Any ice diving advice?

Invited to go ice diving with my LDS owner/PADI instructor and a small group of DM's. Any equipment recommendations or otherwise helpful advice?

I'll be completing my advanced shortly.

My equipment currently includes:
Mares Techfit Drysuit
4th Element Halo 3D undergarment
Santi 200g booties
Apeks FSR/XTX200/XTX50
Zeagle Ranger LTD

Thinking of upgrading to a Waterproof 10mm hood and dry gloves.

I realize my dive experience will come under fire, and that's alright. I want honest opinions.

The only other person going that has not been ice diving before is my regular dive buddy who will also be attending in a learning capacity. He has around 160 dives.

Here's a few things that will make life easier...

1. Ice Cleats - Slips over your shoes to help you walk out to the hole.
2. Plastic Sled (Tray type) - Put a rope through it, and use it to drag your gear out to the hole.
3. Ice anchors - For securing your tether lines (tender) to prior to diving.
4. Ice Awls - Like short ice picks. These will help hold you in place up against the ice if you become disconnected and are waiting on rescue.
5. Fully Redundant Air Source (pony/reg minimum) - I would not dive under the ice without one.

Talk to your LDS about how the operation will be carried out. Who will be the line tenders? What are the line signals? Emergency procedures? Will you have a warming shelter nearby?

Remember that this is an overhead environment, and there will be NO direct access to the surface. I'm not trying to scare you, but you have to respect the envirnment that you'll be in. If you plan well, and dive your plan, you should be fine. Being under the ice is a different experience. If you don't feel comfortable, then call the dive.

Good luck and have fun :cool2:

---------- Post added October 29th, 2013 at 08:46 AM ----------

Here's a link with a bit of information for you:
Ice diving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jim-SAR:

Here's a few things that will make life easier...

1. Ice Cleats - Slips over your shoes to help you walk out to the hole.
2. Plastic Sled (Tray type) - Put a rope through it, and use it to drag your gear out to the hole.
3. Ice anchors - For securing your tether lines (tender) to prior to diving.
4. Ice Awls - Like short ice picks. These will help hold you in place up against the ice if you become disconnected and are waiting on rescue.
5. Fully Redundant Air Source (pony/reg minimum) - I would not dive under the ice without one.

Talk to your LDS about how the operation will be carried out. Who will be the line tenders? What are the line signals? Emergency procedures? Will you have a warming shelter nearby?

Remember that this is an overhead environment, and there will be NO direct access to the surface. I'm not trying to scare you, but you have to respect the envirnment that you'll be in. If you plan well, and dive your plan, you should be fine. Being under the ice is a different experience. If you don't feel comfortable, then call the dive.

Good luck and have fun :cool2:

Click to expand...

Great response! Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks, Jim.

I'm going into this with the full understanding I can abort all the way up to letting out that breath to descend... and even after to some extent.

I'm not that worried about it, really, as I do have a tremendous respect for the overhead environment and I certainly plan to have all the talk-throughs you mentioned. I'm no stranger to mission briefs or emergency procedures.

Thanks for the equipment tips though. It's all those little comfort items I was prepared to overlook. I'll bring it up with the others to see what's necessary for our site. As for the pony bottle, I'm with you on that one.

---------- Post added October 29th, 2013 at 03:09 PM ----------

I guess the next thing I need to start looking at, are which ponies are best for the extreme cold environment.

As for a pony bottle, I use a 30-CF. It's not too big, but still has a lot of air for a bailout, or backup. The important thing is to make sure the first/second stage regulators are suitable for cold water diving. Ask you LDS about them.

I was bored, so I made up a picture in MS Paint showing how we lay out our ice diving pattern. It's easier than describing it. I tried finding a cartoon of someone holding a rope, but gave up and "settled" for the line tender you'll see.

Long story short...

1. Use shovels or a snow blower (very handy) to clear the snow in a circle. Max distance for divers to be away from the hole.
2. Lines get cleared from the circle back to the corners of the hole.

The sunlight shines through the ice, but not the snow, so the lines look brighter from underneath the ice. If a diver gets disconnected from the tether line, or has to cut it (last resort) due to entanglement, then the diver ascends up against the ice and looks for a line if possible. If a safety diver has to come to the divers aid, then they go to the outer circle, up against the ice, and start swimming. Since the safety diver is tethered, their line will be sweeping the underside of the ice. When the diver in distress feels the line against them, then they grab the line and give a tug signal. Both divers are then brought back to the exit point.

I assume you are taking the PADI ice diving specialty course. I thought AOW was a pre-requisite? but perhaps they can be done concurrently.

