The Myth of being a scuba diving thermal wimp!

Every-one's thermal comfort level is very different and depends on many factors: body weight, fat component, level of acclimatisation (whether you normally live and dive in warmer or cooler latitudes); how warm you are before you start a dive, even how much or how fast you will be moving during a dive.The rate at which your core temperature can drop underwater varies depending on your body surface area and constitution. All these things matter. Diving is no fun and also not safe when you are cold. Often the first you may know about it is you begin shivering, this is pretty serious, and means you are heading towards trouble and you should end your dive.

Diving instructors regularly stir each other up about wearing the least amount of rubber they can, as they try to prove how much more macho they are than their workmates. But, who in their right mind would work in an office with the air conditioning on full-blast all day, so that you begin shivering, reduce your mental and physical functioning, and are not able to perform even the most simple office job? This is exactly what happens as you begin to become chilled as a diver. At the least, it's dangerous for you, the diver, and, if you are an instructor, it becomes dangerous for your students as you are not able to give them 100% of your attention.

Thermal chilling is really a very serious issue.Getting cold is not cool. Attitudes like this put divers at risk and only increase the stress of scuba diving.

The scuba diving stress management team at Psychobubble are working hard to change these ingrained attitudes of the testosterone-driven dive industry!

Reiss Mackie is a SCUBA diving instructor living and working on the beautiful Great Barrier Reef in Australia. He is an expert on stress in scuba divers and co-author of The Scuba Diving Panic Management Guide with Dr Sarah Carney MBBS.
Visit his website, blog and forum for more information on the psychological challenges of diving
www.scubadivingpanicmanagement.com