22 replies to this topic

[Penguin]

Attached is a link to an article that ran yesterday in the Boston Globe. If you're already opposed to diving beneath the ice this probably won't sway you, but for us northern addicts, this is our winter life around home between warm water trips!

Ice diving is very different and very cool no pun intended.

http://www.boston.co..._in_ice_diving/

Edited by Penguin, 07 March 2007 - 05:37 PM.

[pir8]

Yes it is very cool, I just took the class a couple of weekends ago. Trying to put a small excursion togeather for this weekend in Pa.

[madlobster]

I too read this an I hope to do this for next year along with a buddy or two

[ddierolf]

Dressed in black rubber suits, 11 men and one woman stood on 7 inches of ice. Oh boy, it sounds like a party for someone!!!! The only ice I am diving into anytime soon will be the one in my drink! CHEERS!!!!! Only kidding, around here your limited on the ammount of diving you can do unless your willing to dive out of the ordinary!

Edited by ddierolf, 07 March 2007 - 07:32 PM.

[blacklatexozdiver]

Ice diving is something I'd like to do once in my life.

[Brinybay]

I got as far as the part about having to sit through a 4 hour lecture. I couldn't do it.

[shadragon]

Ice Diving is surreal. The bubbles look like liquid mercury on the underside of the ice sheet and when directly under them you can see your reflection like a mirror. The sunshine coming down through the entry hole cannot be described adequately.

When we did our course we took snow shovels and made lines with arrows pointing in the direction of the entrance hole going out in several directions like wheel spokes. You would not think they would be visible, but underneath they stand out even in an overcast sky.

It is cold and has inherit dangers, but I would recommend anyone take this course.

[madlobster]

Ice Diving is surreal. The bubbles look like liquid mercury on the underside of the ice sheet and when directly under them you can see your reflection like a mirror. The sunshine coming down through the entry hole cannot be described adequately.

When we did our course we took snow shovels and made lines with arrows pointing in the direction of the entrance hole going out in several directions like wheel spokes. You would not think they would be visible, but underneath they stand out even in an overcast sky.

It is cold and has inherit dangers, but I would recommend anyone take this course.

The arrows are a great idea ,I'll have to remeber that one!

[jextract]

If you aren't familiar with him, you guys should check out the photography of Norbert Wu:
http://scilib.ucsd.e...lery/index.html

[Penguin]

See edited ;post below!

Edited by Penguin, 08 March 2007 - 07:23 PM.

[Penguin]

Ice Diving is surreal. The bubbles look like liquid mercury on the underside of the ice sheet and when directly under them you can see your reflection like a mirror. The sunshine coming down through the entry hole cannot be described adequately.

When we did our course we took snow shovels and made lines with arrows pointing in the direction of the entrance hole going out in several directions like wheel spokes. You would not think they would be visible, but underneath they stand out even in an overcast sky.

It is cold and has inherit dangers, but I would recommend anyone take this course.

Sha
Spoken like a true ice diver!! I am so fascinated by the appearance of air build-up beneath the ice and I described it EXACTLY as you did. OK, I am REALLY easily entertained, perhaps the llong-term effects of plunging my semi-adequate coconut into cold water beneath ice. I actually think that if ice diving is done properly, it is equally safe to recreational diving---the buddy team is tethered together, limited in distance it can swim from the entry/exit point, CONSTANTLY communicating with the surface through coded line tugs and fully supported by the surface team with ready-for-entry rescue divers. The chance of buddy seperation is nearly non-existant and if the rule of thirds is applied to the air supply and each diver carries a pony, OOA situations are almost impossible.

I haven't done the full certification because I was in the Keys when my LDS did the course but I have participated in ice "experiences" with certified instructors. I have been in contact this week with a shop in the northeast who will be doing a certification course in January and will post the date information in a new thread when I get firm dates from them for anyone who would like to participate.

[shadragon]

I actually think that if ice diving is done properly, it is equally safe to recreational diving---the buddy team is tethered together, limited in distance it can swim from the entry/exit point, CONSTANTLY communicating with the surface through coded line tugs and fully supported by the surface team with ready-for-entry rescue divers. The chance of buddy seperation is nearly non-existant and if the rule of thirds is applied to the air supply and each diver carries a pony, OOA situations are almost impossible.

Agreed. Don't forget the redundant Pony bottles as well. The techniques and layers of safety present during a responsible ice dive are excellent. They are certainly the most comprehensive preparations I have seen on any course to date. We dove in a quarry where max depth was 28 feet so even on an AL80 you had tons of air. You got cold long before running out of air. Our tether was 120' long with another 20 feet for the lead buddy so you were limited to a very small area and could explore everything in a very short period of time.

I did two dives of about 15 minutes each on a single steel 120. Staring pressure was around 2700. I came up with 1700 pounds left.

[cancunbiologist]

it looks so awesome! I have been dreaming of doing that forever... but moving between australia, south florida and cancun makes it a bit difficult to find good ice (other than in the margaritas ).. hopefully when I move out to Canada next year I'll be able to hook that up.

[diverdeb]

If you aren't familiar with him, you guys should check out the photography of Norbert Wu:
http://scilib.ucsd.e...lery/index.html

Wow. Great website. The photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing!

[jeff]

we got to do some "reverse" ice diving this last winter. There was ice at the end of a high mountain lake and we pushed our heads through the 6" of slushy ice