Cutting the line and ascending is bad advice. If you become entangled and can't get free, you should be attempting to signal for the safety diver that should follow your line to find you. If you can't signal for a rescue diver, and you are too entangled to get back to the other side of the entanglement to signal, then you should disconnect the line and follow the line back toward the hole, never letting go of the line and signalling for the safety diver at the earliest possible time. As a safety diver you should follow the line of the diver you are looking for (since this should be the fastest way to find the diver), and if the diver is not there, then you ascend, max out your rope length and start swimming a circular pattern.

I highly recommend choosing your tender carefully. If they are the type of person that is easily distracted, then they probably wouldn't make a good tender. A common cause of entanglement is when you start swimming back to the hole and the tender fails to take up the slack.

Better yet, pay close attention to your surroundings and avoid getting entangled in the first place. If there are weeds, try to stay above them, if you swim past something that the line could entangle on (such as a tree), make a mental note not to turn in that direction and wrap your line around it. Lastly, make regular "OK" checks to your tender, if they don't respond, your line might be hung up on something...time to retrace your steps, being careful not to get entangled in the slack line.

Jim-SAR:

I was bored, so I made up a picture in MS Paint showing how we lay out our ice diving pattern. It's easier than describing it. I tried finding a cartoon of someone holding a rope, but gave up and "settled" for the line tender you'll see.

Click to expand...

Jim, that is one foxy line tender. Unfortunately, my wife will not be outside during this event. She will probably not leave the fireplace, her book, or her coa coa and baileys...

nimoh:

I assume you are taking the PADI ice diving specialty course. I thought AOW was a pre-requisite? but perhaps they can be done concurrently.

Click to expand...

Nimoh, you are correct in your assumption and suspicion. I will finish my AOW in December, allowing me to participate in February. I have been diving quite frequently with this shop and probably would have had my advanced already had I been interested in it sooner. I'd been putting it off with the intention of lining it up with my wife's basic course so we could go on the same trips. When this opportunity came about, it was made clear that I would have to get my ass off the bench and complete the prerequisites if I intended to take full advantage of this opportunity.

For my AOW, I have already completed the Dry Suit course, and I intend to take EAN, Peak Performance Buoyancy, Deep Diver, and Navigation. I'm attempting to line up my specialties with those that will most benefit the diving we do here in Germany. Thanks to my career experiences (life guard/flight medic/hazmat medic) I have quite a bit of advanced emergency medical experience, otherwise I would insist on taking the O2 provider/Emergency First Response courses beforehand as well. Of course, I know I'll have to take the Rescue Diver course eventually... though I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'll also be completing the Altitude Diver course in March.

(Personally, I feel like this PADI system is quite the money grab, but if I'm going to be learning the information and doing the dives I might as well get the damn cards. I'll put them along side all my other courses, certificates, alphabet cards from work...)

Breathe warm, moist gas, ie. rebreather.

I've been incredibly comfortable with 8mm 3-finger wetgloves. 3-fingers wetglovers are MUCH warmer than 5-finger and more agile than 5-finger dry gloves.

I've never been cold w/ a 5mm hood. If you really feel cold you can add a 3mm hood over your normal hood. Two 3mm hoods is also perfectly good (so if you have two tropic-weights then you don't need to buy a new hood).

If you go to drygloves and your fingers are still cold, try adding ultra-thin XC-skiers gloves under your normal glove liners. They really are warm and don't add much bulk.

It does help to make sure you regs are good and dry since your last use & rinse.

If you have that lady in the powerpoint as your line tender, you might want to have her xchange the high heels for some waterproof boots. But the miniskirt will make for great underwater photos..

If it's below freezing in the air, remember DO NOT mess with inflators or regs until you are underwater. That's more likely to make them freeze. It's warmer underwater and even if something is a bit frozen it can thaw underwater.

DO NOT stand on the ice with gear or fins on. It's too easy to fall down with fins anytime and on ice w/ heavy gear you can get big-time ouch. Also for anyone on whom you fall (or their camera, etc.). Pull on your gear and put on the fins while seated at the hole.

Close your drysuit valve if it makes you feel better just before going in. Now you aren't going to sink.

The 1st time under ice it can be really nice to do it over water that is only bellybutton or chest high.

If you drop a fin into the hole know that you aren't the first one Congratulations - your friends will be delighted!

Try it at night sometime with clear ice overhead. Incredible.

If there is snow cover, plow 3 arrows in the snow that point to the hole. Or just plow a few areas because the sunshine is beautiful and the designs in the snow look really cool.

Remember to look up to see ya'll air bubbles trapped under the ice. They look really neat.

Awesome, thank you! I'll probably print this thread about 6 weeks out from the dive and use it when we start our planning!

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice! Day one was a blast! We're going to conduct two more dives today before heading home. On my way to breakfast with the group now!