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| E-mail: info@c-bear.co.uk |
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Not so much a road test - more a fjord test It's a strange passion, ice diving. It's hard work, there are no coloured fish, no wrecks and above all its cold, but for me, it's a very personal, almost spiritual experience. The harsh conditions, the remote locations, and the feeling of being part of another world make me feel intensely alive, but if you can't conquer the cold, ice diving is a miserable and dangerous way to spend your time. In the frozen North I've heard it said that there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing. We'll see, but when an ice axe is part of your diving equipment, your undersuit had better be the best. |
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| Over a couple of decades of this sort of diving I've refined my kit to the point where I
am reasonably happy with most of it. The regulators work well, the twin set is manageable, the full face mask is a fact of life, and nothing comes close to 3 finger mitts for warmth. Undersuits are a
different matter. The problem has always been to find one that is warm enough but also comfortable and maneuverable. These qualities just don't seem to go together. Keep in mind that we are talking
about water temperatures of about 1 degree centigrade and air temperatures that rarely rise above 10 degrees centigrade and most of the time are a good deal colder. Every winter I cross the North Sea to Scandinavia for a couple of weeks diving in the ice and snow and this year I took with me a C Bear AP4 Tactel Thinsulate Undersuit. It looked good or more to the point it felt good and it didn't rustle! (I'm not a great fan of suits that sound like they are made from kitchen foil and crepe paper). The outer shell is made of a micro fibre called Tactel which is breathable, wind resistant and showerproof. These qualities are important to me. There are usually periods before and after the dive when I am out on the ice dressed in my undersuit but without my diving suit. When it's snowing, showerproof qualities are much appreciated, and you certainly don't want the low temperatures aggravated by wind chill. This February, as usual, I put the studded tyres on my car, loaded it with diving equipment and headed off for Norway. An old friend of mine had given me the use of his cabin on the shores of Bonnefjord and although it was only a 50km drive south of Oslo it was a little bit primitive and it definitely felt remote. The only other building that you could see was Roald Amundsen's house across the frozen fjord and domestic water was supplied courtesy of snow, a shovel, and a bucket. (The well was frozen, you see!) I am always excited by the first day out on the ice. It's cold, it's quiet, it's almost mystical. My companions seemed to be experiencing a similar communion with nature and lively banter gave way to quiet, economical and only necessary conversation. Air temperature was a long way below zero and big snowflakes were beginning to fall as I stepped out on to the ice wearing my new undersuit, an old pair of Canadian snow boots. Thinsulate gloves and a Thinsulate hat. There was a lot of preparation to do and I always prefer to do this before donning my diving suit. |
Sweating profusely in a rubber suit is not a good idea if you are about to jump into cold water but, of course,
you can't afford to get cold or damp at this stage in the game. Whatever you are wearing has be to up to the job. I felt good in the new C Bear. The thermal liner for the body and legs is made
of 250gm Thinsulate while the arms have 100gm Thinsulate as their insulation. The whole thing is fleece lined and this combination kept me warm, gave me plenty of freedom of movement and was very,
very comfortable. The wind flap over the front zip and high collar kept the Northerly wind out and the snowflakes seemed to roll off the Tactel outer shell. Time to dive and it was going to be quite a long one. Very cold, very clear water appears to have a different consistency to the warmer stuff. It always seems thicker, almost oily, but as I slid off the ice and slipped below the surface I knew it was going to be a good one. There were no leaks in the suit, no dribble of water into the full face mask, no gush of air from freezing regulators and above all it was warm. There is a captivating stillness under the ice and providing the cold doesn't intervene, time stands still and flied by all at once. If you begin to get cold you start clock watching and counting down the minutes and the whole thing becomes an ordeal to be endured rather than an encounter to be enjoyed. 45 minutes flew by and I started to follow the line back to the hole in the ice. One of my tasks on this dive was to see how well the C Bear AP4 did its job in these extreme conditions. In truth, I hadn't even thought about the undersuit while I was diving which is just about the biggest compliment that could be paid to it. I had been warm - warm enough to be totally absorbed by a world that I love. Richard Bull Bristol, England March 21st 1999 * 3M and Thinsulate are trademarks of 3M Company. * Tactel is a trademark of Dupont. Britannic One of the world's largest and most awe-inspiring shipwrecks. C Bear is one of the sponsors of the Britannic 98 technical diving expedition. The company has been producing high quality undersuits since 1982 for sports, commercial and emerging technical divers, including the British Antarctic Survey teams. |
