MNScuba.com

                Hello Everyone,
                             It's (thankfully) that time of year again, the beginning of the 2011-2012 icing season. Scuba Steve Steichen (Arcflash) and I went out to North Arm on Lake Minnetonka to check on conditions, last Sat Dec. 3rd. We had 3/4"-1" of clear ice enough to support us (just barely) at 150 pounds each, although it fractured with every step, too thin to support even a thin, diver in gear, we busted thru in a few spots near shore, I suspect the reason for the visit from the DNR after the dive.
                             This years challenge isn't about, anchors, or time underwater, or money, or ice scoopers, or all the glory, or even the prizes (no doubt my friends, Nate (Shooter) and John (Detectorguy), last years winners, would say, "so Terry, it isn't about the prizes,,,, how is that any different than, say, last year?" This year's challenge is about the, good times, the laughs, the blizzard adventures, the postings, the pics, (even those stupid, mini-me pics) the cold beers, (or chaw) the found junk (or treasure) that dandy good grouper of Nate's, grilled out on the ice, the shared knowledge of what we learned from each other, and NOT hooking fisherman, least not ones with bad ashma.
                             As the old man (hang on, my brain just,,, exploded,,,,,,) of last years group, I do need to go with electrically heated gloves this year so if anyone has a suggestion on those,,,,and speaking of heat, to steal that regular shelter idea from Nate and John, ohhh, a shack looks like a GOOD idea.
                             I'd like to thank all the judges from last year, (Christie, Angie, Bob) and all the divers, Nate and John, who provided the inspiration (and grouper) to keep going, Steve, who I continue to learned a lot from, Young Joe (Hydro) who hauled me back from deaths door on the western side of Tonka, Robert (scubafreak864), who brought new entheusium in the middle of the season, and a dandy 4 wheeler when the ice was getting thin, and John, (Toolie) who only showed up a few times but did make me smile each time, and of course, my friend Molly.
                                                                                                                          

                             Heres a couple pics from last year showing how excited Steve and Joe (and Molly) were, and why we needed Roberts entheusium,,,,                                                                               Trinity

Let the games begin!  ;D  >

Can't wait to get out ice diving with everyone this year. 

I have yet to meet the boy's from Isanti, but hope to do so this icing season. 

Last year was full of surprises, some good, some not so good.

My wheeler is ready to go, for some early ice diving.  Just let me know when/where to be.

My dive gear hasn't seen the water since the trip to Crosby with Terry, Molly and Joe.  I even think that I saw my gear shed a tear or two, from being out of water for so long.

Let me know when you are ready to go.....

Now Terry, isn't this the reason for the DNR?  Just kidding, of course.. LOL.

thats a funny ass pic. were did you get that? honestly that about sums up how i feel. tonka frozen? I was contemplating launching my boat this weekend if i can find an open launch. two weeks ago the water was unreal i think 30ft horizontal vis in one spot.

I'm excited  best time for diving is winter for sure! No more dirt, no loading up a boat.  Infinite parking, and you can park where you dive!

Plus putting on all the insulation actually feels good when you don't approach having a heat stroke.  8)

I am not certified to Ice dive nor have I watch this being done. Do you guys let people hang out and watch? I'm a warm weather diver, but it sounds interesting to watch it at least once!!!

                      Hey D4F, its pretty early in the season, but your always more then welcome to come out and watch, ice is still pretty funky this early, so we'd just as soon have you wait a few weeks till ice firms up, if you dont have a drysuit to wear out on the ice, going to be a mistake to be out there right now. Were going to jump this Sun, but if you can wait a few weeks, your more then welcome to come out and have a look. Let me know when you'd like and I'll let you know where were jumping.      Trinity

I work up in the Ely area...sounds like 6-8 inches on most lakes...mine pits might be less, since they froze over later than the shallower lakes

heads up. I just went for scouting drive by shooting at tonka. main lake is part open part froze up. on wayzatta shore there are icebergs floating that look maybee 4inches thick., but its open. launch is froze shut with thick ice. grays bay is froze in with icefishmen in temp shelters. wayzatta looks calm and ...CLEAR. might have to stick it in tommorow.
probably most of the small bays would be walkable now.

I'm playing with the idea, of building an Ice/fishing/diving battle ship of an ice house. not sure how to handle lowering to the ice design. some houses have crank down feature that is nice. perhaps internal wench mounted to ceiling to move ice blocks out. not sure though any thoughts?

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I'm playing detangle the rope right now. my grandpa would role over(in his grave), if he saw me with rope stored like this.

Hey Terry, Thanks for the honorable mention. Not to dwell in the past, but congratulations on getting over 26,000 reads on last years challenge. Lots of people read the mini drama and few participated. Hopefully more people ice dive this year and post reports of their dives with no competition. I was over the top on the competition side of it I apologize if I stepped on anyone's feelings. I am anxious to do a bunch of ice diving this year as well. With the hunt for anchors not on the front burner, I intend to search more fun sites this year. While hunting anchors was fun, the relatively short anchors would not be found in the silt unless there was a tail of rope attached. I have been toying with different configurations of probes to probe into the silt. I hope to use these probes to locate all kinds of items below the surface of the silt. This will undoubtedly screw up the viz on the dives that I use them but I think these probes will help finding things for the county as well. This year our dive team is going to focus on training more on the search portion and less on the recovery. With this new training direction, we are going to dabble in ice diving in the river more this year. I don't take ice diving in the river lightly as the chance of failure is exponentially greater than a summertime river dive. I hope to get some good ice diving video this year also as I just picked up a GoPro Hero2 HD video camera. I intend to mount it to a helmet and also to the goodman handle of the HID light.
Have fun this season!
John