Frozen Fingers

Cold enough for you? No one ever asks that one. If they had, on pretty much any day over the last two months, the answer would have been yes, it’s sufficiently cold for me.



Air temps this winter have put a definite damper on diving. It’s one thing to spend an hour in 30-something-degree water. It’s another to step out of that water and into air temps hovering in the single digits. More than once this winter, I’ve come out of the water and walked to my car, only to find that the bolt snaps on my camera housing had frozen solid onto my BC D-rings in the interim. Not a good thing.

That being said, winter diving is some of the best diving there is. Not only is it easy to get primo parking spots right by the water, but visibility can be off the charts. Just the other day, I had 40 to 50 feet of viz at Pierce Island in New Hampshire. It’s also easy to find creatures not around during other parts of the year.

As far as keeping warm, diving in the winter is just like skiing – you have to dress for it. But no matter how warm I dress, or how much I layer up, the one thing I can't get around is frozen fingers. Once water temps dip below 37 degrees, I just can’t keep them warm.

Here are a few things I’ve tried:
Quarter-inch wetsuit mitts with wool gloves underneath – they kept my fingers somewhat warm but obliterated dexterity, making it impossible to operate small camera controls.
Dry gloves with liner gloves underneath – the dexterity is much better but the difference in warmth isn’t all that much.
DUI’s kevlar dry gloves – not surprisingly, this is a poorly thought out piece of equipment. While my fingers could have survived being nibbled on by a small shark, so much dexterity is lost that I probably wouldn’t have even known they were being chewed on. To top it off, my fingers were still cold.
Chemical hand warmers inside the liner gloves – this should have worked, but it didn’t. By the time I came out of the water, the warmers were just as cold as my fingers.
Larger dry gloves with a pair of liner gloves layered underneath – this is the best option I’ve found so far. Still not a great one.

Dawn Guglielmo just told me that she loves her battery-powered heated thermals, which include gloves. At some point, I guess, that’s the route I’ll have to take.