Since I am gonig to be taking Ice Diving Cert (PADI) thru Scuba Center in February, I was wondering how much experience others have had ice diving. I.E. Equipment, skill sets etc...
Any advice, comments etc would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thank you very much
Jean ;D
This will be my third year ice diving. They only gear change I make from summer to now is a thicker hood, heavier undies and adding an argon bottle.
The main issues under the ice are keeping the breathing rate deep and slow and line management. Heavy breathing on a reg in 34F water is a good way to start a free flow. Making sure that the reg is rated for cold water is also much a requirement. Ice diving is pretty much the only time I carry a pony. Just in case the main first stage lets go.
Line management just takes practice. You may have 100' of line running behind you so keeping track of possible places to snag the line is important. An example would be diving in Sherwood Forest over at Wazee. If you are the tender keep the line taught and signal every few minutes to make sure that there is something responding on the other end of the line. Take being tender seriously.
If you are diving wet having a place to get warm quickly after exiting the water is very important. It is less of an issue diving dry other than having ice form on the suit and not being able to get out of it later.
All in all, ice diving is high on my list of fun things to do. But then, I am a bit of a cold water freak.
JoelW
Hey, thanks for the info!!! Make me feel a little bit less uneasy!!!
What you said sounds very much like the wreck diving training I got down in Florida.
Even though we did not make any *penetrations* to speak of, the use of the reel line, pony bottles etc.
sounds similar to ice diving safety.
Again, thanks for the sound advice!!!
Jean
Just finished my ice diving certification today up on Square Lake with Northland Divers. It was fun.
One of the other divers lost one of his fins and I was lucky
enough to stumble across and recover it for him.
Before coming out at the end of the last dive I had to try the
upsidedown skiing under the ice bit, silly maybe, but still fun.
Ice Diving sounds like a hoot. Can't wait for next season to try it out.
How about a little freediivng under the ice?
Jon
NO WAY!!! I wanna have air under there.
You have much more courage (and training etc) than I have.
It was freaky enough having so much slack in the rope that we couldn't see it going back towards the hole. Talk about a scare!!! (I initially thought the line was cut...Hoo Boy) The nice thing was when I had the lead on the main line , the tending was just great...
So I have experience with what Joel said:
Take Tending Seriously...
I didn't get to try the under-ice skiing bit , but it was just an unbelievable diving experience none the less!!!
Jean
Jon: Looks great, Greg and Tony from the shop did a dive on Wed. in the Kinny Pit, about 7 miles west of us. They had 2 feet of ice and 25+ feet of vis. They plan on doing a night ice dive soon
A night ice dive??? :o
EGADS...
Question: (These might be stupid , but if I don't ask , I don't learn right?)
Could you use floresent rope/line to show up easier at night?
Would you use at least 3 lights (Primary , backup , backup)?
How well is the hole lighted above the water???
Thanks again...
Jean
P.S. Now you have my curiousity and that killed the cat.
I was out ice diving yesterday and from the looks of things there won't be much more. The ice away from the shore was 2 feet+, but the ice by the shore was breaking up. At the end of the day the 10' at the shore was filled with broken ice. Before too long it will be necessary to wade out to get to the ice.
JoelW