Ice Diving?

[DA Aquamaster]

DA Aquamaster gave a very good description on how its done. We also have a safety diver hooked up and ready to go as well. Ice diving, although is alot of work is also a good reason to get together and dive with you friends in the middle of winter when there simply isn't anything else going on. Its as much of a party as it is a dive usually. A proper ice dive means hot chili and other good things afterwards. Sure beats the alternatives, which is nothing. Ha

SwimJim is correct, when we do it, we do it as a club event and the one or two dives we do are just the excuse to show up mid winter with other crazies and have fun, eat chili, etc. And practically speaking, you need a minimum of 4 people do to it anyway, so you just as well make it a full blown social event.

There also seems to be some variation in ice diving procedure. I was originally taught to secure the line to the ice with an ice screw and then use a safety diver sitting on the edge of the hole attached to a slightly longer line. However many of the PADI rec divers and public safety divers in the local area rely only on the tender to hold the line and also use two divers in the water at the same time. In my experience, two divers on two lines requires a lot more care to keep them from tangling and makes securing the line to the ice problematic. It also requires the tenders to coordinate efforts and/or move around the hole, which creates the potential for falls, dropped lines etc. You gain redundancy perhaps, but then you also create the potential to need that redundancy.

Personally, unless one of the divers is an instructor and the other is a student, I prefer only having one diver in the water and use the single diver/safety diver approach.

 

[Vtdiver2]

Sure let me know since I always have January free. I don't like VT much but I suppose I could come back just to be reminded how truely tropical RI is in comparison :yuck:

Awwww......Now that's just wrong....lol.
Actually, I have to take a couple of trips south in the winter for my sanity, and I don't mean RI.
Chris

 

[Gidds]

Shush! I don't like VT because:
a.) I hate snow
b.) no ocean
c.) entirely too many flatlanders now live there, if I want to visit the 'burbs of MA I don't need to drive 7 hours I can just stay home since we all know RI is just an outlier of Boston
d.) my relatives live there

 

[toodive4]

Its the same as cave and deep diving... something to say you did... even though its not very exciting

UOTE=Gidds]I am aware that this would be more appropriate in the tech area but it didn't seem to fit there either and I figured I'd get better/more answers here.

What is so enthralling about diving under the ice?
Why do you dive under the ice?
Isn't it scary?
What special gear do ice divers use?

I'm just a highly inquisitive person, I don't especially have a desire to dive under the ice since I watched "Never Cry Wolf" far too many times as a small child and I think about it whenever I go ice fishing. When the ice booms I am the first person back on the shore or at the very least spread-eagled praying that the ice is not about to crack under me. I am aware that this is totally irrational since the booming means the lake is "making ice" but I can't help it. :blush:

I appreciate your honest, non-sarcastic answers [/QUOTE]

 

[in_cavediver]

Its the same as cave and deep diving... something to say you did... even though its not very exciting

UOTE=Gidds]I am aware that this would be more appropriate in the tech area but it didn't seem to fit there either and I figured I'd get better/more answers here.

What is so enthralling about diving under the ice?
Why do you dive under the ice?
Isn't it scary?
What special gear do ice divers use?

I'm just a highly inquisitive person, I don't especially have a desire to dive under the ice since I watched "Never Cry Wolf" far too many times as a small child and I think about it whenever I go ice fishing. When the ice booms I am the first person back on the shore or at the very least spread-eagled praying that the ice is not about to crack under me. I am aware that this is totally irrational since the booming means the lake is "making ice" but I can't help it. :blush:

I appreciate your honest, non-sarcastic answers

There is as much to see under ice as there is when the its open water. Do things suddenly get removed just because the temperature drops and the water becomes a little more viscous?

As for caves and deep things, I agree. It's totally irresponible to think of diving there. As you have stated in the past, you've been there, and done that. Since it was dangerous and nothing exciting down there, we should all take your word for it and never think to do it ourselves.

