Free Divers Under The Ice

[gitterdun]

Every year, a group of free divers from CASM and AIDA Canada come to the quarry to dive under the ice. This is the third year in a row that I have been there to watch them, and the second year that I have been invited as a photographer for them.

It is truly remarkable to watch them.

Below is a collage of some of the shots I took. The quality with compression, isn't fantastic, but I thought I would share anyway.

YouTube - Free Diving ~ Ice Apnea

 

[shoredivr]

Interesting shots. IIRC, when you all are doing ice scuba diving at Morrison Quarry, the access hole is over in the shallows - that shows up in some of your videos. Did the free divers use the same access hole, and how far is the plane from the hole?

 

[gitterdun]

Interesting shots. IIRC, when you all are doing ice scuba diving at Morrison Quarry, the access hole is over in the shallows - that shows up in some of your videos. Did the free divers use the same access hole, and how far is the plane from the hole?

Yes, we cut our hole in about 2 1/2' of water. The free divers had three different holes above the plane, which sits in about 25' of water. Our entrance is about 200' from the plane, and the free divers cut one directly above it, another about 40' in one direction, and a third 40' away, in the other direction. They run lines straight down from their holes, with buoys attached. They actually made a fourth hole on the second day, farther away, as the ice was melting quickly, and.. well... it was easy to fall through.

We run our own continuous line from our entrance to the plane.