Hopefully in line with exploring what might make an advanced ice diving course remarkable ...
Fair enough, let's toss it around a bit.
...//... "Dope-on-a-rope" with a surface tender seems a good strategy for pulling up divers out of a situation they aren't properly trained to be in in the first place.
In most basic ice classes, the diver learns a few simple line-pull commands (to the tender) and enjoys the dive on the end of an unmarked (as to length) tether. So the tender only has a general idea of where the diver is at any given moment and has little to do other than keep the line free of slack, obey diver commands, and not cross lines if two diver/tender teams are independently operating in the same hole.
In PSD, when searching a mud bottom lake, you aren't going to see anything for your entire dive yet we all came back with carabiners that were thrown into the water as search objects. The only way to do this is to use a tender directed search. In that scenario, it is up to the diver/tender team to be able to communicate on a higher level. As tenders, we all learned how to put a diver in an exact spot and conduct a regular search pattern with no gaps in it. As divers, we all learned how to obey our tender's line signals and keep ourselves properly positioned in total darkness while conducting an effective bottom search.
So, for the 'situation they are not properly trained to be in' part, I contend that the tether is what changes things so that they
are properly trained to be in that environment under those conditions.
...//... It's fairly hard to drown someone tied on the end of a rope like a teabag when the site has no entanglement hazards. The wisdom of recreational ice diving I question, but there's a good history of it being done safely with nominal skills when a leash is used.
I think that the safety record itself speaks to the wisdom of recreational ice diving. I also believe that there are never no entanglement hazards. Dealing with such entanglements is given lecture time, but nothing is practiced in basic ice. In PSD, it is practiced.
...//... Where I'm coming from is if someone is an experienced cold water diver the only thing ice diving adds (in the form of an extra slippery see through ceiling) is an overhead environment.
OK, what does AOW add over OW: More experience and a bit more personal responsibility.
Why can't the same be done for recreational ice? Additionally, it is all about the ice. Some divers find it mind-blowing, others find it cold and boring. The visibility that one typically finds under the ice is most often very good. I'm usually happy with 20' viz in summer diving. Silting up the bottom is also a problem as there is usually no current to clean up your mess.
...//... Is there another specialized advanced course which trains for how most active ice divers actually dive?
I would expect that most
active ice divers use tech skills. I envision Advanced Ice training to remain solely within recreational standards.