Ice diving

[mermaid]

I agree Robert...

Nice to see you!

[arcFlash]

I talked to one guy that did a 600 foot ice dive at night, He said he freaked out when he walked out of the shelter and could see the glow of the divers light on the horizon! He ran in and pulled the diver back to the hole and they since stopped diving that far. Depending on conditions, I'll go 150 max horizontal in the best condition. I don't know how deep I'm willing to go in relation to the horizontal.

One thing is poly is very buoyant so your signals from the bottom just pull the arch out of the line. If you must signal from over 150, your going to need to be at the ice and pull hard.

From my experience, I don't think I rescue line over 200 would work, the drag would be so large that you would have 200 out but the curve back to the hole would shorten it to much less and you could be inside the lost diver. I've had this happen on a low vis OW dive using a reel to get back to the boats anchor. I didn't keep the tension high enough and I crossed my own line! I thought I was swimming around the anchor line and I wasn't.

[Terry]

                Hey Thanks Dudes, (Grumpie, John and Steve)  600' YIKES! (should I have a breathalizer next to my computer or what :-\) forgot the drag just to try to pull underwater that length of poly, little own to try to signal on it. I agree that to chop it in two at 275' and 325', thats PLENTY!. WADR,,, I think 100' max seems a little lean Grump, especially for well experienced ice divers, especially if everyone has redundant air supplies. We went down a 100'  in Grindstone (near Hinkley) along the bank, but it does make sense that (like all dives) it needs to be tailored to fit the least experienced skill and comfort level. I just remember in Minnetonka with all running the same length of line, the last divers, had pretty poor vis. I like the idea of putting "markers" on the line every 25' to indicate just how much line is out, wondering with poly what would be the ticket way to mark it, weave in colored braid, as a commercial spark, I can get every color of dandy good electrical tape but dont think even stretched in the cold it would stay in place, maybe permanent magic markers as two bands around the poly at 50' everyones thoughts?

                Next on to that lost weight belt,,,,,,,,,,,,Michelle tried on my drysuit on along with my weightbelt, in a goose chit infested swamp, not probably the best location. "Sure" she put a fingernail thru my just replaced wrist seal, "sure" she lost my 26# weightbelt, in my head "sure",,, she was cursed, when I got home "sure" I tortured that Michelle look alike voodoo doll, tortured it good too! But hey guppies do these kind of things, "sure" she offered to pay, I thought "ohhh, you'll pay alright", but hey no big deal made for a good "nasty" dive looking for it. When I was a guppie, without any diving skill, (I think now just short of 30 years ago, some of my diving friends would think,,,,, last month :-\) many people were good to me (Jonathon Wortenbury, Jack Gadbois, the late Jerry Provost, and lots more. I remember laying my wet, wet suit on top of JWs drysuit in November at Perch so as to not lay it in the sand, and as the water ran out of my wetsuit into JWs drysuit he picked it up, cursed and screamed, "whoose wet chit is this?" Its the same thing, guppies do these kind of things. No big deal, I mean who hasnt screwed up another diver buy not being "knowledgeable or experienced", hell, that could make a good blog all by itself. So now hopefully that lost weightbelt stays lost in the silt,,,,,,,,TRINITY

[joekarels]

Trinity,
2 thumbs up.

[grumpie]

When the diver comes off the line, he goes to the ice over head and becomes vertial to the ice. he would stick his knife into the ice and not move.The rescue diver would go out to the maximum or 125feet and make a 360 sweep under the bottom of the ice.
If the lost diver has done what he is trained to do, the rope should hit him as the rescue diver makes his sweep. the lost diver should take the rope in his hands and pull the rope towards the center, this is because he will not know which way to go. rope signal should have been talk about in the pre-dive briefing. the tender will start to pull the rope in.
In the classroom part rope signals, the different types of ice, where and how the weak spots are,

[acharpenter]

Thanks for the clarification Trinity - just looking out for you dude!!!

ICE diving - yeah - I totally am planning to come be an observer and help out where I can, I have got to see this....

Will I ever get in the water at that point.....still flummoxed.....

[DetectorGuy]

Colored electric tape works just fine in the cold. Correct me if I am wrong, but I think the standard is: blue 25', green 50', yellow 75', red 100, Then if you are a rebel and go longer than 100' just add a white band of tape on either side of the blue to represent 125', a white band on either side of the green to represent 150' and so on... When I set up my ropes I was going to crimp a piece of copper tubing over the rope with a depth at every 25' stamped into the copper bands but I am glad I was talked into just marking it with the color system. It is easier to read when the rope is whizzing through your hands while you are tending for an Olympic class diver ;D. The yellow marking for 75' kinda sucks on a yellow poly rope so I think I used orange on either side of yellow (I think... I cant remember). Then I wrote the color and the depth equivalent on the side of the buckets so that anyone can tell at a glance what length is out there.
I also wrote the length of the main line and the Safety line on the side of each of the buckets so there is no worries about the first diver going out on the long line and the other is too short to use as a safety line.

[mermaid]

I agree...thanks for explaining what happened that day (and afterwards) TRINITY...Willing to let EVERYTHING get lost in the silt...and just get together as a group of experienced divers wanting to ice dive and guppies wanting to learn all we can and help out as much as possible.

Now...with the below freezing temps, Tonka should (according to TRINITY) have a good thick layer of ice on it by the time all of this takes place.  Would like to see and experience the whole process first hand, including slipping under the ice myself and seeing the difference in the viz between ice and summer diving. 

[AandA]

One IMPORTANT thing to remember when ice diving ESPECIALLY THIS TIME OF YEAR IN Minnesota.....Ice fisherman are a dive hazard.  When selecting a site we divers often like to set up in areas that also are favorites for fisherman.  Divers need to maintain control of a "surface area of ice that exceeds the length of their lines. Getting a dive line or diver snagged by a fisherman is not good.  Another reason not to permit Ice fisherman close is they have this device that seems positively DESIGNED to be a nightmare for tethered diving...ICE AUGERS  :o  Yup, flying a dive flag in the winter is important, but having a person watching and shooing away fisherman is crucial!

Sadly to say I'm not available to dive the weekend after christmas as I'm working : .  I probaly won't be available until January  :'(
John,
I see yer followin this thread...
If you plan on heading out - I hope you know you can certainly borrow the saw, shelter, Ropes, Biners, heaters, and whatever else ya might need.

Steve,
It has been a long time---TOOO LOONG!
Ice-Dive-A_Palooza sounds GREAT!!  So does just getting out and divin with ya.

[doug67]

Weekend after christmas would be cool with me. Sounds like a pre dive talk to get us all on the same page would be good. I dont know if it maters how we play as long as were all on the same page.