As we are now in the "cold" season we have noticed a drop in water temperature like always in January and February
There are two main ways in which the heat energy can be transferred from a Diver:
Conduction - the transfer of heat between two surfaces that are in direct contact. The heat flows from the warmer object to the cooler one, until they are both the same temperature. As you probably know, water conducts heat about 25 times faster than air, that is why we can get cold even in quite warm water.
Convection - heat transfer between liquids and gasses during which warmer areas of a liquid or gas rise to cooler areas in that liquid or gas. Cooler liquid or gas then takes the place of the warmer areas which have risen higher. This process is ongoing, which means that as the diver’s body heats the water around it, this warm layer moves away to be replaced with cooler water that the body must also warm, like what happen around our unprotected body parts during a dive.
It's conduction and convection that we primarily have to worry about while submerged in water. Upon immersion, a diver begins losing heat via conduction. The rate of loss is proportional to the temperature difference between the points of contact and depends on the type of exposure protection used. Then the diver faces convective heat loss due to the movement of water around him/her. In fact, convective heat loss is much more significant than the conductive one and can be 1000 times greater than that in air. Here is where we are coming to the point when the water gets a bit chillier like now in January and February. Head, neck, hands and feet need to be protected from “cold” water flowing constantly around those areas and moving the heat away from the body. We all know those areas are where the blood vessels are very close to the skin and therefore need to be protected.
Hooded vest is the most efficent way to stop the waterflow around your neck and head as it is all connected in one piece. We have the Hooded vest U1 (Php 5,497) and the vest U30 (Php 3,913) from Waterproof Diving and a Cressi Hooded vest (Php 3,131) available. Both the Hooded Vest have a 5mm hood, Cressi a 3mm vest part and Waterproof 2mm vest. This is an ideal piece of equipment to add under your wetsuit when the water gets a bit colder.
All comes with the specific gender options for perfect fit both for Ladies and Men.
As we are loosing most of the heat around our head and neck a Dive Hood is a minimum of protection needed when the water temperature drops the slightest. We have 5 different styles of Hoods, from Waterproof Diving there are the H1, a 3/5mm hood with bib (Php 3,353) and the 2mm H30 (Php 1,241). From Cressi we have the 5mm Plus hood (Php 1,340) made of flexible neoprene, the Castoro (Php 727) and Comfort Plus (Php 1,051), both 3mm and on SALE at the moment.
As the hands and feet are the body parts furtherers away from the heart it is the first part to be cut off when the body need to conserve body heat and cut down on the heat loss. That's where the white fingers are coming from, basically the body cuts down the blood supply to the hands to a minimum.
We have 3 different Gloves to choose from in the price range Php 873 to Php 3,577 from Cressi and Waterproof Diving. Even a pair of thin Amara gloves are sufficient to stop the heat loss in our kind of waters.
Same as the need for gloves for the hands we need Dive Boots or Socks to protect the heat loss around our feet and ankles. Depending what type of fins you are using determined if you are going for boots or socks. The fullfoot fins are designed the the foot pocket tight around your feet so socks will be the option. We have 2 different socks to choose from, both made from 2mm neoprene, price range Php 1,225-2,302.
The boots come from 3mm lowcut to 6.5mm highcut with a few between in the price range of Php 1,078-3,233.