that can really help improve your diving career.
It is true that there is a lack of clearity compared to the tropical waters. This is something that you get used to. Once advantage of murky waters is that you learn to search for smaller organisms. Due to murky waters you are forced to look harder and this allows you to find a lot of life you might not otherwise get a chance to see. When the waters are clear and you get great visibility then you really due gain an appreciation for diving in cold water. Seeing the sun rays break through a kelp forest at 60 feet in the Channel Islands is still one of my top 5 dives.
So what about life and things to see, that’s why we are there right? Believe it or not cold water has ana amazingly large variety of life. There is also a large variety of plant life. You don’t get the bright colors you do with tropical waters, but I believe there is actually more life. it is just harder to see. To get a feel of what some of the life may look like and the clearity of waters when they are good, check out the Monterey Bay Aqarium. They also have a number of web cams setup to view their various exhibits.
Now I can honestly say that I am someone who hates the cold. I get cold very easily and diving without the right gear can take the fun right out of diving cold water. However, wetsuit and drysuits are getting warmer and more flexible ever year. If you get cold very easily as I do, then I recommend that you get a drysuit. It will make diving cold water much funner.
I would love to hear everyone’s experiences with diving cold water as well. Please feel free to leave comments. If you found this article useful, please subscribe to my rss feed for similar content