In February of 2023 with only 2 dry suit dives under my belt I went to northern Michigan to take the PADI Ice Diver course. I went through the class and training and was ready, or so I thought. I had issues with my buoyancy but made it through my first two dives. On the final dive I was all over the place and started hyperventilating. I kept pulling on the tender line and eventually I got yanked in. Understandably I was failed BUT I asked if I could come back. Being under the ice was cool, it was my lack of general dives, especially dry suit dives that did me in. At that point in my diving career I had aprox 25-30 dives with two of them being dry suit. So for 2023 I dove at every chance I could get, especially on vacations and I began to gain experience.
One year later I’m back. It was an unusually warm winter and the place where we normally dive was not frozen over. The dive was about to be cancelled when a small lake was found. The only issue was it was only 5 feet deep and the water was easily silted. (Last year we were in 45ft deep waters) Since there was sufficient ice cover, diving was a GO. So I’m sitting on the edge and away I go and I immediately lost my trim and started listing everywhere. I was spinning out of control and couldn’t figure out why. I had visions of the prior year and despair set in as I tugged on the line. When I made it back to the hole I was out of breath. My instructor encouraged me to stay under the ice at which point I went back under and in spite of being out of control, I just calmed down and focused. After so much time I got pulled back out and was informed that I passed. I had eventually figured out that my undergarments were making me floaty and caused me to spin out of control. (I had on a 1st Element Halo AND X-core vest) I pleaded with my instructor to let me take off the Halo and try again as I didn’t want to pass like that. So I took off the Halo but kept on the vest and then removed weighting to compensate. I sat at the edge of the hole peering into the cloudy, murky, silted up waters and away I went. All the time spent diving in low viz paid off, I swam out the distance of my tether and swam around, actually maintaining decent buoyancy. After a while I get pulled back and when I surfaced all eyes were on me asking if I was OK and wanted to end or go back out. I was like I’m good and went back out again. It was at that point I felt total redemption from the year before and because I went back out, I feel like I truly earned the certification. Everyone was happy for me because very few divers who fail the Ice Cert generally don’t come back, I did and passed.
The next day there were no ice flows or ice anywhere so we went on a regular recreational dive. On this dive I wanted to evaluate my X-Core vest. The water temp was 37 degrees and I was very comfortable. We had planned for a 30-40 min dive so I was looking forward to seeing how warm or cold I would be. The reason is I’m going to be wreck diving Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie in July and I want to be totally prepared with staying warm and dialing in my cold weather buoyancy.
I didn’t get a chance because after 5 min my dive buddy called the dive due to a few minor issues and he also wanted to start packing up to head home, so we surfaced and that was it.
Overall I had a wonderful time and I learned a lot about myself and capabilities. I was thrilled I figured out why I was unstable. The other divers had added that not being at depth meant that the Halo did not compress the extra air out and that was why I was so floaty.
One year later I’m back. It was an unusually warm winter and the place where we normally dive was not frozen over. The dive was about to be cancelled when a small lake was found. The only issue was it was only 5 feet deep and the water was easily silted. (Last year we were in 45ft deep waters) Since there was sufficient ice cover, diving was a GO. So I’m sitting on the edge and away I go and I immediately lost my trim and started listing everywhere. I was spinning out of control and couldn’t figure out why. I had visions of the prior year and despair set in as I tugged on the line. When I made it back to the hole I was out of breath. My instructor encouraged me to stay under the ice at which point I went back under and in spite of being out of control, I just calmed down and focused. After so much time I got pulled back out and was informed that I passed. I had eventually figured out that my undergarments were making me floaty and caused me to spin out of control. (I had on a 1st Element Halo AND X-core vest) I pleaded with my instructor to let me take off the Halo and try again as I didn’t want to pass like that. So I took off the Halo but kept on the vest and then removed weighting to compensate. I sat at the edge of the hole peering into the cloudy, murky, silted up waters and away I went. All the time spent diving in low viz paid off, I swam out the distance of my tether and swam around, actually maintaining decent buoyancy. After a while I get pulled back and when I surfaced all eyes were on me asking if I was OK and wanted to end or go back out. I was like I’m good and went back out again. It was at that point I felt total redemption from the year before and because I went back out, I feel like I truly earned the certification. Everyone was happy for me because very few divers who fail the Ice Cert generally don’t come back, I did and passed.
The next day there were no ice flows or ice anywhere so we went on a regular recreational dive. On this dive I wanted to evaluate my X-Core vest. The water temp was 37 degrees and I was very comfortable. We had planned for a 30-40 min dive so I was looking forward to seeing how warm or cold I would be. The reason is I’m going to be wreck diving Lakes Michigan, Huron and Erie in July and I want to be totally prepared with staying warm and dialing in my cold weather buoyancy.
I didn’t get a chance because after 5 min my dive buddy called the dive due to a few minor issues and he also wanted to start packing up to head home, so we surfaced and that was it.
Overall I had a wonderful time and I learned a lot about myself and capabilities. I was thrilled I figured out why I was unstable. The other divers had added that not being at depth meant that the Halo did not compress the extra air out and that was why I was so floaty.
