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My first dry suit valve froze shut near Tacoma, lesson learned the hard way
Got sent down for a quick hull inspection off the Tacoma pier two weeks ago. Water temp was around 45 and I figured my dump valve was fine since I tested it on the surface. Big mistake. About 15 minutes in, I felt the suit getting tight and when I tried to vent, nothing moved. Had to abort and surface slow, which took forever with all that extra air. Buddy on deck said I looked like the Michelin Man coming up.
Turns out a little saltwater got in the valve mechanism and froze solid. Now I always pour fresh water over my valves before every cold water dive and I cycle them open and shut a few times at the surface. Anyone else deal with frozen valves or do you just run with the old school ice divers trick of keeping them greased all winter?
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benc5315d ago
Reminds me of a time ice diving in Minnesota years back. We had a guy whose regulator froze up solid at 38 feet and he started breathing off his buddy's octo while they both shot for the hole. Turns out he'd been breathing right into the second stage during the walk out and the moisture in his breath froze the whole thing. After that we all started keeping our regs in a cooler with warm water til we hit the water. Never thought about the same thing happening to a dump valve though. Saltwater plus freezing temps is a whole different animal.
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