Dream of ice diving

Hi Guys,
First sorry for my english, i just start to learn this language and i am not good.
So i just have my open water ( 9 dive, 8 daylight, 1 night) in warm water ( hawaii). Now i am living in Toronto and i dream to do ice diving. But i am really far away from the required level.So i would like to know the path to achieve my goal.Does i need to take a lesson with dry suit, buy some equipment and make more dive to be more experimented, and after take course for ice diving ? Or directly go for lesson for the advenced level in the padi ( the problem is i have really few dive ) ? But i cannot go to water without any lesson because i am common with warm an bright water and now here even if it's not ice, it's a lake so no idea what to do.
All the best

Vincent

Take your time diving and picking up courses. Eventually your local diving will get you into a drysuit. once you are proficient in the drysuit consider an ice diving course. Diving under ice is an overhead environment with hash conditions that promote equipment problems and diver stress. Don't rush, the ice will be there in 4 or 5 years.

Pete

Vincent - you are certainly welcome here, but go to the Canada forums and ask your questions there from the locals around you. They can be much more site-specific with their answers and you may even hook up with some dive buddies near you.

vincent.diallonort:

Hi Guys,
First sorry for my english, i just start to learn this language and i am not good.
So i just have my open water ( 9 dive, 8 daylight, 1 night) in warm water ( hawaii). Now i am living in Toronto and i dream to do ice diving. But i am really far away from the required level.So i would like to know the path to achieve my goal.Does i need to take a lesson with dry suit, buy some equipment and make more dive to be more experimented, and after take course for ice diving ? Or directly go for lesson for the advenced level in the padi ( the problem is i have really few dive ) ? But i cannot go to water without any lesson because i am common with warm an bright water and now here even if it's not ice, it's a lake so no idea what to do.
All the best

Vincent

Click to expand...

Seneca College, in King City is about 30 miles north of Toronto. They are a commerical dive school and they dive every day, all year long and do ice dives daily in the Winter. They have been doing this for over 30 years so they would be a good resource for ice diving. Tam Dive, if they are still around is the local (or used to be) pro shop. Lots of little tricks to know before you do it. Good luck with it.

Thanks so much, i will call them as soon as possible.

If you do the ice diver class with padi, you will need to do advanced open water first. My suggestion is do a few dives in your local waters when they warm up a bit to get used to cold water. If it turns out you don't enjoy cold water diving for whatever reason, ice diving may turn out to be more of a nightmare than a dream.

Hi, i try to find the school on Seneca college, but i only find a school to be a commercial diver...
Ice diver with pady can be nice ( but look like very long,so i will dive under ice on the next winter ), so i need the advance level first ? So i also need the adventure diver before. I don't know how many course i need.

the requirements to take padi ice diver is advanced open water and being at least 18 years old. You can do the AOW class as soon as you want to after completing Open Water, so you could do one as soon as you find a class that fits into your schedule (though I imagine none of your local shops will be running any advanced class until April or May). The adventure diver course is a part of the advanced class (3 dives of your choice, where advanced is 5 dives, which must include deep and navigation), so that certification is only given if you can't finish the whole advanced class for whatever reason. ... So really, the minimum you would need to do is advanced open water and then the ice diver course. Drysuit would probably be a plus, but not absolutely necessary. (that's the only reason I haven't done ice diver yet, I don't want to do it in a wetsuit but I haven't learned to use a drysuit yet). Do some local dives though, get more experience and get comfortable in cold water, the ice diver class is not where you want to find out how you react to a problem in cold water. I hope this helps.

Thanks, so i thinks Now, first find course with Dry suit. Buy a dry suit.Find buddy for dive in low water ( less than 18 meter for me because i have just my openwater).

Thanks, so i thinks Now, first find course with Dry suit. Buy a dry suit.Find buddy for dive in low water ( less than 18 meter for me because i have just my openwater).My wife dive with me ( she is openwater to ) but we don't know to much about diving in a lake.