And dove right in!! And I'm glad I did. I decided to take my Ice and my Wreck certification. I have to say that for both courses, my instructors were top notch, and made a big effort to challenge us and teach us above and beyond the requirements of the PADI standards, for which I am grateful.
Thoughts on Ice Diving:
The ice diving was a massive amount of work, carrying equipment (between the tent and the 8 divers, well over several thousand pounds of stuff), setting up the tent and clearing the snow (which took a whole afternoon), cutting the ice, securing the cut ice correctly underneath the hole (rather than removing it, which would have been a nightmare), the logistics of managing multiple divers under the ice was a 180 degree switch from recreational diving. I learned a great deal about how regulators actually function as well, as we did a breakdown during our class instruction time - and learned first hand, that free-flows are easily manageable with proper training, and are also a great excuse to get hot water poured on your regs, hood, and gloves.
Everything was covered in the course, from the science of the ice and ice formation, to handling emergencies, logistics and surface support. We even did some "lost divers" rescue scenarios which involved a solo ice dive, which was fantastic. I'll be back next winter to hit the ice, most definitely.
Thoughts on Wreck Diving:
Practice, Practice, Practice.
The wreck course ended up being a week-long trip to the west coast, which involved a total of 6 dives - on the HMCS Cape Breton, and the Riv-Tow Lion (tugboat) I've discovered that finger spools take practice and are to be respected - and that it's easy to cover the entire helicopter deck of a military supply ship with white string with very minimal effort, and only a few divers. :shakehead
We ended up penetrating the HMCS Cape Breton through a pair of large skylight windows on the aft of the ship that led into the aft cargo hold - In retrospect, I have to say that top-down penetrations require your absolute attention (dealing with 3 dimensions rather than 2), and I plan on practicing them for that reason. We ended up going down one hallway at about 105 feet before we turned back an exited, but it was a blast.
I'm definitely going to be looking at learning to dive doubles in the future, it seems like the way to go for the deeper wrecks, or just maintaining a decent bottom time, for that matter.
Next on my list is to get some more dives in (probably another 30 or 40) and then, when summer rolls around, I'm thinking about taking "Advanced Nitro" and "Introduction to Decompression Procedures" with one my local tech instructors.
Thanks for all the advice you guys provided in my last thread!
Thoughts on Ice Diving:
The ice diving was a massive amount of work, carrying equipment (between the tent and the 8 divers, well over several thousand pounds of stuff), setting up the tent and clearing the snow (which took a whole afternoon), cutting the ice, securing the cut ice correctly underneath the hole (rather than removing it, which would have been a nightmare), the logistics of managing multiple divers under the ice was a 180 degree switch from recreational diving. I learned a great deal about how regulators actually function as well, as we did a breakdown during our class instruction time - and learned first hand, that free-flows are easily manageable with proper training, and are also a great excuse to get hot water poured on your regs, hood, and gloves.
Everything was covered in the course, from the science of the ice and ice formation, to handling emergencies, logistics and surface support. We even did some "lost divers" rescue scenarios which involved a solo ice dive, which was fantastic. I'll be back next winter to hit the ice, most definitely.
Thoughts on Wreck Diving:
Practice, Practice, Practice.
The wreck course ended up being a week-long trip to the west coast, which involved a total of 6 dives - on the HMCS Cape Breton, and the Riv-Tow Lion (tugboat) I've discovered that finger spools take practice and are to be respected - and that it's easy to cover the entire helicopter deck of a military supply ship with white string with very minimal effort, and only a few divers. :shakehead
We ended up penetrating the HMCS Cape Breton through a pair of large skylight windows on the aft of the ship that led into the aft cargo hold - In retrospect, I have to say that top-down penetrations require your absolute attention (dealing with 3 dimensions rather than 2), and I plan on practicing them for that reason. We ended up going down one hallway at about 105 feet before we turned back an exited, but it was a blast.
I'm definitely going to be looking at learning to dive doubles in the future, it seems like the way to go for the deeper wrecks, or just maintaining a decent bottom time, for that matter.
Next on my list is to get some more dives in (probably another 30 or 40) and then, when summer rolls around, I'm thinking about taking "Advanced Nitro" and "Introduction to Decompression Procedures" with one my local tech instructors.
Thanks for all the advice you guys provided in my last thread!