 

[Gidds]

Eh hem :no Sarcasm?
I asked specific questions about ICE DIVING because I was interested. If you're interested in debating the merits or lack thereof of other overhead environment kinds of diving please go start your own thread because I am not interested in discussing them and if I want to learn about them I'll go read the cave diving threads and I will comment or ask questions in a CIVIL manner.

Thank you everybody who has answered my questions I don't like being cold but this ice diving thing is beginning to sound interesting. Do you ever see any critters under there? I'm assuming they're usually pretty sluggish if you see them?

 

[Rescuediver17063]

Hi Gidds,
You said it when you asked about the critters. I love teaching Ice diving for that reason you can play with the fish. Yes you can actually pick them up and the photos can be great. You can prevent the free flow problem by not letting your reg go into the water after you surface, just keep it in your mouth until you get out of the water.
I have been teaching Ice diving for public safety divers, as well as for recreational divers for over 18 years, and have had some really great experiences. If I can answer any other questions just PM me.

 

[Canadian_Diver]

I am aware that this would be more appropriate in the tech area but it didn't seem to fit there either and I figured I'd get better/more answers here.

What is so enthralling about diving under the ice?
Why do you dive under the ice?
Isn't it scary?
What special gear do ice divers use?

What makes you think this belongs in the tech forum? Us normal rec divers up here in the GWN (Great White North) like to ice dive too ya know... eh!! It's actually listed as a specialty under many certs.

At any rate ... what's special about ice diving? Hard to describe, but it adds a whole new dimension. The water is amazingly clear, the ice overhead creates an amazing ambiance. Not scary at all. No special gear really .. just a good set of regs, a drysuit with good thermals, line, spools, and a few extra surface hands..... and, where possible, a heated portable shelter (ice fishing hut, prospector tent, etc).

Besides, even if you only do it once, you can brag to all yer non-diving friends. :14:

 

[Scubageezer]

Shush! I don't like VT because:
a.) I hate snow
b.) no ocean
c.) entirely too many flatlanders now live there, if I want to visit the 'burbs of MA I don't need to drive 7 hours I can just stay home since we all know RI is just an outlier of Boston
d.) my relatives live there

No ocean? We in Northern New England actually consider Vermont as the West Coast with Burlington as our San Francisco.

Why do we dive at all? Because it's fun. Why do we ice dive? Because it's fun.

 

[Rick Inman]

Lot's of good stuff in this thread.

Funny, DA Aquamaster's post actually got me excited about winter diving again! (wanted to put a smile here, but the new ones suck).

We do some of that, "swim back under the iced bay" stuff, but only where we know the terrain perfectly.

I like it under the ice 'cause it's so darned pretty. Especially on a snowy day. Everything is silent and peaceful, no one is on the lake, the snow and the surrounding landscape is beautiful, the water that's not frozen is glass flat, the vis is forever.

We're warm in our dry suits, watching our breath before we enter, feeling sorry for the folks locked down at home with their bad TV shows.

We know the key to having fun doing this winter diving stuff is starting out warm - keeping warm before the dive, having the proper gear and using the good winter techniques already mentioned. Part of the required diving gear is a good set of studded snow tires.

I like to get all my stuff set up in my truck in the garage before I leave home. I'm already dressed in my undies, and so when I get to the site, I just put on my DS, slip into my rig and off I go.

I drinks lots of warm liquid, 'cause I know that one of the keys to staying warm is being well hydrated. I bring a tub of warm water for hands and hoods or whatever.

The dives are easy and shallow and usually less than 45 mins. The first person approaching cold calls the dive before the real chill sets in. Sometimes my wife does a mocha run during the dive and we hit the hot drinks before our gear is even off.

We enjoy the occasional bystander asking us questions, questions about getting cold and the ice and others, when what they really want to know is if we are really crazy or not.

We agree we might be.

We know the we are the exception, that 99% of the divers in our town have their gear stored for the winter, and we like that too.

Sometimes we drive 4 hours to Puget Sound's 49F water for some warm water diving.